Church Of St Bartholomew

Church of St Bartholomew

A parish church of the 14th and 15th centuries, with a tower built around 1425. The building was restored in 1846, 1860, and 1893 by the architect Hodgson Fowler. It is constructed of coursed squared rubble with dressed stone, rockfaced and plain ashlar, with concrete, asbestos cement and slate roofs.

The plan comprises a west tower, nave, chancel, north and south aisles, a boiler house, and a south porch.

The west tower, built around 1425, rises in three stages. It has two string courses and an eaves band decorated with bosses and remains of six angels and beasts. Two spouts project to north and south. The parapet is traceried and panelled with four restored panelled crocketed pinnacles. Nineteenth-century corner buttresses flank the west side with four setoffs, while plain buttresses to the east have two setoffs and engage with the aisles. The west face of the first stage displays a 15th-century chamfered doorway with hood mould, mask stops and peak (with a 19th-century replacement door), and above it an early 15th-century double lancet window with cusped ogee heads, cusped quatrefoil and mask stops, now restored. A clock occupies the space above. The third stage contains four 15th-century double lancets with cusped ogee heads, cusped quatrefoils, hood moulds and mask stops.

The boiler house is a 19th-century addition with a keeled eaves band and moulded parapet. It has blocked openings to west and north, and a blocked window with a segmental head.

The nave has a 15th-century clerestorey of three bays, featuring on each side three gargoyles and three double lancets with cusped ogee heads and chamfered Tudor-arched reveals.

The north aisle dates to the 14th century and has restored 15th-century windows and a rainwater head dated 1873. It features three buttresses with two and three setoffs respectively. The west side of the north aisle has a 14th-century chamfered doorway with hood mould and a plank door. To the east are two triple lancets with cusped ogee heads, panel tracery, hood moulds and mask stops. Both the east and west ends have similar but smaller triple lancets, restored, with the eastern example bearing a hood mould and mask stops.

The south aisle was rebuilt in the 19th century and spans three bays with a sill band and corner buttresses at each end—the western buttress is 19th-century with single setoffs. A rainwater head is dated 1880. The east end displays a 14th-century double lancet with Y tracery and hood mould. The south side has a 13th-century double lancet with a trefoil head and hood mould (restored), and to the west a 14th-century double lancet with Y tracery and hood mould (restored and possibly re-sited). The west end has a 19th-century double lancet with Y tracery, restored.

The chancel is 15th-century with three bays, partial plinth and eaves bands, and a sill band. The north side has two 19th-century buttresses with three setoffs and a double and single gargoyle. Two 13th-century chamfered lancets to the west are restored. The east end is flanked by a pair of 19th-century corner buttresses with three setoffs, a plinth, sill band and a crenellated coped gable with two crocketed pinnacles. A single late 15th-century five-light lancet with cusped round heads, panel tracery and hood mould with mask stops dominates the eastern wall. The south side has two 19th-century buttresses with three setoffs, a rainwater head dated 1846, coved eaves with remains of two gargoyles, and a central crocketed pinnacle. A 14th-century priest's door, double chamfered and rebated with an ogee hood mould and mask finial, occupies the centre. Above and to its left is a restored 13th-century lancet, flanked on each side by a 15th-century triple lancet with cusped ogee heads, panel tracery and square-headed reveals with hood moulds and mask stops. The left lancet is taller than the right, and both were heavily restored in the 20th century.

The south porch is 19th-century, flanked by two buttresses to the south, and features a 13th-century style doorway with hood mould and stops. The east side has a single squat 13th-century lancet.

The interior retains a re-sited church bench and a scissor-braced common rafter roof. An inner south doorway of 13th-century date (restored) has a cove-moulded reveal and hood mould, with 19th-century replacement doors. The nave arcades feature three octagonal piers in each arcade, 14th-century, with water-holding bases and a variety of moulded octagonal capitals. The arches are double chamfered and moulded with linked hood moulds and mask stops, restored. The 15th-century roof has chamfered tie beams and double purlins, now matchboarded with 19th-century material. The tower arch is 14th-century, double chamfered and rebated with octagonal responds and imposts, with an additional pair of brackets above the imposts bearing mask and arms. The tower chamber contains two moulded four-centred arched doorways. The north aisle has a 19th-century lean-to roof. The south aisle has a partial sill band to the east and a restored 15th-century lean-to roof. The chancel arch is early 15th-century, coved and chamfered with a hood mould and angel corbels. The chancel's north side has a west window with stained glass dated 1911, and to the east a blocked chamfered square aumbry. The east end displays a sill band and to the south a moulded bracket. The south side has a 14th-century piscina with a cusped trefoil head to the east. The roof is 15th-century in style with moulded timbers and ogee corbels.

Fittings include a square 19th-century font on a round stem with flanking shafts and a wooden cover with a cross dated 1926. A disused shallow eggcup font with a round stem and chamfered square base also survives. A fragment of an 11th-century cross base with interlaced decoration is preserved. Nineteenth-century pieces include a tripod iron lectern with scrollwork and an altar rail with similar supports. The church contains eleven 15th-century benches with shaped ends featuring traceried panels and lozenge finials, one with a mask finial. Partly restored 19th-century moulded oak benches, some with traceried panels, are also present, along with four 19th-century pierced panelled stalls. A 19th-century octagonal ashlar pulpit with pierced traceried panels and an octagonal stem stands in the church. An early 17th-century communion table has bulbous turned legs and a moulded chip-carved top rail. Monuments comprise a brass of 1893 referring to the restoration, a large glazed tile war memorial tablet of 1918, and brasses dated 1902 and around 1974.