St John the Baptist

St John the Baptist is a Grade I listed building.

The earliest evidence of a church at Cold Overton (Overtone) is from the Domesday survey of 1086. Of the fabric of the building the south door and the south aisle walls and it’s paintings are the earliest. These belong to the 12th century when a rebuilding was begun and completed in the 13th century. As rebuilt the church consisted of a nave with an aisle each side and a chancel without aisles.

Upon the plaster walls of the Lady Chapel is where the fragile sections of the once hidden medieval paintings cling. These paintings, dating from the 12th century, are unique and which survived the reformation. Further modifications were made in the 14th century with the Chancel rebuilt keeping the lower parts of the sidewalls with the 13th century piscina, credence and sedilla.

In the 15th century a porch was added, a clerestory to the nave and the entire roof made new. In addition, the richly decorated Western tower with parapet spire was built. The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings in 1889 reported it as being 'a most excellent specimen of design and workmanship, the carved beasts at the base being especially worthy of note'.

The 1780s saw the last major structural change when the south aisle was extended to provide a family chapel and burial vault for the Frewin-Turner family who then lived at Cold Overton Hall, a country house dating from ca. 1664. 

The village has a large garden centre at one end and a nationally renowned rare breeds farm and shop at the other.