Church Of St Bartholomew

Church of St Bartholomew

Parish church of 13th- to 16th-century date, restored in 1873 by J. H. Hakewill. Built in ashlar and coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings, with felt and slate roofs. The building comprises a western tower, nave with clerestorey, north aisle, chancel, and vestry.

The 13th-century unbuttressed tower is constructed in limestone rubble with quoins and has a plinth with splay and roll moulding. It rises in two stages—a tall first stage and short second stage with plain square string course. The south side contains a small lancet set high in the first stage, whilst the west window is a taller lancet with hood mould. All faces of the tower carry 14th-century two-light belfry openings in the second stage. The octagonal shallow broached spire terminates in a four-sided point with two sets of alternating lucarnes. The tower is considerably narrower than the nave, leaving the plain ashlar nave west wall exposed, and the line of the original nave and aisle roof pitch remains visible.

The north side comprises four bays marked by five stepped buttresses, with a plain plinth and parapet carrying saddleback coping. The roof is felted and drained by three gargoyles. The north doorway is a plain four-centre arch (now blocked), flanked to the west by a three-light 15th-century shallow triangular-headed window with reticulated tracery and to the east by two similar windows, all with hood mould. The north clerestorey carries a panelled parapet with shields in quatrefoils and saddleback coping, with four pinnacle bases and four gargoyles (two defaced). Six three-cusped light 16th-century windows with four-centre heads sit beneath continuous hood moulds, with plain buttresses at each end.

The 1873 vestry with slate roof contains in its west end a reset 15th-century window with reticulated tracery. The ashlar chancel, rebuilt in 1873, has shaped kneelers and a stone cross to the coped gable. Its east end holds three stepped 19th-century lancets, and the south side features three single lancets, a machine-moulded corbel table, and several reused 12th-century sculptured stones.

The south-east corner of the nave projects polygonally to house the rood stair. The south elevation presents a 16th-century almost symmetrically balanced composition in three main bays, the central one containing the porch. A plinth, string course, and parapet decorated with a frieze mirror the north clerestorey; the frieze continues round the west end of the nave, where a large human head and cross mark the ridge. The clerestorey is divided into six bays by flat pilasters rising from the string course to the parapet, where they are panelled and topped by crocketed pinnacles. A full-height stepped buttress with gargoyle occupies the west end.

The tall porch features splayed corner buttresses and a steeply pointed gable enriched with a parapet decorated with shields in quatrefoils set square in a stepped formation, the interstices filled with trefoils. At the ridge is a niche supported on a pair of shield-bearing angels and topped by a richly decorated canopy with crocketed pinnacle; the end pinnacles are supported on winged scaly creatures. The opening is a curved pointed arch with moulded reveals and hood mould with human mask stops. The porch is flanked by single four-light windows with four-centre heads and panel tracery. The clerestorey carries six lights as on the north side, sitting on the string course. The south doorway has a four-centre arch head and five-panelled traceried 16th-century door.

The west aisle window is a 15th-century two-light under a triangular head with hood mould.

Interior

The interior is ashlar throughout except for the west wall of the nave and north wall of the aisle, which expose rubble. The north arcade comprises four bays with 15th-century octagonal piers and cyma-moulded and chamfered arches with stepped, moulded capitals. The west respond is a 13th-century circular pier. The tower arch is a small 13th-century opening. Above the pitch line of the earlier nave roof, visible in the west wall, are two reset stones, one being a piece of Anglo-Saxon interlace. One statue bracket survives on the north side of the aisle. Upper and lower rood stair doors remain. The roof is 17th-century, constructed off large corbels of human heads and shields. The chancel arch and chancel date to 1673.

Fittings and Monuments

The early 16th-century rood screen comprises six panels with two over the door, decorated with ogee work and panel tracery incorporating roses in its design. A curved gilded canopy, topped by four angels, surmounts the screen, which underwent extensive restoration in 1948.

The nave bench ends are 15th-century poppyhead type. The pulpit and brass eagle lectern are 19th-century, and the Gothic oak reredos dates from 1887. The 17th-century font is octagonal, decorated with shields and oak leaves. Fragments of 15th-century glass survive in the south aisle windows.

In the porch stands a 14th-century stone figure of a woman in a coffin with a quatrefoil head, with a small swathed figure of a baby at her feet. Above the door is a timber board dated 1824 relating to the Dodwell Charity.