Church Of St Bartholomew

Church of St. Bartholomew, Notgrove

An Anglican parish church of the 12th, 14th and Decorated periods, extensively restored by J.E.K. Cutts in 1873, when the north aisle and south wall of the chancel were rebuilt externally. The building is constructed mainly of coursed squared and dressed limestone, with the south side of the nave in ashlar, and has stone slate and concrete tile roofing.

The plan comprises a nave with a north aisle and north transept, a south porch, a west tower, and a chancel with a vestry abutting the north transept. The gabled south porch, which has been rebuilt, contains double plank doors with decorative strap hinges within a pointed arch of two orders, the inner arch tapering inwards at shoulder height. The hood moulding is scroll-moulded with stops. Fragments of carved stonework are visible, including a 12th-century voussoir with chevron moulding reset in the west wall, while the east wall contains a deep ogee-headed recess with a 14th-century stone coffin below.

The nave has a Tudor doorway with a basket-headed surround, carved spandrels and a stopped hood. Two rectangular windows with Perpendicular style tracery and stopped hoods sit to the right of the porch, while a single similar window to the left has an original hood with stops in the form of a man and a woman's head. All three windows were restored in the 19th century.

The chancel's north wall contains one two-light and one three-light stone-mullioned casement, both with ogee-curved trefoil heads and carved spandrels, dating from the 19th century. The east end has a string at eaves level and a 15th-century ogee-arched niche containing a possibly Saxon effigy of Christ crucified. A 19th-century vestry on the north side of the chancel has a two-light stone-mullioned window in its east-facing wall and a plank door with decorative strap hinges in the gable.

The 14th-century north transept is lit by a pointed two-light window with cinquefoil-headed lights and a hood with ballflower ornament. The north aisle is lit by two two-light stone-mullioned casements within deep casement-moulded surrounds, below a low parapet with a string. Traces of pilaster buttressing appear at the west end of the nave.

The tower, of Decorated date, has three stages with strings between them and is crowned by a ribbed stone spire. It features single-light belfry windows with ogee-curved trefoil heads and stone louvres, with similar smaller lights on the second stage. A sundial with a metal gnomon sits below the belfry window on the south side. The roofs have stepped coping to the gable ends of the chancel, nave and south porch, and there is a sanctus bellcote on the east gable end of the nave.

Interior

The interior has been scraped. A 12th-century arcade of three bays has piers with square scalloped capitals. The chancel arch, pointed and dating from the 1873 restoration, is matched by a similar pointed arch containing the organ on the north side of the chancel. The nave has a 19th-century wagon roof with finely carved winged angels decorating the wall plate, decorative bosses and spine beam. The chancel has 19th-century scissor-braced roof trusses with collars, and the north transept has similar 19th-century roof trusses. Flooring comprises plain and encaustic tiling in the sanctuary, stone flags and tiling forming an integral pattern within the chancel, and flagstones and ledger slabs in the nave.

A 14th-century defaced stone reredos stands at the east end of the chancel, now concealed by a tapestry designed by Colin Anderson and depicting the reredos, started in 1936 and completed in 1954. The reredos originally comprised a canopied niche above the altar flanked by wide ogee-arched recesses, with some crimson and green paint surviving and a head corbel in the lower left. A doorless aumbry sits below the left-hand recess. An image niche with an ogee-arched surround occupies the north wall of the chancel, its back painted crimson with a margin decorated in chevron. An ovolo-moulded string runs across the wall, interrupted by the niche and window.

A 12th-century tub-shaped font with double cable moulding below the rim rests on a stepped octagonal and square base adjacent to the south door. Pews on the south side of the nave were constructed in the early 17th century, with an inscription on the front pew reading "Richard Dlaydell, Thomas Daen, Church Wardens 1619"; these feature brattishing and intertwined flower decoration. The north side pews follow a similar design but date from the mid-20th century, with rose and thistle decoration. There is a rectangular carved oak pulpit and a 19th-century carved wooden rood screen. A fine 17th-century carved oak chair with a sunflower motif stands within the sanctuary.

The church contains three limestone effigies probably of members of the Whittington family within the chancel. One depicts a lady with a ruff and headdress dated 1630, set in arcaded panels on a tomb below the effigy, lying within a round-headed niche in the north wall of the sanctuary. Two other effigies of men dating from around 1585 are stacked one above the other: the lower dressed in long robes and enclosed within an open-sided tomb flanked by fluted columns, the upper dressed in armour. A large limestone overmantel with three heraldic shields hangs above. Two 14th-century stone effigies of priests occupy the north transept, formerly positioned outside the church. Three stone ledgers in the nave aisle include two to members of the Michell family from the 17th century and one from the 18th century.

Stained glass in the south windows of the chancel and one window in the south wall of the nave dates from the 19th century and was made by Clayton and Bell. A stained glass inset of the Virgin and Child from around 1300 is set into the vestry window.