Church Of St Bartholomew'S

The Church of St Bartholomew's is a parish church with origins dating back to the 12th century, undergoing significant rebuilding and alteration, with a restoration in 1886. The construction combines sandstone rubble and sandstone ashlar, topped with tiled roofs. The church comprises a west tower, a three-bay nave with a north aisle, a south porch, a two-bay chancel, and a north vestry. The architectural style incorporates Romanesque elements with Decorated and Perpendicular additions.

The west tower, dating to the 15th century and heavily restored, stands four stages high and features five strings and diagonal buttresses with offsets. The west elevation showcases a four-centred arched doorway with a hood mould, and above, a two-light window with a hood mould and returns. The belfry stage has paired, louvred, two-light bell chamber openings, ogee hood moulds with returns and carved finials, and gargoyles beneath an embattled parapet.

The nave, partly rebuilt in the 14th century, features buttresses with offsets dividing the bays. The south elevation retains the lower part of a 12th-century buttress and indications of blocked openings, alongside three 14th-century two-light windows. The north aisle runs beneath a catslide roof and is lit by three 19th-century two-light windows and a 19th-century cusped lancet at the west end.

The late 19th-century south porch, in Romanesque revival style, is located at the west end of the nave and has a lean-to roof. A west gallery is set behind a double, intersecting arcade of round-headed arches with scalloped capitals and moulded bases. A small round-headed window with nookshafts of similar design to the arcade is situated at the west end of the porch. This porch projects to the right, featuring a string course, round-headed archway, nookshafts with scalloped capitals and moulded bases, and a wrought iron gate. Carved details on the porch are designed to match those of the 12th-century south doorway, which now has renewed scalloped capitals on its nookshafts and a heavy roll moulding to its round archway.

The chancel was rebuilt in the 13th century, with end buttresses and offsets. It has a 15th-century three-light east window, while the north and south elevations feature two lancets. A lancet in the north elevation opens into the vestry. The 19th-century north vestry has paired, pointed arched windows in its north gable end with a round-lobed quatrefoil light above, and a pointed arched, planked doorway in the east elevation.

The interior includes a chancel arch with a hood mould and returns, rising from moulded corbels. The three-bay north arcade has columns with moulded caps and bases supporting three pointed arches. The church features 19th-century roofs. A west gallery rests on four elaborately carved brackets, with hatchments on either side. The chancel has 19th-century tiles and wrought iron altar rails. The octagonal font is likely a recut Romanesque original on a new base. A late 19th-century carved stone pulpit is also present. Several early 19th-century wall memorials by Joseph Stephens are in the chancel, with further memorials in the nave, including a late 18th-century one by Stephens and Bott and an early 19th-century one by W Stephens. Some 15th-century glass remains in two 14th-century nave windows.