Church Of St Bartholomew

Church of St Bartholomew

An Anglican parish church dating from the 12th century with significant 16th and 18th-century additions, restored around 1872 by Waller. The building employs varied stonework treatment including ashlar, particularly on the south transept, with a stone slate roof and a square weather-boarded bell turret.

The plan comprises a nave with a projecting 19th-century porch on the south side, a chancel with a possibly late 16th or 17th-century south chapel and a 19th-century vestry against the west wall. A south aisle incorporating 12th-century elements was rebuilt on a smaller scale, probably in the 18th century. A bell turret stands at the east end of the nave.

The chancel north wall features an 18th-century two-light hollow-chamfered stone-mullioned window with Tudor-arched heads to each light, carved spandrels and a stopped hood. A monument to Giles Watkins, a former curate who died in 1690, is mounted here: limestone with a raised inscription plaque within a margin with bolection moulding, a winged angel's head at the top, and foliate scrollwork at the sides and bottom. The chancel displays a decorated two-light east window with a stopped hood. The chancel south wall contains a two-light 16th-century window with pointed-headed lights, carved spandrels and a stopped hood.

The east wall of the south transept features a 19th-century flat-chamfered pointed archway to the right of a six-light hollow-chamfered stone-mullioned late 16th or 17th-century window with a stopped hood. A similar window with a king mullion appears in the south wall. The lean-to vestry against the west wall of the south transept has a trefoil-headed single light on its south side. The west wall of the vestry incorporates various reused stonework, principally including part of the head of a 12th-century archway with chevron and roll moulded ornament, the upper part of a flat-chamfered lancet window and the central part of an unfinished ovolo-moulded window. A blocked rectangular window appears in the west gable end of the south transept. The south wall of the south transept contains a two-light hollow-chamfered stone-mullioned window with pointed-headed lights.

At the nave west end, a wide Tudor-arched doorway with a hollow-moulded surround and finely carved foliate spandrels is now blocked. A two-light 19th-century stone-mullioned casement with diamond leaded panes is positioned towards the apex of the gable. A flat-chamfered plinth runs along the nave north wall, flanked by two 19th-century clamp buttresses with offsets. Two 18th-century two-light windows with Tudor-arched heads, carved spandrels and stopped hoods stand to the left of the projecting gabled porch. The projecting 19th-century porch towards the west end features a wide door made from early studded planks with strap hinges within a hollow-moulded surround with blind quatrefoil decoration in the spandrels and a stopped hood. A small bull's-eye window with a moulded surround sits towards the apex of the gable. The flagged floor within the porch is lined with stone bench seats along the side walls, and a plank door with strap hinges within a Tudor-arched doorway leads into the nave.

The interior shows a nave divided from the south aisle by a two-bay arcade comprising a 12th-century arch of two orders on the left and a double-chamfered pointed Perpendicular arch with fine 15th-century head corbels supporting the inner arch. The south transept is divided from the nave by a two-bay 19th-century arcade with pointed arches and a central octagonal pier. The chancel was formerly divided from the nave by a rood screen, which was removed during the 1872 restoration.

The nave roof spans four bays with 19th-century king post trusses. The chancel features four narrow bays with a 19th-century arch-braced roof. The transept has a three-bay panelled arch-braced roof. The south aisle carries a lean-to roof. An arched recess, approximately two metres in length and probably formerly covering a tomb, occupies the north wall of the nave with a moulded surround, unfinished on the left-hand side. Eighteenth-century panelling lines the walls of the sanctuary, reputed to have been made from former pews in Sevenhampton Church, with double cupboard doors with decorative hinges and reused fragments of 17th-century carving set into the panelling. A carved stone bearing three heraldic shields, each within a trefoil-headed 12th-century round-headed window, appears at the west end of the south aisle. Flagged floors are found throughout.

The font is an octagonal stone example of around 1200, positioned immediately inside the south door. The church contains 19th-century pews and a pulpit.

The monuments include a limestone example to Richard Thayer, died 1639, with a segmental head with scrolled decoration, a console at the bottom and scrollwork either side. A slatestone tablet commemorates Margaret Sheat, died 1692, and Margaret Barnes, died 1677. An unidentified monument to the right of Richard Thayer's bears a partially legible, partly incised and painted inscription with a wide limestone margin incorporating incised decoration based on a trefoil. Below is a monument to Jacob Ingram, died 1670, a slatestone tablet within a limestone surround with two female figures either side of the inscription, one holding two doves and the other two children; the top and bottom are defaced. A large limestone monument to the right commemorates John Ebsworth, died 1733, and Dorcus his wife, died 1731, with a segmental pediment, moulded margin around the inscription and scrollwork at the bottom incorporating tulip-like flowers, with a console beneath. An 18th-century monument on the nave north wall marks John Taylor, a servant at Sandywell Park. Another 18th-century monument to a servant stands on the north wall of the south aisle. A brass below the step up to the sanctuary commemorates Richard Cotton, died 1556, and Margaret his wife, died 1560, showing two figures in brass with three vacant sunken fields between them—one formerly contained a shield and the others represented children, one an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes—with a brass inscription plaque below the figures. Three early 14th-century life-sized stone effigies occupy the transept: one represents a lady in wimple and simple gown, the others depict knights in armour with swords and crossed legs. These effigies possibly represent Richard de Crupes, died 1278, and Richard his son, both Lords of the Manor, with the lady possibly representing the wife of one of the knights. The east window contains 19th-century stained glass, while grisaille glass appears in the south window of the sanctuary.