Church Of St Bartholomew

TL 2656 TL2755 GREAT GRANSDEN CHURCH STREET (South Side)

14/33 15/33 CHURCH OF ST BARTHOLOMEW 14.5.59

GV I

Parish church rebuilt in second half of C15 with the exception of the late C14 west tower, repaired in 1676, dated lead plaque on tower. Church restored in 1873, architect G. Vialls, ARIBA, when north porch was rebuilt and organ chamber and vestry added. Walls of pebble and ironstone rubble with freestone and clunch dressings. Roofs covered with lead. North elevation. Tower of four stages with angle buttresses, moulded plinth and embattled parapet. C15 west doorway, loop-light at third stage and pair of two-light belfry windows with quatrefoil in four- centred arch. Small lead covered spirelet. Embattled clerestorey with four restored windows with three, trefoiled lights. Turret to rood loft stair carried up above parapet to north-east. North aisle has three, partly restored windows each of three, cinquefoiled lights and diagonal buttresses. North porch has a two-centred outer arch within a square with traceried spandrils. Vestry and organ chamber built in angle of north aisle and chancel. Chancel north window of three lights, east window partly restored of five, cinquefoil lights. Interior. Chancel arch, two-centred, of two moulded orders, the inner order springing from attached shafts with moulded capitals and bases. Nave arcades of four bays have arches and piers of similar details to chancel arch with C19 labels on nave side. Rood-loft staircase has a lower doorway with chamfered jambs and an upper doorway with splayed jambs with four-centred heads. Tower arch, two-centred with two moulded orders, altered in C15. Roofs of chancel, nave and aisles C15, with some C17 repairs. Nave and south aisle tie beams bear inscriptions of church wardens, one dated 1675. Flat pitched with moulded main timbers, cambered tie beams with curved braces forming four-centred arches. Carved stops and bosses at intersections, with carved figures in nave and aisles. Wall posts in chancel stand on octagonal stone corbels terminating in rosettes. Screen. C15. Seating, late C15 or early C16, with panelled bench ends, moulded rails, backs of five seats and five front desks carved with spandrils of foliage, fishes, birds, animals and grotesque faces. Pulpit C17 on modern stand. Fragments of C15 and C16 glass in south window of chancel. Very fine piscina with ogee arch and crocketed label. Front C15, plain octagonal bowl on modern base. Brass indent to Thomas de Neusum 1301-1328 and wall monument to Barnabas Oley, Vicar, d.1685. Tomb of Sarah, wife of Simon Mason, 1664. Church clock, c.1480, chimes added 1683. RCHM (Hunts) mon. (1), p120. VCH (Hunts) p299. History of Great Gransden. 1892. pp 71, 72, 98, 203, 231 & 234. Norris Museum, St. Ives. Inskip Ladds Collection. CRO Huntingdon. P.G.M. Dickenson. Historical Notes.

Listing NGR: TL2709455616