At the heart of the Devizes community for over 900 years.

St John’s was built by the Bishops of Salisbury to serve the garrison of Devizes Castle - a very grand castle chapel. A cruciform Romanesque church of fine ashlar stone, with towering transepts and a 65-foot tower. Look inside the tower arches for a rare blind arcade of triple-intersecting arches, thought to be unique in England.

The disgraced royal advisor Hubert de Burgh fled to St John’s seeking sanctuary. Soldiers dragged him back to the castle, but public outrage saw him returned under protection - the churchyard stockaded to keep him safe, until friends finally helped him escape.

St John’s blossomed with new additions: north and south aisles, chapels, pinnacles, battlements and stained glass. The Beauchamp Chapel, adorned with angel carvings, is believed to have housed the Trinity Altar and an image of the Virgin Mary.

During the English Civil War the tower stored gunpowder, and lead was stripped from the roof to make musket balls. You can still spot over twenty grapeshot dents in the east wall, fired from a cannon - the scars of a turbulent past.

Victorian architect W. Slater, with Sir Gilbert Scott, led a sweeping restoration in 1862–3, adding a whole new bay to the nave and 154 new seats - shaping much of the church you see today.

A new clock was added as a memorial to Queen Victoria, replacing the old Town Hall clock that had ticked since 1759. The church registers, meanwhile, reach all the way back to 1559.

St John’s stands not just as a monument to medieval architecture but as a living part of Devizes life. Whether you’re here to pray, learn, worship, sing, or simply admire the ancient stonework, you walk in the footsteps of kings, knights and countless townsfolk across the centuries.