Church Of St Bartholomew

Church of St Bartholomew, Lostwithiel

A parish church of exceptional architectural importance, with a 13th-century tower, an early 14th-century spire, and the remainder dating from the later 14th century. The nave and south aisle were built as one campaign, while the north aisle and porch are slightly later in the 14th century. The clerestory windows were restored or renewed in the early 17th century. The building underwent substantial restoration in the late 19th century, with 20th-century repairs to the tower and chancel east window. It is constructed of slatestone rubble with granite and limestone dressings; the tower base is of smaller random rubble. The roofs are 19th-century slate with ridge coping tiles.

The church comprises a west tower, a nave with an unusually short chancel that does not appear to have been truncated, a south aisle and south porch, a north aisle and north porch, and a north vestry.

The tower rises in three stages beneath an octagonal spire. It features setback buttresses and buttresses to the west. A public way originally passed through the ground floor from north to south until 1878. The ground floor has a four-centred arched doorway to the south with an inner chamfered arch and relieving arch, fitted with 19th-century double doors. Above this stands a tall chamfered lancet with relieving arch; a similar lancet faces north. The west face has granite chamfered weatherings to a tall plinth, and similar weatherings appear to the north, south and west faces at the top of the first stage. One west buttress extends to a relieving arch from a former window at first-stage level. The second stage has similar lancets on each side, with limestone long and short quoins; it is set back to the top stage on the north and south faces. The third stage is broached with paired roll-moulded lancets equipped with slate louvres, clocks to north and south, and broached corners that recede to the alternate faces of the octagonal bell stage. Each face of the bell stage is gabled, carries a stone finial and features two-light openings with a panel of four quatrefoils at the centre and a quatrefoil in each gable. The octagonal stone spire above has gabled lucarnes with finials and a weathervane over the spire finial.

The nave and chancel form one unit. The east gable contains a large five-light window with intersecting tracery and a four-centred arched head. To north and south are four clerestory windows, each a triple lancet with two-centred arched heads.

The south aisle comprises four bays with a porch in the second bay from the west. It has a lean-to roof and buttresses with slate weatherings. Three windows are three-light with cusped lights and flat heads; the second window from the east has four lights with cinquefoil-headed lights and flat head, all dating from the 19th-century restoration. The west end features a pointed arched 19th-century lancet and two lancets lighting the tower stair. To the east is a three-light window with cusped lights, flat head, hood mould and relieving arch, restored in the 19th century. Two sepulchre recesses with wide cambered arches are set into the wall, with a slate tablet above to the Carnsews family, dated 1826. A slate headstone with carved surround and central panel bearing an admonitory verse to John Bolte (early 18th century) is fixed to a buttress.

The south porch has a hipped roof and limestone quoins. It features a wide four-centred arched opening with an inner chamfered arch. The interior has a barrel vault roof with moulded cornice and stone benches to the sides. A tall four-centred arched inner doorway has jamb shafts continued over the head and a hood mould with mask stops from the 19th-century restoration. The doors are double fielded panelled work of the 18th century. A rectangular recess appears in the west wall, and a quatrefoil piscina stands to the east.

The north aisle also consists of four bays with a porch in the corresponding position. Its windows are three-light except the second from the east, which has four lights, matching those of the south aisle. To the east, the aisle is set back from the nave with a chamfered buttress. A triple lancet faces east with the central light taller and chamfered, possibly of 17th-century date as with the clerestory; it rises beneath a taller relieving arch from an earlier opening. The west end of the aisle is enclosed by a 19th-century vestry. The north porch stands on a plinth with a hipped roof. Its outer irregular four-centred arched opening has an inner chamfered arch. The interior features a similar roof with moulded cornice, a stone bench to the left and a granite sarcophagus set to the right. An inner chamfered four-centred arched doorway carries a single eight-panelled fielded door; remains of an image niche appear above, along with an earlier relieving arch.

The north vestry is a single-storey structure in snecked rubble with parapet and coping. To the west are two triple and one paired lancet. The parapet is embattled with an off-centred gable to the north housing an image niche. A four-centred arched north door and a three-light window appear on the north face, with a single cusped light to the east.

Interior

The nave and chancel have a 19th-century wagon roof with moulded ribs and bosses; the aisles have 19th-century roofs with arched-braces and purlins. All walls are plastered except the arcade piers. The nave has a five-bay arcade to north and south, with tall four-centred chamfered arches with inner chamfered arch, rising directly from octagonal dressed stone piers. Clerestory windows have rere-arches. The chancel and aisles all have trefoil-headed piscinas on the south wall, dating from the 19th-century restoration. The tower is entered through 19th-century double doors with a four-centred arch, with a single chamfered light above.

Fittings

The font in the south aisle is of outstanding quality and dates to the 14th century. It is octagonal limestone, with the bowl carved with panels of figures, a central shaft and four outer clustered shafts.

An alms box in the south aisle, dated 1645, is shaped as a standing figure with a shield, inscribed "W T MAIER".

A carved wooden pulpit on a limestone base, dated 1880, stands in the nave. The nave contains late 19th-century pews.

An alabaster panel in the south aisle depicts the flaying of St Bartholomew.

Stocks stand in the south porch.

Monuments in the chancel include a marble classical monument with broken pediment and torch to William Bower (1779); a marble monument on slate ground with pilasters and urn to Thomas Hull (1806); a marble monument with urn to Charles Monson (1800); and a marble monument on slate ground with pilasters and urn to William Luke (1763).

The north aisle contains a marble monument on slate ground with urn to Matilda Fortescue (1801); a brass of Tristram Curteys, an esquire in armour (1423); a marble monument on slate ground with urn to William Fortescue (1824); a marble tablet on slate ground with pediment and acroterial ornaments by Shepheard of Plymouth to four daughters of the Spernon family (from 1798); and a marble tablet on slate ground with pedimental top and wheatsheaf to Richard Lanyon (early 19th century).

The south aisle contains a large granite ledger stone with inscription around its border and central coat of arms, dated 1584; a slate tablet on a window cill with coat of arms to a member of the Kendal family (1579); an Elizabethan stone monument retaining ancient colour, with figures of father, five sons and three daughters all kneeling, with fluted Ionic pilasters and shield of arms; a marble tablet to Thomas Hext (1822); a marble tablet to John Hext (1838); a marble tablet on slate ground with pilasters and urn to Samuel Hext (1800); a marble tablet on slate ground with pediment to Elizabeth Hext (1851); a marble tablet with pediment, pilasters and urn to Jane Michell (1824); a marble tablet on slate ground with pediment and floral pilasters by Bedford of London to Phillippa Westlake (1850); a marble tablet on slate ground to James Baron (1807); and a marble tablet on slate ground to Alfred Hurt (1819).

A stained glass window in the north aisle, showing Faith, Hope and Charity, was created by Willement.