Church Of St Barnabas

Church of St Barnabas

A parish church, probably dating to the 14th century but almost entirely rebuilt in 1656 for Sir Robert Harley following its destruction in 1643. The building was further altered and extended in the late 19th century.

The church is constructed of sandstone rubble with sandstone dressings and tiled roofs. It is planned as a rectangular five-bay hall church, with the eastern bay functioning as the liturgical chancel, a west vestry, north vestry, and south porch.

The west elevation features a large 19th-century traceried three-light window, each light with a trefoiled head beneath a moulded label. Above this is an opening with a cambered head. A 19th-century stack stands to the left. To the right is a blocked 14th-century arch with a two-centred head, partly obscured by an early 20th-century lean-to brick vestry. Thin weathered buttresses flank both sides.

The north elevation has five similar buttresses and three cinquefoiled-headed lights with glazed spandrels beneath outer square heads with restored hoodmoulds. The north vestry to the left has a 17th-century doorway with a flat four-centred head and moulded jambs. Its east wall contains a square-headed light with a continuous hoodmould.

The east elevation displays a large 19th-century east window with mouchettes and quatrefoils in the tracery, five cinquefoil-headed lights, and a deeply moulded label with headstops. Immediately to either side are moulded fragments, probably the tops of 17th-century cornices. One pair of buttresses at the corners is linked by a string course with a central hood over a short central pilaster bearing an incised sundial. A verge and gable cross crown the elevation.

The south elevation has five pilasters and three windows matching those on the north side. A weathered projection beneath the right-hand window marks an internal tomb. The south porch is 19th-century, featuring an arch with a moulded two-centred head above which sits a crocketted ogee-headed niche containing a 19th-century figure of St Barnabas holding a scroll inscribed "GOSPEL OF ST MARK". Angle buttresses and a gable cross frame the porch. Each return has a two-light ogeed light with a continuous hood over a square head. Above the porch rises a 19th-century gabled bellcot with an ogee-headed bell opening. Below this is a gable with kneelers, verges, and a central clock face. The porch interior contains a collar purlin, brattished wall-plate, and hatchment. The south doorway has moulded jambs and a moulded two-centred head, with 19th-century oak ledged doors fitted with strap hinges.

Interior

The interior features a 17th-century double hammer-beam roof with pendants, its upper portion concealed by a boarded ceiling of 1888. The roof rises from five pairs of wall-posts that are part rectangular and part columnar, each set on a square plinth with dentilled cornices supporting brackets with enriched pendants. Moulded wall plates run along the length. The end pairs of posts and brackets carry no hammer beams as they sit adjacent to the east and west walls.

The south wall displays an early 14th-century effigy of a woman holding her heart in her hands, set in a deep recess. Behind the effigy are several medieval floor tiles. At the east end of the wall stands a monument in white marble to Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford and Lord High Treasurer, who was impeached in 1711, acquitted in 1717, and died in 1724. Knotted garlands on two pilasters support a cornice carrying volutes and an urn. The apron displays an achievement, swags, and a sconce. A large inscription panel between the pilasters contains a lengthy tribute ending with lines by Pope: "A soul supreme in each hard instance tried / Above all Fear, all Anger and all Pride / The rage of power, the blasé of publick breath / The lust of Lucre and the dread of Death."

On the north wall stands a contemporary but smaller and superficially similar monument to Mrs Sarah Harley, died 1721, which features a broken segmental pediment, an entablature with triglyphs, two fluted pilasters, and deep gadrooning to the apron. Nearby is a plain rectangular black marble wall monument with two brass inscription panels commemorating Eliza Casamajor Rogers, died 1849, and Mary Brown, died 1854. Beneath the west window is a wall monument with a draped sarcophagus and dove to Sarah Rogers, died 1816, bearing the inscription "SARAHAE AVGVSTAE / CONIVGI DESIDERATISSIMAE / EDVARDVS ROGERS INFELICITER SUPERSTES / VIXIT ANNOS FERME XXVIII / MORTVA, EHEVI DEI DECEMB XXVIII AS MDCCCXVI". On the same wall is a slate and marble monument to Charles Rogers, died 1820, featuring an obelisk and urn inscribed "CELERITER ET JUCUNDE". To the right is a wall monument to ten men of the parish who fell between 1914 and 1919.

The pulpit is late 19th-century oak, octagonal with 17th-century tarsia inlays in the side panels. The communion rails are late 19th-century oak supported on twisted wrought-iron posts with brass foliated decoration. The font is 19th-century with an octagonal bowl enriched on its sides with a dove, cross, and IHS, supported on a central drum and four shafts. The lectern is late 19th-century wrought iron and brass, consisting of four feet and a central shaft with a brass book rest flanked by a pair of candlesticks. A late 19th-century French harmonium of mahogany with scalloped edges and enriched carriage-handles to the ends is inscribed "ALEXANDRE ET FILS / PARIS / ORGUE A PERCUSSION". A mid-20th-century organ with an oak case is inscribed "BISHOP & SON / LONDON & IPSWICH".

The stained glass includes an east window of 1888 for Robert and Patience Harley, inscribed "I AM THE: RESURRECTION AND: THE LIFE". The easternmost window of the south wall commemorates Frances Murray, died 1892. The adjacent window, dating to around 1900, is for Robert Harley and is inscribed "I am the Light of the World: Lead Kindly Light". The north wall has at its east end a window for John Harley, died 1961, bearing the motto "VIRTUTE ET FIDE". The passage to the north vestry contains a small window depicting the Child Christ carrying a lamb, inscribed for SR and dated 1882, probably a member of the Rogers family.

This church is listed Grade I in recognition of its rarity as a church built during the Commonwealth period and in view of the curious architectural features of its interior.