Caldecott is the southernmost village of Rutland about 4 miles N of Corby (Northamptonshire). The church lies to the N of the village; originally a chapel of ease serving the nearby parish of Lyddington, this is now primarily a 13th-c parish church of ironstone. The chancel, nave and S aisle are of the late 13thc; the W tower and spire are of the late 14thc, the clerestory was added in the 15thc and the S porch in 1648. The spire was rebuilt in the 18hc using Weldon stone. During a renovation in 1865 the chancel was rebuilt and the organ-chamber/vestry off the N wall of the chancel was added in 1908. Reset in the S wall of the chancel is a small Romanesque window.

Caldecott is not mentioned in the Rutland Domesday Book because at the time it lay in Witchley Wapentake which was part of Northamptonshire. The Northamptonshire Domesday Book does not mention a church at Caldecott in 1086, however it does note that Caldecott was connected to two hides of land in nearby Lyddington held by “Walter” from the bishop of Lincoln. It appears that St. John the Evangelist in Caldecott began life as a chapel of ease of Lyddington parish and it is first mentioned in the records in September 1247 (see Rotuli Grosseteste).

The external chamfer evident on the round head of the window may have continued down the jambs. On the upper E block arris there is the suggestion of such a chamfer, but the damage to the arris make it difficult to determine if this the result of weathering or mishandling of the stones. The latter is a distinct possibility as a contemporary description records that when the window was reset in 1865 it was “much cut about and the stones misplaced, the middle (largest) ones being put at the bottom” (see Rutland Magazine). While these stone blocks may have been “misplaced”, that they are original to the window is suggested by their large size, very distinct from the smaller ashlar blocks of the chancel wall. That the chancel wall was completely rebuilt in the 1865 renovation is suggested by the uniformity of the ashlar masonry in the wall, compared to the variety of ashlar and rubble masonry blocks making up the nave wall and clerestory.