St John the Baptist's Church, Halton Gill

{{Short description|Former church in Yorkshire, England}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}}

{{Use British English|date=November 2024}}

File:Former church at Halton Gill - geograph.org.uk - 6280615.jpg

St John the Baptist's Church is a redundant church in Halton Gill, a village in North Yorkshire, in England. It has been converted into a house.

There appears to have been a church in Halton Gill by the late Mediaeval period; it was first recorded in 1577. William Fawcett left money to rebuild the church with an adjacent vicarage, and an endowment for a full-time priest provided that they also teach children during the week. The work was completed in 1626, at which time, it was a chapel of ease to St Oswald's Church, Arncliffe. A gallery was added in the 18th century.{{cite book |last1=Boyd |first1=William |last2=Shuffrey |first2=William Arthur |title=Littondale: Past and Present |date=1893 |publisher=Richard Jackson}} In 1848, the church was described as "a neat edifice in the later English style".{{cite book |last1=Lewis |first1=Samuel |title=A Topographical Dictionary of England |date=1848 |location=London |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-dict/england/pp383-387}} The church was largely rebuilt in 1848, with only the north and west walls retained, while the vicarage was converted into a schoolroom. A dedicated schoolteacher was employed, and the church was ministered to by the priest from Arncliffe. The building was restored in 1891, with work including new foundations for the north wall, a new roof for the schoolroom, and redecoration of the church. The school closed in 1958, the same year in which the building was grade II listed.{{NHLE |num= 1132182|desc= Schoolhouse and Church of St. John the Baptist, now house, Halton Gill |access-date= 11 November 2024}} The church was redundant by 1979,{{cite journal |journal=The London Gazette |date=5 April 1979 |issue=47811 |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/47811/page/4500/data.pdf |access-date=11 November 2024|title=Privy Council Office – Pastoral Measure 1968}} and the whole building was then converted into a house.

The building is constructed of stone, with quoins, and stone slate roofs with coped gables. The former schoolhouse has one storey and one bay, and contains a doorway with a quoined surround, above which is an initialled plaque, and a window with three trefoiled lights. The former church to the right consists of a two-bay nave, a south porch, and a lower single-bay chancel, and at the west end is a bellcote.{{cite book| last1 =Leach| first1 =Peter| last2 = Pevsner | first2 = Nikolaus | author2-link = Nikolaus Pevsner | series= The Buildings of England| title =Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North| publisher =Yale University Press | year =2009 | location =New Haven and London |isbn =978-0-300-12665-5}}