Church Of Saint Bartholomew

The Church of St Bartholomew is a parish church dating from 1847, designed by George Alexander, with interior decoration by Owen Jones. It is constructed from flint with random squared rubble blocks, featuring ashlar dressings and tiled roofs with end stone copings. The church comprises a nave, chancel, west tower, a south aisle, and a north vestry. It is executed in the Decorated style, characterized by windows with predominantly curvilinear tracery.

The west tower has three stages surmounted by a recessed octagonal spire. It is distinguished by diagonal buttresses terminating in crocketted pinnacles, flying buttresses extending from the pinnacles to the spire, two levels of octagonal loops within the spire, weathered string courses, and a pointed west window of four lights with ‘star of David’ tracery. A cill string features head stop terminals, with a trefoiled loop above the west window. Pointed belfry openings, each of two lights with labels and carved stops, are also present. The east and west aisle windows are of three lights under pointed heads, each with labels and head stops. A two-light south chancel window is similarly detailed, as is the five-light east chancel window, and the single-light north chancel window. The vestry has two- and three-light, square-headed windows, also with labels terminating in headstops. A pointed west vestry door is accessed by a flight of steps with stone rails supported by trefoil pierced panels. Two-light nave windows have pointed heads and labels terminating in head stops. A gabled south porch features a moulded, pointed archway and trefoiled lights to the east, with an open traceried wooden door. The nave doorway is pointed with a label terminating in carved stops.

Inside, a pointed, moulded chancel arch stands upon continuous jambs. A four-bay pointed arcade rests on octagonal piers with moulded caps and bases. A pointed, moulded tower arch is also present. The windows feature shafted rere-arches. The nave roof is an arch braced collar beam structure with windbracing, with principals springing from corbels. Similar roofing is found in the chancel and aisle, although lacking windbracing. Decorative features include a cinqufoiled sedilia, an ogee headed, trefoiled piscina, a stone communion rail pierced by trefoils, a decorated pulpit with a cinqufoiled niche to the rear, a stone lectern on a corbel, and an octagonal stone font on an octagonal shaft. Encaustic tiles by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin are found in the chancel. Owen Jones's interior decoration, utilizing abstract patterns in red, dark blue and gold against a pastel blue background, is considered the most important surviving example of his work. The belfry houses a reset medieval carving, believed to be a monument to a heart burial, recut to resemble a grotesque face.