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Photos by John Wilkes of Cam
near Dursley, Gloucestershire
The Gloucestershire Photo Library
Page composition by Allan Taylor of Vancouver, Canada
http://www.allthecotswolds.com
St. John the Baptist's stands high on a ridge in the village of Ruardean at a high part of the Forest of Dean commanding a spectacular view over the valley below. It dates from 1110 and consists of chancel, nave of three bays, south aisle, west tower with spire, and a south porch. Restored in 1890 by Waller & Son, the 14th C spire has flying buttresses to support it, crocketed pinnacles, and a small band of quatrefoils higher up. The porch has a 13th C outer door with a 21st C sundial over it. The inner doorway is Norman and has a well preserved sculptured tympanum depicting St. George and the Dragon. The carved stone of the two fishes (Pisces of the zodiac) now mounted on a wall inside the church was probably once a jamb of the south doorway of the church. This stone was discovered in a house in Ruardean in 1956. Inside the church, the walls are limewashed. The font is dated 1657 which is a rare date for a font. It is octagonal with a splayed shaft and no decoration. Outside the church there is a fine collection of carved Forest tombstones.
Wall tablets, illustrated here, are dedicated to John Bennett and his wife Lydia; James Bennett and his wife Elizabeth; William Bennett and his wife Mary; Lydia Mason; Cornelius Mason; Charles Bennett; Elizabeth Wheatstone; Will Bennett Mason; ÊCornelius William Bennett; Richard Jelfe and his wife Anne who was daughter of John Knight; Stanley William Edward Davies, Geoffrey Howard Duberley, Donald Merrick Knight, Ralph Thomas Roy Watkins, Luke Alfred Wilce, Albert Edward Wilkes - the last six aforesaid persons sadly perishing in the Second World War; Cornelius Bennett; Reverend Edward Parnell and his wife Emily - and son Claude W. Parnell; John, Sarah, Thomas and Elizabeth Terrett; Richard Jelfe and his wife Joan; John Hankinson; John Smith and his wife Alice; Josiah Fowle and his wife Sarah; Philip Watkins, his son William Watkins and William's wife Martha; Hannah Davies and Timothy Bennett; James Horlick and his wife Priscilla and their offspring Peter, James and William; John Cradock and his son M. Thomas Cradock; William Ernest Bishop; and George Onions.
