Church of St John the Baptist

About

St John the Baptist's Church is the parish church of Low Bentham, a settlement in North Yorkshire, in England. A church in Bentham was recorded in the Domesday Book. It is believed to have been destroyed during a Scottish raid in the early 14th century. The oldest parts of the current church, the tower and the chancel arch, date from the 1340 rebuild. The church was restored in 1822, and then largely rebuilt by Richard Norman Shaw between 1876 and 1878. A porch and new main door were added in 1891. The church was Grade II* listed in 1958. In 2023, a kitchen and toilets were installed, and the pews were replaced by chairs.

The church is built of stone with a slate roof. It consists of a nave with a clerestory, north and south aisles, a north porch, a chancel with a north vestry and a south chapel, and a west tower. The tower is in Perpendicular style, with three stages, diagonal buttresses, and a west doorway above which is a three light window. The two-light bell openings have trefoil heads with mouchettes in the spandrels, and hood moulds, and at the top is an embattled parapet with four crocketed pinnacles. One 15th century window survives in the south wall of the chancel...