Church of St John The Baptist, Latton With Eisey

The Church of St John the Baptist at Latton is the Anglican parish church of a village in the far north of Wiltshire, near the small town of Cricklade and the headwaters of the River Thames. A Grade I listed building of Norman origin, with a tower and arches reaching back to the twelfth century, it is a church of real antiquity and interest, sensitively restored in the Victorian age by one of the greatest architects of the Gothic Revival. Through nine centuries of building and rebuilding, St John the Baptist has remained the parish church of Latton, gathering the long history of this quiet corner of Wiltshire into one building.

The church dates from the twelfth century, and several of its earliest features survive: the lower part of the tower, the tower arch and the chancel arch all belong to that century, and the south doorway is of the late twelfth century. In 1133 the church was appropriated by Cirencester Abbey, the great Augustinian abbey nearby, which held it through the Middle Ages. The chancel was apparently rebuilt in the thirteenth century, and in the early fourteenth century chapels were added to the nave to form north and south transepts. In the fifteenth century the tower was raised by a further stage and new windows were inserted in the English Gothic style, and around the middle of the seventeenth century the south porch was added.

Over the following centuries the church was repeatedly altered. The church was officially dedicated to St John the Baptist by 1763, and the nave was given a new ceiling with moulded ribs and bosses and carved figurative corbels. The tower was modified again, with round-arched windows inserted around 1709, when new bells were installed, and panelled pews were fitted in the eighteenth century. The chancel was rebuilt twice in the nineteenth century, and between 1858 and 1863 the church underwent a careful restoration and partial rebuilding by the great High Victorian architect William Butterfield, working in the Decorated Gothic style, with some of the work carried out by a local builder, John Roseblade. Butterfield's restoration largely preserved the earlier Romanesque structure of the church while giving the chancel and choir a distinct character — a sensitive approach that respected the ancient building.

The church's parish has been combined over the years with its neighbours: in 1819 Latton was united with the parish of Eisey, and in 1952 the combined parish of Latton with Eisey was joined to that of Cricklade. Today the church continues as an active Anglican parish church in the Diocese of Bristol, serving the village of Latton. Its Norman fabric, its medieval tower and chapels, and its Butterfield restoration make it a church of real interest, a layered record of building from the twelfth century to the nineteenth.

The church stands in the village of Latton, in the gentle countryside of north Wiltshire, near the small but historic town of Cricklade — the only town on the upper River Thames, which rises a little way to the north-west near Kemble. The area is famous for its waterscapes: the Cotswold Water Park, a great network of lakes created from former gravel pits, lies close by, and at Cricklade the North Meadow National Nature Reserve is celebrated for its springtime display of snake's-head fritillaries, the largest in Britain. The Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, the Thames Path, and the historic towns of the upper Thames are all within easy reach.

From a Norman church of the twelfth century, appropriated by Cirencester Abbey in 1133, through its medieval tower, chapels and windows, the alterations of the Georgian age, and the careful restoration by William Butterfield in the 1860s, the Church of St John the Baptist gathers some nine centuries of Wiltshire history into one building. A Grade I listed church near the source of the Thames, it remains the living parish church of Latton — a venerable survival in the watery countryside of north Wiltshire.