Church Of St Bartholomew

Church of St Bartholomew

Parish church with medieval base to tower; upper part of tower rebuilt in 1738; remainder of church rebuilt in 1855 by Francis Niblett. The building comprises a west tower, nave, north aisle, chancel, north vestry, and south porch.

The tower is three stages high, constructed of squared coursed stone approaching ashlar. The base and lower parts are medieval. Diagonal corner buttresses rise the full height, with only slight projection in the upper parts. The west face features a two-light Y-tracery window with ovolo moulding in a cavetto surround (dated to 1738), a small flat-headed lancet in the second stage, and a two-light Y-tracery window with louvres in the top stage. A square recess with moulding is also present. Moulded strings separate the stages, and crenellated battlements crown the tower, with bases at the corners for diagonally-set pinnacles, now removed. The south face is similar but the bottom stage is plain; marks from sharpening arrows are visible in the plinth.

The rest of the church is constructed of coursed, squared, nearly rock-faced stone with lighter ashlar dressings, finished with a tiled roof. The nave has a diagonal corner buttress with gabled top and a short parapet gable to the tower. The south elevation features a two-light Decorated tracery window with hoodmould and head stops, a boarded door in an arched moulded surround beneath a timber-framed porch on low stone walls. The porch has a gable opening with pierced spandrels and reticulated tracery to side lights, a boarded gable, and shaped bargeboards. Two three-light reticulated tracery windows are set on each side of the nave. The roof alternates two rows of plain tiles with two rows of fish-scale tiles. Additional windows include a similar two-light window to the right of the porch, a further two-light window with different tracery, and a square-set buttress on the right. A parapet gable marks the base for a cross at its apex.

The chancel has a plinth, two lancets on each side of a boarded door reached by one stone step, with decorative hinges and a shouldered arch with hoodmould. Crested ridge tiles crown the chancel roof. The east end features a plinth, diagonal corner buttresses, three stepped lancets, and a parapet gable with a floriate cross on a cross-gablet apex. The north vestry has a gabled end set back, with a boarded door on the left under an arched head with hoodmould. A two-light window with reticulated tracery and flat head has hoodmould with leaf stops. A diagonal corner buttress and parapet gable with cross-gablet chimney outlet on the apex are present, with trefoil openings in the gables. The aisle gable behind features a spherical triangle in the top, foiled with hoodmould in the parapet gable, and a square-set gabled buttress.

The interior has a plastered nave with a three-bay arcade featuring moulded capitals and bases and hoodmould with head stops at the ends only; there is no clerestorey. A plain arch opens to the chancel with moulding on the top only. Exposed rafters with arch-braced collar trusses feature foiling in spandrels and at the top, rising from corbels with ballflower decoration; half trusses have collars only. The north aisle roof is simpler than the nave, with a plain east end. The chancel has the sill of the east window on the south taken down as sedilia; the east end features three lancets with hoodmoulds and corner columns, blind tracery to each side, and a pointed boarded vault in panels. A painted stone pulpit with blind tracery to the sides is corbelled off near floor level. An octagonal stone font with blind tracery stands on a stem. Early 18th-century communion rails with return ends and turned balusters are present. Good 19th-century pews with blind Gothic tracery to the ends are installed. Thirteen late 18th and early 19th-century wall monuments are present, together with a 1609 brass on a strapwork background and two fine monuments on the west end of the nave. A hatchment and benefactions board in the tower also contain a 1704 headstone and 1757 chest.

The church forms a group with Church House, The Inn House, and Old Cottage nearby.