The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
St John the Baptist (pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales))
Parish church, formerly chapel
Upton is a small village in the Soke of Peterborough, 5 miles W of the centre of Peterborough and 1½ miles NW of Castor. The village clusters around lanes on the N side of the A47, with the church at its E end, now isolated in a field used for grazing. The manor house, now part of Manor Farm, stands to the SE of the church. St John's is 12thc in origin and consists of a chancel with a N vestry, nave and N aisle. The building was rebuilt in the 17thc, and the chancel rebuilt in 1842. From the W the facade is triple gabled, aptly described as 'intensely domestic' by Pevsner, the S gable representing the nave, the N the separately-roofed aisle and the centre a bell-cote with louvred openings either side of a buttress. Construction is of ashlar and dressed stone with Collyweston stone and slate roofs. Inside, the chancel arch jambs and N arcade piers and capitals are 12thc but of different phases, and in both the cases the arches are later, presumably 17thc. The most striking feature is the N aisle which has its floor raised by 4 steps and elaborate balustrades flanking the staircase and between the arcade piers, converting it into a chapel for the spectacular Barnack stone and terracotta tomb of Sir William Dove (d.1633) and his 2 wives,