Church Of St Bartholomew

Church of St Bartholomew

Parish church begun in 1845 from plans by Charles Dyer of Bristol and completed in 1850 by William Butterfield. Built of limestone freestone with stone dressings and quoins, the church has slate roofs with raised coped verges, a cross finial to the chancel, and a pyramidal stone tiled roof to the tower. The building comprises a west tower, nave, south porch, chancel, and north vestry, executed in Early English style with a highly sympathetic early Gothic tower of robust quality by Butterfield.

The four-stage tower features a plain lancet at the first stage on the north and south sides, a lancet with stopped hood mould at the second stage west, and at the top stage a two-light window with polygonal mullion and jamb shafts, roll-moulded pointed arch and bell louvres to all sides. The tower has heavy weathered clasping buttresses and string courses. A stair turret to the south has a door with shaped head, a small lancet and pitched roof. A cockerel weathervane crowns the tower roof.

The five-bay nave has five tall lancets to the north side, the second from left having a cusped trefoil head. A single storey addition with pitched roof stands to the right. The south nave has four similar lancets, with a cusped trefoil head to the right, and heavy weathered clasping buttresses, plinth and string course.

The south porch, located in the second bay from the left, features a steep gable and cross finial, with a pointed arched doorway having a roll-moulded surround springing from jamb shafts, and a hood mould with shield and mask stops. Paired narrow lancets flank each side of the porch. The porch has a common rafter roof with one row of purlins, and inner double doors with decorative strap hinges and segmental heads with foliate hood mould stops.

The two-bay chancel has a north side single storey vestry attached with paired lancets having a quatrefoil above and a door with shaped head matching those on the tower. The south side has a trefoil-headed lancet and a two-light window with pointed arch and plate tracery quatrefoil above with a stopped hood mould and relieving arch. A tall triple east lancet has a hood mould carried over all three lancets with stops and a high relieving arch, a cornice across the gable and blind trefoil. Buttresses and string courses are raised beneath the cills of the east windows and continued to the south, with a plinth running beneath.

Interior

The tall pointed tower arch features a hood mould with mask stops and triple broach stops at the base of the jambs, with a panelled wooden screen by Butterfield incorporating blind trefoil-headed panels. The nave roof is of six bays with arched-braces rising from stone corbels, principal rafters, collars and curved upper struts, the windows having hollow-chamfered segmental heads. A wider pointed chancel arch has moulded inner imposts for the inner order, with chamfered and broach-stopped jambs and a hood mould with mask stops. To the left, an upper lancet serves the organ chamber. The chancel has a common rafter roof with upright members at the base of the rafters rising from wooden corbels, collars with lower struts to each side, and a piscina and sedilia to the right.

Fittings include a stone font in the nave on a central stem with four outer shafts, cable moulding around the edge and a square bowl, all by Butterfield. A wooden pulpit and benches in the nave are also by Butterfield. Stained glass quarries are by Powell.