Church Of St Bartholomew And St Boisil

Church of St Bartholomew and St Boisil at Tweedmouth

This church was rebuilt in 1783, with substantial later additions and alterations in 1841, 1866-8, and 1908. It replaces earlier churches on the site dating back to at least the 12th century (first documented reference 1145).

The building is constructed of large blocks of ashlar with slate roofs except to the porch, which has a tiled roof. The plan comprises a nave and chancel with separate roofs, a west tower, north transept, vestry, and south porch.

The chancel dates to 1866 and features flush buttresses on the east wall and a large east window with Gothic curvilinear tracery and a hoodmould with carved terminals. Two pointed arch windows with tracery and hoodmoulds flank each side. On the north, a gabled vestry (1868) extends from the west end of the chancel, with a small square-headed window to the east and a pointed arch window and square-headed door in the gable end, set within an arched recess pierced with a roundel. The door is reached by a short flight of steps.

The nave has four pointed arch windows of similar style to the chancel on the south side. The north transept has one window to either side—that to the west is blocked while that to the east matches the south side windows. The transept features a triple lancet window to the north with hoodmoulds and a small lancet in the gable. To either side are lancet windows with Y-tracery and broad hoodmoulds, possibly reused from an earlier church. The nave displays raised gables and includes a quatrefoil window at low level on the north side of the west end.

The tower is centrally placed at the west end in two stages with hollow-chamfered string courses and battlements, topped by a slated spire. The two-light traceried window on the west side replaces an earlier entrance, now blocked. Quatrefoil windows appear on each side near the top. The south porch (1907) is attached to the south side of the tower and has diagonal buttresses and a moulded pointed arch doorway with double plank doors with decorative iron brackets. Above the door is a recessed niche.

Internally, the chancel has a scissor-braced roof with ashlar pieces and is floored with encaustic tiles. A timber reredos (1924) features blind tracery, with a timber communion rail and plain timber choir stalls. The chancel arch is moulded on stone shafts. The nave has a canted roof boarded and divided into panels by moulded ribs with flat carved bosses at the intersections. The pews have canted corners with carved crosses in roundels. At the west end is a gallery supported on square section boxed posts, accessed by a boxed stair to the south. The gallery front has fielded panels and a dentil cornice, with a central section featuring moulded balusters. The pews in the gallery are plain boxed. The north transept has a similar roof to the nave but plainer and contains the organ, reused from St Andrew's Church, Berwick. A doorway at the rear of the nave leads to the tower and porch. The pulpit is polygonal in timber with blind tracery and a timber balustrade to the stairs. The font (19th century) is stone with an octagonal carved bowl and decorated base and stem. The south wall contains a window by Kempe dated 1886, and the quatrefoil in the west end is probably by Wailes.

The earliest parts of the building date to 1783 when earlier ruins were removed and the tower and nave were built, possibly incorporating some earlier fabric. The gallery dates to this period. The north transept was added in 1841, originally containing a gallery for the poor and later the choir. The chancel and vestry were built in 1866-8 to designs by F R Wilson, and the south porch was added in 1907-8, at which time the nave and transept were re-roofed.

The churchyard contains numerous interesting monuments, the earliest legible dating from 1696. These include a memorial to John Mackay Wilson and one to William Stephenson, engine driver, who lost his life on 2 March 1853 when his engine No 184 ran off the line of rails over the embankment at the west end of Wellington Viaduct on the Newcastle & Tynemouth Railway. Aged 32 and survived by a widow and two children, Stephenson had opened the Newcastle & Berwick Railway in July 1847 by taking the first passenger train from Tweedmouth to Newcastle. He was greatly respected by his fellow workmen and always obliging to his master.