St John The Baptist Church, Newton (Porthcawl), was founded in the later twelfth century and is mentioned in 1189. It was largely rebuilt in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century, although some earlier features remain. It was altered and the vestry added in 1826-7 and the first of several restorations was undertaken in 1860-61. A meeting room and vestry were added in 1993.

The late medieval church consists of a massive west tower, a nave with south porch and chancel. The butressed tower has four levels of openings and rises to a saddlebacked roof with embattled and corbelled parapets on the north and south. The west face has an ornate doorway below a massive corbel table, which may have supported a timber platform, with a large perpendicular window above. There are similar windows in the nave and chancel. A high and wide pointed arch leads from the tower to the nave. The chancel arch has squints to either side with emplacements for the rood loft. Steps in the north wall led up to this and to an unusual projecting stone pulpit which suffers the Flagellation in relief. There are patches of original wallpaintings including a depiction of St Michael and a palimpsest. Fragments of tendrils were also noted but are now lost.

The church stands within a roughly square churchyard with a restored preaching cross to the south of the porch (NPRN 307258). St John's Well lies 130m to the south (NPRN 307259).

Source:
CADW Listed Buildings Database (11214)
Richard Suggett, Painted Temples: Wallpaintings and Rood-screens in Welsh Churches, 1200–1800, (RCAHMW 2021), pp. 8, 33, 145.

RCAHMW 2022