St John the Baptist Church, Windsor

There are references to the existence of St John's Church by the reign of Henry II, by which point there had been several previous incumbents.

[3] Although Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries from 1536 to 1541 and established himself as Supreme Governor of the Church of England in place of the Pope in 1531 and 1534, Anglican doctrine during his reign remained Catholic in most respects, particularly after 1539.

[4] Anthony Pearson was a Protestant preacher, who preached in and around Windsor, including in St John's.

Filmer was much-influenced by Pearson's sermons, and sought to convince the Vicar, Thomas Meister, to adopt similar views.

[7] Simmonds, together with Dr John London, Canon of Windsor, reported to Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester.

[5] Convictions were obtained, and Pearson, Filmer and Testwood were burnt at the stake on wasteland north of the castle; the site of the execution is now Windsor & Eton Riverside railway station.

The new church was built in 1820–22 to a design by Charles Hollis, with Jeffry Wyatt (who would later change his name to Wyatville) acting as a consultant.

The body of the original Hollis church is a six-bay nave and aisles; the interior has plastered walls.

[1] By the late 19th-century the small chancels of the Georgian era had fallen out of fashion, and the noted ecclesiastical architect Samuel Sanders Teulon was appointed to restore the church.

[8] The pew is fronted by a low screen containing panels carved by Grinling Gibbons, showing a pelican feeding its young.

[11] The next available detail is about the installation in 1789 of a three-manual organ built by Father Smith during the reign of Charles II (but possibly later by John Snetzler) for St George's Chapel, and then given to St John's by George III, along with the painting of the Last Supper and the Grinling Gibbons panel.

In 1846 it was removed and reinstalled at St Mary, Haggerston by Gray and Davison; it was destroyed in an air raid in 1940.

The organ was opened by Charles Harford Lloyd, Precentor of Eton College, on Easter Day 1906.

David Nigel Griffiths was Team Rector 1973–87, whilst also being Chaplain to The Queen (1977–97) and after which he was Archdeacon of Berkshire (1987–92).