Upper Eldon is a small rural settlement between Romsey (to the S) and Stockbridge (to the N). It falls within the parish of King’s Somborne. The small church of St John the Baptist stands in the private garden of Upper Eldon Farmhouse (also known as Eldon House) and is cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust.

Evidently truncated, the single-cell building has flint rubble walls, coated in lime render, to N, W and S, and a red brick wall enclosing the E end. The queen-post roof is covered in red tiles. The principal features are the windows, which seem to date from the late 12thc. or early 13thc. The S doorway is of indeterminate date, its round-headed stone arch having been built in 1975. The church retains traces of nine consecration crosses. It is still consecrated though little used.

In the 11thc. the royal manor of Eldon was gifted to Winchester Cathedral. Although it later became a parish church in its own right, the church at Upper Eldon is thought to have been one of two mentioned in connection with King’s Somborne in the Domesday Survey of 1086. It followed the same historical trajectory, being granted in 1190 to William Briwere, and then to Mottisfont Priory. It appears to have been rebuilt c.1200.

The red brick wall which truncates the building to the E is dated 1729. The church is said to have been restored in 1860, but in 1864 it was used as a cowshed, and by 1885 housed poultry. It was restored in 1975, after being taken on by the Redundant Churches Fund (Churches Conservation Trust).

The church is unlikely to have been much bigger as it always served a very small parish, but it certainly comprised at least four bays from E to W. The windows and string course are in a Transitional style, between Romanesque (note the round-headed external arches) and Early English (note the pointed internal arches and undercut string course), c.1200.