Church Of Saint Bartholomew

Church of Saint Bartholomew

Parish church, 1855, designed by J L Pearson. The building is constructed of rock-faced sandstone ashlar with smooth ashlar dressings and a plain tile roof, executed in the Gothic Revival style.

The plan comprises a 4-bay aisled nave with a south porch and eastern bellcote, and a 3-bay chancel with a vestry adjoining to the north. A chamfered plinth runs throughout with quoins and a sill string course.

The aisles are furnished with angle buttresses and buttresses between bays with offsets. Twin lancets light the north and south sides, while single east and west lancets occupy the end walls. At the west end, buttresses flank the nave, and three lancets are set beneath a foiled wheel window in a roll-moulded surround with shafted spokes and a central quatrefoil.

A large bellcote straddles the nave's east gable, featuring moulded offsets and twin pointed chamfered bell openings with a single segmental-pointed opening above. The gable is coped and surmounted by a wrought-iron cross finial.

The south porch is entered through a pointed double-chamfered arch on shafted responds with moulded capitals and bases; the hoodmould is nailhead-moulded with foliate stops. A stone-coped gable with cross finial crowns the outer face. Inside, a pointed inner arch of two orders (the inner filleted, the outer dogtooth-moulded) stands on shafted responds with nailhead mouldings to capitals and bases and a hoodmould with foliate stops. The roof employs open scissor bracing with projecting carved ends to the sole-pieces.

The chancel has angle buttresses, three lancets to the south, a single lancet to the north, and three stepped east lancets. The adjoining gabled vestry contains a small pointed 2-light transomed north window with trefoiled lights beneath a pierced quatrefoil with carved foliate foils. A tall stack with offsets, a chamfered shaft, and a gableted cap rises from the roof. A corbelled eaves cornice runs along the building.

Throughout, steeply pitched roofs cover the nave and aisles in a continuous slope. Rafter ends are exposed, gables are stone-coped with carved stone cross finials, and crested ridge tiles run the full length.

Interior

The nave arcades consist of pointed double-chamfered arches springing from quatrefoiled piers and responds with moulded capitals and water-holding bases set on square pedestals. The west wheel window has filleted and roll-moulded reveals with shafted spokes. The south door features a keeled segmental-pointed reveal.

The chancel arch is pointed with two orders—a chamfered outer order and a filleted inner order with a keeled moulding to the soffit—rising from responds with an outer chamfer and a shafted inner order bearing moulded capitals and bases. On the north side of the chancel stands a wide chamfered segmental-pointed arch with a sill string course.

The north and south lancets are topped by pointed chamfered arches on moulded corbels with nailhead and foliate mouldings. The south-east window includes a seat below, flanked by trefoiled chamfered arches in the angles of the splayed reveal. The east lancets have flanking shafts with rings and capitals featuring nailhead moulding; the arches and jambs carry dogtooth moulding, and hoodmoulds have carved stops.

Boarded trussed rafter roofs throughout comprise 3-part roofs to the aisles and 7-part roofs to the nave and chancel, all equipped with scissor braces, collars, and carved ends to the sole-pieces.

The interior furnishings include an ornate octagonal carved stone pulpit with blind arcading and a quatrefoil frieze bearing dogtooth moulding. A carved font displays trefoiled panels and foliate motifs to the bowl, with a clustered filleted shaft and moulded base. Original pattern-work stained glass from 1855 is fitted to the chancel, east aisle windows, and west windows, with a small Crucifixion depicted in the central east window. Carved wood altar rails feature a trefoiled balustrade, and a 5-bay chancel screen has blind-traceried lower panels and trefoiled upper panels. Original pews and choir stalls with carved bench ends remain in place.