Church of St Bartholomew is a Grade II listed building in the County Durham local planning authority area, England. First listed on 5 June 1987. Parish church.

Church of St Bartholomew

WRENN ID
eternal-brick-hawk
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
County Durham
Constituency
Bishop Auckland MP: Dr Sam Rushworth (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
5 June 1987
Type
Parish church
Address
Church of St Bartholomew, Wolsingham
OS grid reference
NZ 116 371
Coordinates
54.72919, -1.82125
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Church of St. Bartholomew is a parish church located in Wolsingham, built around 1840 with a later 19th-century chancel and a tower added in 1891. It is constructed from sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings and features Welsh slate roofs with stone gable copings. The church has a three-bay nave that includes a south-west tower and a three-bay chancel.

The tower has a four-centred-arched entrance with linenfold panelling beneath a stepped drip-string. The second stage of the tower features paired louvred belfry openings with Tudor heads set in a square surround. The structure is supported by diagonal buttresses and has a battlemented parapet adorned with Tudor flowers and corner gargoyles. The slender octagonal spire includes paired louvred openings at its base and is topped with an iron cross finial. A sundial is situated between the nave's lancet windows, while the lower chancel has two-light Decorated windows framed by buttresses, along with diagonal east buttresses. The east window of the chancel is a three-light Decorated style. The roofs are supported by block kneelers at the copings and feature stone cross finials and a west bellcote.

Inside, the church has plastered walls, an ashlar chancel arch, and a king post nave roof that is ceiled above the collar beams. The chancel roof is designed with cusped scissor trusses. The chancel arch is double-chamfered and has a two-centred shape with filleted shafts and a head-stopped drip mould. There are three steps leading up to the chancel and one step to the sanctuary. A filleted east sill string creates a reredos cornice, above which is a brass strip with a Gothic-lettered inscription commemorating Rev. J. Elliot, who died in 1855. The church also features a cusped two-centred-arched aumbry and sedilia with ball-flower stopped drip moulds. A Gothic-arcaded stone communion rail has Frosterley marble shafts, and there is a 17th-century Frosterley marble font on a water-leaf base, likely originally from Wolsingham parish church. The mid-19th-century glass in the west, east, and some chancel windows is notable for its strong primary colours.

Local climate

Church of St Bartholomew receives an average of 880 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 64% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 88% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 48 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 90% of listed buildings. Of these, 29 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

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