Church Of St Bartholomew

Church of St Bartholomew

This is a parish church with origins in the 13th century, substantially altered and restored in the 18th and 19th centuries. The building comprises a west tower, a three-bay aisled nave with south porch, and a two-bay chancel with vestry to the north side.

The exterior is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with strap pointing to the lower three stages of the tower, squared limestone to the nave, aisles and chancel, and a small section of herringbone masonry to the west side of the north aisle. The top stage of the tower is faced in limestone ashlar, with ashlar dressings throughout. The roof is of slate.

The four-stage tower dates to the 14th or 15th century. It features moulded string courses, full-height angle buttresses with offsets, and staircase lighting slits to the north-west. The west entrance has a pointed double-chamfered door with hood-mould and carved angel stops, alongside a blind traceried panelled two-fold door. A 19th-century pointed two-light traceried window cuts the string course with hood-mould and carved angel stops. The second stage has a narrow west lancet. The belfry contains tall pointed two-light openings with Perpendicular tracery and hood-mould returned as string course. A corbel table with carved masks and figures and pairs of angle gargoyles sits below a coped embattled parapet with crocketed angle pinnacles.

The nave has square-headed three-light trefoiled clerestory windows. The aisles are buttressed and feature pointed three-light windows with curvilinear tracery. Both nave and aisles have ornate corbel tables with carved masks and figures, and coped embattled parapets with crocketed angle pinnacles.

The chancel has angle and mid-buttresses, pointed two-light north and south windows, and a pointed three-light east window with curvilinear tracery, together with a coped embattled parapet. A pointed double-chamfered door and square-headed three-light trefoiled window serve the vestry.

The south porch has a deep moulded plinth, angle buttresses, and a pointed shafted outer arch with pointed moulded inner arch, both with hood-moulds and headstops.

The interior contains 13th-century nave arcades with pointed double-chamfered arches on filleted quatrefoil west piers with waterholding bases and octagonal east piers with moulded bases. Both pier types have nailhead moulding to the capitals and corbelled responds with carved whorls to the east and heads to the west; piers and arches are re-cut. A tall pointed tower arch of three orders features wave moulding and plain and hollow chamfers on restored double-chamfered responds with moulded capitals. The chancel arch is a fine pointed hollow-chamfered construction of two orders on chamfered responds with single carved flowers to the moulded capitals.

A shafted east window has foliate capitals, hood-mould and headstops. The interior features a fine three-bay single hammer-beam oak roof, probably by Joseph Fowler and repaired by J S Crowther, with moulded wall-plate and traceried panel above, carved winged angels to main and intermediate trusses, and carved ashlar corbels to main trusses with angels playing instruments. Aisle roofs have moulded purlins and trusses supported on carved corbels.

In the chancel is a 14th-century ashlar altar-tomb or Easter sepulchre on the north side, featuring finely-carved panels with blind reticulated and curvilinear tracery and a black marble top with indent for a missing brass.

The font is Romanesque with blind arcading of intersecting round arches on round piers, with a 19th-century base. Very fine 18th-century carved oak altar rails, probably Flemish and inserted by Fowler, have a central gate flanked by two panels each side with luxuriant foliage, chalice, ewer and other ornaments. An octagonal carved oak pulpit by Joseph Fowler incorporates a series of exceptional relief panels, probably 16th-century Flemish, including scenes from the life of Joseph, with an elaborate tester also probably by Fowler featuring open tracery and crocketed pinnacles. In the south aisle is a square traceried window panel with central rose, reputedly from nearby Thornholme Priory.

The stained glass east window, with a central crucifixion scene, was made by J B Capronnier of Brussels in 1862.

The church was repaired in 1752–53. Restorations in 1821–23 by Joseph Fowler of Winterton included rebuilding the nave clerestory, aisles, chancel and part of the tower, and rendering the exterior; the rendering was removed in 1868–70. Further restorations in 1882 by J S Crowther of Alderley Edge, Cheshire, included rebuilding the belfry, adding tower buttresses and staircase, new buttresses, parapets and roofs to nave and aisles (and probably to the chancel), restoring windows, re-flooring and re-seating.