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March has three Anglican churches (four if you include St Mary in Westry, which is effectively a suburb on the western bypass). St Wendreda in the south is medieval, and one of the treasures of the county. The other three were built in the 1870s by T.H. Wyatt, to cope with the expansion of the town which followed the arrival of the railway. St John is the northernmost of these, and sits on a quiet suburban road leading out towards Coldham and Elm, next to a large cemetery. (It’s quite easy, incidentally, to mistake the chapel of the cemetery for the church – it’s rather bigger, and has a tower.)
St John is a small building, and built in very plain style from stone. The nave is a simple hall, with a little diamond-shaped bell-turret over the west bay. There is no clerestory, but the aisles are composed of rows of little individual gables, containing double-headed windows crowned with cinquefoils. It’s an unusual design, and (combined with the crisp stonework) gives the whole thing a rather Rhenish air. We couldn’t get in to inspect the interior, but the graveyard was interesting: fine yew trees, and for some reason a host of great dragonflies ducking and zooming in the late summer air.
St John was locked, and I could find no information about keyholders.