The church of ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST consists of chancel, 19 ft. 9 in. by 15 ft. 3 in.; clerestoried nave, 32 ft. 4 in. by 13 ft. 6 in.; south aisle, 8 ft. 3 in. wide; south porch, and west tower, 11 ft. by 10 ft. 8 in., all these measurements being internal. The width across nave and aisle is 24 ft. There was formerly a transeptal chapel on the north side, the roof-line of which remains at the east end of the nave wall outside.
The greater part of the church as it now exists belongs to the 13th century, but it has developed from a late-12th-century building which had an aisleless nave the same size as the present, and of this earlier structure the south-west angle and the west window, now opening into the lower stage of the tower, still remain; this window is a tall lancet, the wide internal splay of which is taken round the head in semicircular form. Some time in the 13th century a south aisle and tower were added and the chancel probably rebuilt, and in the 15th century the tower was heightened by the addition of a new bell-chamber stage, the clerestory erected, and new windows inserted in the aisle. In the 18th century the chancel and porch were remodelled in their present form.
The roofs of the chancel and nave are slated, the aisle leaded, and there are straight parapets throughout. The walls of the chancel and of the lower part of the tower are plastered internally, but elsewhere the plaster has been removed. There are flat plaster ceilings to the chancel and nave. The aisle roof is open.
The western part of the chancel to a distance of 7 ft. 6 in. apparently retains its original walling, but beyond this, where it contracts in width, is of 18thcentury date. It has a plain flat-arched east window and similar windows north and south. The angles are rounded. The older walling, in which there are no windows, was refaced at this time and the whole of the interior refashioned in the style of the day. No ancient features remain.
The pointed 13th-century chancel arch is of two wide chamfered orders with hood-mould, the inner order springing from half-octagonal responds with moulded capitals and bases, the outer from moulded imposts. The upper edge of the abacus of the capital is left square, but the double roll of the base moulding points to the latter half of the century, though it does not occur elsewhere in the building.
The nave arcade is of three bays with pointed arches of two chamfered orders springing from circular pillars with moulded capitals and bases and from keel-shaped responds. The base mouldings are on a chamfered plinth, with a hollow between the rolls; the plinth of the west respond is square on plan. (fn. 38) Near the east end of the north wall of the nave is the blocked arch to the destroyed transept, and beyond it, well above the spring of the chancel arch, a square-headed rood-loft doorway, now blocked, the stairs to which may have led from the transept. The pointed north doorway, which is of a single chamfered order, is walled up. A small trefoilheaded window, now blocked, and seen only from the outside at the east end of the north wall, was probably moved to its present position after the demolition of the transept.
The aisle is without buttresses or string-course, and the south doorway, as well as that of the porch, appears to be part of the 18th-century remodelling. The fourcentred 15th-century windows are of three cinquefoiled lights, two in the south wall and one at the east end, the west wall being blank. There is a piscina with arched cinquefoiled head and circular bowl in the usual position, and a bracket on the south side of the east window. At the north-east corner is the opening of a former squint.
The clerestory walls rise high above the chancel, the line of whose former roof remains at the east end. There are three four-centred windows of two trefoiled lights on the south side and two on the north, to the west of the former transept. The porch was refashioned after the manner of the chancel, being extended outward and contracted in width. Over the pointed outer doorway, cut in the parapet, is the word 'Populo', and in a similar position at the east end of the chancel 'Deo'.
The original 13th-century tower is of three stages, above which, without the intervention of a string, is the later bell-chamber stage with battlemented parapet. The windows of the original bell-chamber, which are of two uncusped pointed lights under a containing arch with hood-mould, remain on all four sides; they have square jambs and mullions and solid spandrels. Below, the walls are blank. There are pairs of buttresses at the western angles, those facing north and south of a single stage, the others larger and of two stages. The windows of the upper 15th-century stage are four-centred and of two cinquefoiled lights. The tower opens to the nave by a pointed arch of two chamfered orders, the inner order dying into the wall and the outer continuous. Above the arch is the widely splayed window already referred to. The tower has a pyramidal slated roof with vane. There is no vice.
The pulpit and font are modern, the latter of Caen stone in the Gothic style. There is no ancient glass.
On the north wall of the nave are recently executed tablets in memory of George Battisson (d. 1700), Elizabeth Battisson (d. 1725), and John Battisson (d. 1737), and to two men of the parish who fell in the war of 1914–18.
There are two bells in the tower, the first by Matthew Bagley 1682, and the second by Thomas Russell of Wootton, Bedfordshire, 1719.
The plate consists of a silver-plated cup and paten (the cup of modern medieval design), and a plated flagon inscribed 'Hawley Church'.