User:D-DayJune/sandbox

The origin of St John Baptist Church was built for a Guild chapel and through various enlargements and endowments was raised to collegiate status. It remained a Guild Chapel until all the religious gilds were dissolved in 1548. A wall was discovered in 1875 running north and south through the middle of the Chancel, which is thought to have been the east wall of the first Gild chapel, while bases of two piers, near the eastern tower were thought by Sir Gilbert Scott to belong to the same early Chapel which was dedicated on May 6th 1350. In 1648, the Church was desecrated and used as a prison for Scots soldiers taken at the battle of Preston.