Church Of St Bartholomew

Church of St Bartholomew

This is a parish church of early 14th-century origin, substantially altered and enhanced in subsequent centuries. The building was refenestrated and a south porch added in the 15th century, a north porch added in the 16th century, and the church was restored with the chancel largely rebuilt in 1886.

The church is constructed of flint rubble, partly cement rendered, with ashlar dressings. The south porch features knapped and squared flint, while the irregularly bonded red brick north porch provides later contrast. The nave roof is slated, and the chancel roof is covered in plain tiles.

The plan comprises a long nave with a narrower short chancel, a west tower, south porch, and a north porch which serves as a vestry.

The three-stage square west tower is unbuttressed with ashlar quoining. The upper half is rendered, and it has a moulded plinth. The west entrance is a slightly ogee-headed pointed arch with hollow and wave moulded orders and a hood mould with square outer moulding. The moulded double doors retain a blocked 5-light head. The second stage contains small chamfered louvred lancets, with a string course rising to the belfry. Three chamfered pointed-arched openings with Y tracery and louvres occupy the belfry stage, each with hood moulds. To the east is a quatrefoil opening. The tower is topped by a knapped flint embattled parapet with cornice, and small brattished angle projections.

The nave has three 3-light large Perpendicular windows to each side, featuring trefoiled ogee-headed lights and brattished rectilinear tracery with segmental pointed-arched heads. The south eaves are boarded; the north eaves expose 15th-century timbers. Diagonal buttresses with coped parapets flank the west end into the tower. To the east, straight buttresses with coped gable parapets and 19th-century kneelers are set at intervals; a scratch dial appears on the south side.

The south porch is positioned west of centre on the nave. Its outer pointed arch carries a waved moulded outer order with restored Tudor flowers and coronet ornament. Inner Tudor flowers spring from shafted responds with brattished caps, all beneath a hood mould with mask stops. The porch base is a flint-panelled plinth with traceried stone heads above. Ashlar appears above a projecting course at impost level, with relief octafoils and shields of arms in the entrance arch spandrels. Flanking statue niches with restored cusped ogee heads and pedestals are set between outer shafts rising to pinnacled and crocketed heads. Above the flint panels, which bear cusped and pinnacled tracery, stands a central niche with a lion at its base. The interior features restored vaulting and a richly crocketed ogee canopy with brattished domical head, with shafts and crocketed pinnacles. A shallow front gable has a parapet with relief quatrefoils, moulded coping, and a broken shaft to a ridge cross; angles have crocketed pinnacles. Two-stage brattished diagonal buttresses to the returns flank tall 2-light Perpendicular windows with brattished rectilinear tracery and hoodmoulds with foliate stops. Nineteenth-century wrought iron doors open into the porch. The inner entrance retains a 14th-century pointed arch with a single moulded order and hoodmould; early moulded doors remain. The east jamb bears carved consecration crosses.

The north porch has an outer hollow moulded 4-centred gauged brick entrance arch with a hood mould continued as a string course onto diagonal buttresses and returns. Above the arch is an empty panel with a moulded square head. The roof is steeply pitched and pantiled. The returns have moulded plinths and 2-light Y-traceried hollow moulded openings with 4-centred arched heads. The inner entrance matches that to the south and is 14th-century in date.

The unbuttressed chancel terminates to the east with a restored 3-light Perpendicular window matching those in the nave. Above this window is a 19th-century niche ornamented as on the porch. The chancel has kneelers to its coped gable parapet and ridge cross. To the south is a low side door in a chamfered pointed arch. Similar 2-light Perpendicular windows flank this door to the north.

Interior

The interior features a broad chancel arch with outer hollow moulding and inner continuous chamfer. The opening to the tower has a 4-centred arched opening with pointed arched doors; above this is a chamfered pointed arched opening leading to the belfry.

The nave roof is remarkable: a 7-bay single hammerbeam structure with moulded posts and arched braces springing from hammerbeams (from which terminal figures have been removed). Arched braces rise to brattished collars. The roof exhibits moulded principals and butt purlins, with foliate bosses throughout. Coved and moulded wall plates carry brattishing continued on the hammerbeams, with brattished moulding over rendered ashlaring.

The 4-bay chancel roof is 19th-century in execution but follows the nave model. The north porch roof features arched braced collars and moulded wallplates.

The chancel south wall contains a restored piscina with trefoiled head; the lower sill of an adjacent window serves as sedilia. The nave floor to the west retains early herringbone brick paving.

A late 15th-century octagonal font stands at the west end of the nave and has been restored. Its complex double base has rebates in the upper section creating a Maltese cross pattern. A heavily moulded stem bears cusped pointed-arched panels with roll moulded surrounds. The bowl exhibits coved moulding with quatrefoil traceried panels, roses, and masks, with square patterning on alternate panels.

An ornate 15th-century timber font cover with brattishing rests on a moulded base. It displays complex traceried panels of varying geometrical designs in squares and circles, with crocketing rising to a low pinnacle. An ornate wrought iron weight operates the lifting system.

Poppyhead bench ends, many dating to the 15th century, are decorated with tracery and feature seated figures and grotesques on buttressed arm rests, including depictions of possible vices and virtues—greed, a figure with a rosary, and two figures in castles. Some have been re-used as choir stalls.

A late 19th-century Gothic reredos occupies the chancel east end. To the west is a late 19th-century Neo-Perpendicular gallery with traceried frontal. An 18th- or 19th-century chest reuses older iron binding.

Memorials and Monuments

The chancel north wall displays a marble tablet to Sir J. Fenn (d. 1794), the antiquary and editor of the Paston Letters, executed by J. Bacon in 1797. The lengthy inscription is accompanied by a female figure mourning over a chest tomb with a shield of arms against black marble backing.

A tablet to J. Williamson (d. 1781) by J. Golden combines white and pink marble in Neo-classical style, with a swagged frieze and guttae at the base, a radiating lunette above, and scrolls flanking a shield of arms.

Elenor Fenn (d. 1813) is commemorated by Thomson in an inscribed pointed-arched slab with ogee hoodmould and mask stops. Ann Frere (d. 1728) has a long inscription within a marble surround. A brass plaque specifies the charity of E. Frere of 1766.

Three 17th-century inscribed slabs are set into the chancel floor, and two brass insets appear in the nave floor.

The east window contains fragments of 15th-century glass with saints at the head; 19th-century glass appears in the chancel to the north.