St John the Baptist's Church, Strensham

St John the Baptist’s is a redundant Anglican church in the Worcestershire village of Strensham. The building stands on a quiet lane, its grey lias walls and tiled roofs blending with the surrounding countryside. The church was placed on the National Heritage List as a Grade I building and is now cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust. Architectural historian Alec Clifton-Taylor chose it as one of the best English parish churches. The earliest stonework, in the nave and chancel, dates from the 14th century, while the tower was added a century later. Inside, the nave floor still shows 15th-century tiles and bricks. The church holds notable monuments and fittings from several centuries. A large box pew occupies the east end of the nave, and above the chancel arch hang the royal arms of George III and two hatchments. The west gallery contains a reconstructed rood screen of oak, carved with 23 painted panels showing Christ and the apostles. The chancel paving is of stone, and the font is a 19th-century Norman-style piece. Brasses in the chancel include the oldest, to Sir Robert Russell who died in 1390. A Jacobean monument by Samuel Baldwin commemorates Sir Thomas Russell and his wife, while a Baroque wall monument by Edward Stanton honours Sir Francis Russell and his wife. Outside, the churchyard contains the base of a medieval cross, itself a Grade II listed structure. The tower rises in three stages, with diagonal buttresses and a stair turret, and its top stage has two-light bell openings beneath an embattled parapet. The vestry, built in brick, has a matching embattled parapet. Inside the church the barrel roofs of nave and chancel are plastered, and the organ in the west gallery was made by the Positive Organ Company of London. A ring of eight bells includes three cast in 1704–05 by Abraham Rudhall I and others added in 1911 and 1979.