Church Of St Bartholomew

Church of St. Bartholomew

Parish church with origins in the mid or late 11th century. The building underwent significant changes over subsequent centuries: a south porch was added in the 14th century, the tower was built in the 15th century, and in 1876 a vestry was added and the chancel was rebuilt during a restoration by Waller and Son. The church is constructed of random rubble limestone with ashlar dressings, while the chancel and vestry are of rock-faced coursed rubble. The roof is covered in stone slate.

The church comprises a nave without aisles, a west tower, a south porch, a north vestry, and a chancel. The central south doorway is the most ornate feature, with a diaper pattern carved on the lintel and an incised lozenge pattern on the tympanum. The doorway has a roll-moulded arch and columns with cushion capitals and bulbous bases.

The 14th-century south porch contains internal stone seats, each with a small trefoil-headed window above. The porch has a simple pointed arch in a parapet gable with flush buttresses, topped by a cross-roll saddle. The porch has a 2-light trefoil-headed window on the left, a 4-light window with Tudor-arched heads and hood mould on the right (dating to the 16th century), another 2-light trefoil-headed window further right, and 19th-century corner buttresses.

The north wall has a central blocked doorway with a plain lintel and unembellished recessed tympanum, with a small stone bracket projecting centrally above. To the left is a very small round-headed window with a recessed monolithic surround, and beyond a 19th-century buttress is a 2-light window with trefoiled heads.

The tower is of two stages with parapet gables to a saddleback roof. Diagonal buttresses on the west corners rise partway up the tower. The west doorway has a pointed arch with hood mould featuring stiff-leaf terminals, apparently part of a 19th-century restoration. The ringing chamber has simple chamfered square-headed lights to the north and south walls. The belfry opening in the west face has two lights, with single lights to the north and south, all furnished with stone louvres. A stone chimney was added to the north-east corner in the 19th or 20th century.

The chancel was rebuilt on an earlier plinth. The north wall has an original 2-light trefoil-headed window, but there is no east window. The south wall has two trefoil-headed lancets, the left being original and the right a 19th-century copy. Fragments of incised medieval coffin lids appear to have been reused in the chancel's rebuilding.

The interior has been scraped and ribbon-pointed throughout. A carved crowned head projects over the blocked north doorway. The tower doorway is indicated by a timber lintel still in place, above which sits a much larger embedded timber lintel. The north window has a very deep round-headed splayed opening. Two narrow doorways in the south wall, one at high level, were formerly part of rood loft stairs, now removed.

The chancel arch is a simple round-headed Norman feature with chamfered abaci. The north pier has a monolithic jamb with a chamfered west corner, while the south pier has long-and-short dressed masonry. The nave has a 19th-century wagon roof with three earlier moulded tie beams. The floor steps up to the chancel, which is itself stepped at the east end to accommodate the altar table. Two carved brattished beams in the east wall are from the former rood loft. The chancel also has a 19th-century wagon roof.

The chancel contains a square-headed aumbry in the north wall, pews, and an octagonal-fronted timber pulpit on a stone base. The 15th-century font is octagonal stone with a quatrefoil to each face and an octagonal moulded pedestal.

The north and south doorways and the chancel arch suggest the church has pre-conquest origins. The architectural evidence indicates that the church may date back to the Anglo-Saxon period, with later medieval and Victorian modifications substantially altering its appearance.