Church Of St Barbara

Church of St Barbara

Parish church with 12th century origins, altered and extended in the 13th, 14th and around 1500. The chancel was rebuilt in 1624 for Sir John Franklin. The building was restored in 1868 and 1913. Construction is partly limestone ashlar and partly limestone rubble with ashlar dressings. The nave has a stone tiled roof, while the chancel and north aisle have slate roofs behind embattled parapets. The plan comprises a west tower, four-bay nave with north aisle and south porch, and a two-bay chancel.

The west tower has a 13th century lower stage and an upper stage dating from around 1500, with strings and short buttresses with offsets at the west corners and centre of the west elevation. The lower stage has a loophole in its south and west elevations, a narrow pointed north doorway and a pointed and chamfered south doorway with hood mould and returns, fitted with a 19th century door. The belfry stage contains two-light louvred bell-chamber openings with four-centred heads. Above this is an embattled parapet with corner gargoyles and pinnacles, the latter probably added in 1624.

The north aisle was added in the 14th century and has a lean-to catslide roof, chamfered plinth and buttresses with offsets at bay divisions. A large raking buttress at the north-east corner is dated 1820. The north wall has three two-light windows, one with a square head and another with a hood mould and returns, plus a three-light window with a four-centred head and hood mould with returns in the easternmost bay. The east end has a two-light window with a square head. The south elevation of the nave retains some 12th century masonry and includes a 13th century cusped lancet in the western end, an early 19th century copy of this window in the eastern end, a two-light 14th century window and a large four-light window from around 1500 with a four-centred head.

The south porch is 14th century with a chamfered eaves cornice and end buttresses terminating in pinnacles probably added around 1624. At the apex of the gable end parapet is a gabled finial supporting a sundial. The porch contains a pointed archway of a single chamfered order with a partly blocked two-light window above it and a loophole in the gable apex. The side elevations have similar two-light windows. Inside the porch are stone benches and the remains of a stoup in the east wall. The south doorway is 12th century and has ballflower mouldings on the outer order of the arch, single shafts with trumpet-scalloped capitals and a plain recessed tympanum.

The chancel was rebuilt in 1624. It has a chamfered plinth and all window and door openings have hood moulds with returns. The three-light east window has a round head with relief carvings of dolphins from the Franklin coat of arms in the spandrels and lions' heads on the hood mould. There is a two-light north window and two ogee-arched south windows, the latter probably incorporating some 14th century tracery. The priest's door has an unusual leaf moulding over the arch with a datestone above inscribed "ANNO DOMINI 1624".

Interior: The four-bay north arcade is in 15th century style with four-centred arches and octagonal columns, though it may form part of the 1624 rebuilding. The 1624 chancel arch is similar in style and detail. The nave has a 19th century king-post roof and the chancel has a barrel roof. A 17th century altar table is present, along with a 15th century octagonal font with fleurons in quatrefoils decorating the basin and cusped pointed panels on the stem. The pulpit and other fittings are 19th century. Memorials are mainly to members of the Baldwyn family, including the remains of a 1652 memorial in the chancel and a mid-19th century sarcophagus relief with draped urn. The nave and aisle contain an early 19th century and three mid-19th century memorials to the Baldwyn family, plus a pedimented early 19th century memorial to the Martin family. The Baldwyn family are also commemorated by numerous mid and late 18th century ledger slabs in the nave.

The church contains some fragments of medieval glass in a south nave window, whilst the chancel windows have 19th century glass. The church was known as the Church of St Andrew until around 1750. It retains a substantial part of its medieval masonry. Notable features include its Norman south doorway, the simple but unusual detailing of its 17th century chancel and its ornate 15th century font.