Church Of St Mary And St Bartholomew

The Church of St Mary and St Bartholomew is a parish church largely dating to the 14th century, with a 12th-century north doorway and parts of the south arcade, and 19th-century work by David Brandon. It is constructed of flint and rubble with ashlar dressings, and has a tiled and lead-covered roof with some stone-slated margins and gable stone copings. The church plan includes a nave, chancel, north and south aisles, a west tower, a north porch, a north vestry, and a south organ chamber. The nave has two clerestory windows, each of three elliptically headed lights. The aisles feature mainly early 14th-century two-light windows with ogee-headed lights; the east window of the south aisle has an early 14th-century window of three graduated, trefoiled lights, next to a 15th-century four-light square-headed window.

The massive west tower comprises five stages separated by moulded strings, with diagonal and square-set buttresses. It has an octagonal south vice-turret and a pointed west doorway set in a moulded, square surround with carved stops. A five-light west window with Perpendicular tracery under a pointed head is above the doorway, with small trefoiled windows to the north and south of the fourth stage. Two-light belfry windows with Perpendicular tracery under four-centred heads are at the top. 19th-century additions largely incorporate paired lancets. The east window is of five graduated lancets. The reset north doorway has a round head with shafted jambs, scalloped capitals and chevron and nailhead decoration.

Internally, the church features a six-bay pointed arcade of two chamfered orders, truncated to the west, on alternating octagonal and shafted piers. There is a 19th-century pointed, moulded chancel arch with shafted jambs, a 15th-century plastered waggon-roof with tie-beams, and beamed aisle roofs. A 19th-century waggon roof covers the chancel. Several 14th- or 15th-century wall paintings are present, alongside a late 14th- or early 15th-century circular oak pulpit with panelled sides, blind tracery, and a cornice with carved bosses. A font dating from around 1200 has an octagonal bowl with pointed, panelled sides on a central circular pier surrounded by subsidiary shafts. The church contains reset medieval glass and numerous important monuments, including those to Sir Edward Hooper (1678), Ann and Katherine Hooper (17th century), John Elliott (1641), and John Hawles (1571). A tomb recess in the north chancel wall may have been an Easter Sepulchre. Other fittings are mainly from the 19th century.