Church Of St Bartholomew (Church Of England)

Church of St Bartholomew (Church of England)

A parish church comprising a late 13th-century chancel and nave with a distinctive early 15th-century chantry chapel positioned separately at the west end for the Weedon family. The church was substantially enlarged and restored in the 19th century: additions of a north aisle, northeast vestry, and archway into the west chapel were built between 1857 and 1861 by William White in the Early English style; a restoration followed in 1881 by R.J. Withers, which included a porch and bell turret; and a low Church Room linked to the west end was added in 1973.

The building is constructed of flint rubble with coursed flint facing and clunch dressings, many of which have been renewed in Bath Stone. The chantry chapel features a clunch plinth with large stones set in flint walling. The chancel walls are built over rough footings with a tile levelling course visible on the north and east sides, while the 19th-century north side has uncoursed knapped flint. Roofs are of steep red tiles, with a pyramidal square timber bellcote over the west end of the nave topped with a ball finial and V-patterned metal-clad base. The 1973 flint-walled extension has a hipped tiled roof with parapets and a plinth and quoins of reconstructed stone.

The church comprises a square-ended chancel, nave, low north aisle, tall west chapel (now a baptistry), south porch, bell turret, and attached Church Room at the northwest.

The chancel contains a late 13th-century blocked pointed doorway exposed externally. Inside, there is a late 13th-century piscina with shelf and chamfered arched head at the southeast, with small niches now restored and flanking figures beside the three-light restored east window. A late 14th-century square-headed two-light quatrefoiled north window and a similar restored window on the south are present, together with a simple low-side window at the southwest. A pointed depressed arch of two chamfered orders in the north wall frames the organ, painted in Medieval style, with vestry space behind in a gabled projection. The floor features a patterned arrangement of coloured and 19th-century encaustic tiles, with painted walls at the east end. A stone reredos with mosaic figured panels adorns the space, and wooden stalls inlaid with bog oak support the altar rail with carved wooden angels. Stained glass windows date from the 1870s. The two-centred chancel arch of two chamfered orders was widened in 1881.

The taller nave is lit from the south by two tall two-light pointed windows and a small window at the southeast lighting the pulpit. An open waggon roof of 1881, similar in style to the chancel, extends over the north aisle. The aisle opens to the nave through an arcade of three and a half bays (half at the west) in 13th-century style, featuring two-centred arches of two chamfered orders on minuscule circular columns with moulded bases and bell caps. Headroom in the aisle is gained by raising a triplet of low gables above the eaves, fitted with lucarne windows in plate tracery, the central one being deeper. Externally, heavy battered walls and gabled terminal buttresses mark the aisle's position. The design carefully avoids overwhelming the small scale of the church, both internally and externally. A moulded external hoodmould to the pointed late 13th-century south doorway indicates the chancel's date; the door has double leaves of unequal widths. The north aisle extends along the north side of the west chapel and now serves as a link to the Church Room. Two heavy wooden trusses across the west end support the framework of the bell turret. A panelled stone pulpit stands at the southeast. A wide pointed arch cut through the west wall of the nave leads to the early 15th-century west chapel at a slightly higher level.

The west chapel is a rectangular building with eaves higher than the nave but with a flatter roof pitch, so its ridge is lower than that of the nave. Diagonal west corner buttresses with weathered offsets are present, with a blocked square-headed entrance in the middle of the south wall. A small west doorway in 13th-century style and a large early 15th-century three-light square-headed west window with blank tracery in the head and animal label stops are features of the west elevation. The south wall has an ashlar plinth and a chamfered string course at two-thirds height, which steps up as the label to a tall two-light square-headed trefoil-cusped window to the east of the blocked door. The sill of this window is much lower inside. A small square-headed window is set low to the west of the former south door. The Victoria County History recorded in 1908 a relieving arch in the north wall, possibly for a north window. The chapel contains a remarkable early 15th-century three-bay open timber roof with moulded wallplate, stone corbel heads, wallposts, and curved braces with traceried spandrels to cranked tie-beams supporting a ridge beam and flat rafters. The floor now slopes from west to east. An octagonal 19th-century stone font is present. A two-light south window contains stained glass of 1892 by Kempe depicting St Stephen and St Lawrence, similar to a southwest nave window of circa 1899 depicting St Peter and St Paul. A wall monument to Thomas Egerton of Champneys (died 1764) in white marble set on veined marble features guttae brackets, a cornice with fluted garlanded urn on top, and an armorial cartouche on the plinth.

The gabled south porch has a scissor-rafter roof on arcaded wooden sides above a high plinth of flint and stone. The floor is of patterned red and black tiles, similar to that in the nave, with wooden side benches.

The church is of exceptional architectural interest, particularly for its early 15th-century west chapel.