Church Of St Bartholomew

SJ 88 SW WILMSLOW FORMER U.D. CHURCH STREET (West Side)

1/274 Church of St. Bartholomew.

30/3/1951

GV I

Church: Decorated origins, mostly late Perpendicular. Restoration 1862-3 by Brakspear, vestry and porch of 1878 by Crowther. Chancel clerestorey and screen by Bodley and Garner. Ashlar buff sandstone and Kerridge stone-slate roof. West tower. 5-bay nave and aisles which continue as one range in 2-bay chancel and side chapels. South porch and Hawthorne pew project from south aisle, vestry from north side. South aisle has 3-light windows with label moulds on carved head stops. South porch has angle buttresses ending in crocketted pinnacles and a 4-centred arched opening and original early C16 studded door behind. Hawthorne pew has tall mullioned windows. Clere storey windows are rectangular of 4 round-headed lights, but in chancel of 2-lights with trefoil-cusped heads. East window is 5-light in perpendicular style. 4-stage west tower has diagonal buttresses, moulded bands at 1st and 3rd floor. Victorian west door and 3-light west window. 3rd stage has a quatrefoil in embrasure and above are 2-light louvred bell openings. Embattled, pinnacled parapet is a Victorian copy. Interior: Arcades of 5 bays with octagonal piers and double chamfered arches to aisles. South aisle has Hawthorne chapel or pew of c.1700 with segmental opening, bolection moulded panelling and containing box pews. Nave has fine roof of c.1520 with cambered tiebeams on stone corbels, with moulded beams in panelled ceiling with gilded bosses. Tall semi-circular arch to west tower. Chancel of 2 bays has a cruder copy of nave arcade. Chancel screen by Bodley but reduced, parclose and chapel screens late Perpendicular. To north is Jesus or Trafford Chapel with effigies of Humphrey Newton and his wife, died 1536 with cusped, agee hoods. Also tomb of Henry Trafford, died 1537. To south is Prescot or Booth Chapel including early brass of Robert Booth and his wife, died 1460. Under the chancel is a crypt chapel of c.1300 reached by spiral stone staircase. It has a triple sedilia with 2-centred arched heads, one with a rough carving of a cross. (Pevsner and Hubbard).

Listing NGR: SJ8481181489