Church Of St Bartholomew

This is a parish church dating from the 15th and early 16th centuries, with earlier origins, restored between 1889 and 1900. It is built of dressed limestone and Ham Hill stone with lead roofs.

Plan and Origins

The church has a cruciform plan with an extended north aisle, a chapel at the north-east corner, and a crossing tower. Part of a late 13th-century arch incorporated in the east wall of the south transept suggests that the 13th-century church was also cruciform in plan. The present building is in the Perpendicular style.

Exterior

Unless otherwise mentioned, all windows are pointed-arched with hoodmoulds, casement moulding and Perpendicular tracery, each light having a cinquefoil top. A moulded string-course encircles the building below the parapet, and all parapets, except those to the east gable end and the gable to the south transept, have moulded embattlements. The set-back buttresses are diagonal to their tops, and the aisles have crocketed finials and gargoyles at string-course level. A plinth with a string-course above it encircles the building, though the moulding varies.

East End

The east end has a plain shouldered gable and crocketed finials to the buttresses. A 4-light window sits above a former chantry, now demolished, though the lintels to the former doors to the sides remain.

North-East Corner

The north-east corner descends in four steps from the chancel: the north side of the chancel, which has one 4-light window; the end of the extended north aisle; a small north-east chapel; and the north transept, which has a 4-light window without a hoodmould.

North Aisle

The east end of the north aisle is slightly higher than the chancel at the junction, but the roof slopes down to the same level over a 5-light window to the east side, and two 4-light windows to the north.

Small Chapel

The small chapel is early 16th century, with shallow pointed arches to a 4-light window on each side. The east side has a slightly pitched gable.

North Transept

The north transept is more elaborate and higher. A slightly pitched gable to the north side has gargoyles to the centre and sides. A 7-light, elliptical-arched, transomed window has a quatrefoil frieze between the cill and plinth. The east side has one similar 4-light transomed window, the west side a 5-light window, both with similar friezes below, ending at a door close to the north aisle which is below a small 4-light window.

The north aisle has three large Y-traceried windows with headstops to the hoodmoulds and gargoyles in the string-course above the points, and below the crocketed finials of the buttresses.

Clerestory

The five segmental pointed clerestory windows, which do not correspond to the arcade below, are under a continuous dripmould.

West Front

The shallow gable to the west front has a small crocketed niche to the apex. A large transomed 8-light window sits over elaborate carving around the planked and studded door, which is panelled to the front. This is set in a deep moulded architrave with a crocketed ogee top, large quatrefoils in the spandrels, flanked by square, diagonally-set columns with crocketed finials. To the sides are large half-figures over crocketed finials to empty niches. The figure to the right is in poor condition, but that to the left is crowned and carries a narrow scroll.

Octagonal stair turrets with four slit windows each, gargoyles to each angle and doors to the north and south sides, separate the nave from the aisles and give access to the galleries inside. The jointing-in of the naves is clearly visible. They have 4-light transomed windows with Y-tracery: that to the north aisle has headstops and a gargoyle above, that to the south aisle has plain stops. Elaborate gargoyles project from the tops of the buttresses.

South Side

The south side is simpler toward the east end. The three windows to the chancel and the two to the south transept are without dripmoulds, and the buttresses have gargoyles without crocketed finials.

South Transept

The south side of the south transept has a plain shouldered gable with stepped stone coping, and a 5-light window under a dripmould. The west side has no windows, but a small door with a labelled dripmould. Between the buttresses at the south-east corner is a large niche with a Tudor arch and sloping stone roof; inside is a stone seat.

South Porch

The south porch is flanked by 6-light, Y-traceried windows with headstops to the dripmoulds and gargoyles above. It is single-storey, though as high as the aisle. The shallow embattled gable with a niche under a crocketed canopy has three trefoil-headed panels to each side. The buttresses are similar to the others with gargoyles but no finials. The 20th-century door has square, diagonally-set columns with crocketed finials flanking the moulded architrave. The south side has a 2-light window with dripmould.

Tower

The tower is in three stages with string-courses between, blank to the base and with tall 2-light, Somerset traceried windows with mullions level with the middle string-course in the two stages above. These have hoodmoulds with headstops. To the south-east corner, a hexagonal stair turret, slightly taller than the tower, has a door below six slit stair-windows facing south-east, with gargoyles and crocketed finials to each angle. In 1902, a clock commemorating the coronation of Edward VII was installed, replacing one made in 1802.

Interior

Chancel

The chancel is mostly late 19th century. The roof was raised and trusses rest on large figure corbels. There is a polychromatic tiled floor and 19th-century stained glass in the 5-light east window, above a 1903 reredos which is flanked by blocked entrances to a former chantry. These are pointed arches in square-headed frames with small unornamented shields to the centres. The spandrels to the left door have carved boars in them, those to the right door have angels.

North-East Chapel

The north-east chapel, which is a continuation of the north aisle, has a 15th-century, slightly pitched, richly panelled ceiling. This has deep moulded beams with bosses to all joints, and quatrefoils, shields and crosses in the recesses. The windows have plain glass with a 1950 inset to the east.

Small Chapel

The small chapel in the angle of the north-east chapel and the north transept has a ceiling dated 1867, a copy of that in the north transept. The Merefield memorial is described later.

North Transept

The north transept has moulded beams to the panelled ceiling.

North Aisle

The north aisle is almost as wide as the nave, with a 15th-century panelled ceiling, the main rafters of which are supported on the capitals to colonnettes extending to the floor. There is an early 19th-century gallery to the west end, and on the west wall is a large segmental-arched frame containing a list of Crewkerne charities and benefactors.

Nave

The nave has three high and wide bays, almost square in plan, with casement-moulded pointed arches without capitals, except to the four colonnettes on the diagonals of the piers, which have rounded colonnettes at impost level. The depressed waggon-vaulted ceiling is of coursed rubblestone with moulded beams; full figure corbels support main rafters. A 13th-century blocked window, high to the top-left of the east end in the tower, below a trefoil-headed squint with a flat arch and pierced spandrels, and the massive crossing piers indicate that this is a survival of an earlier church.

The clerestory has cinquefoil heads to the five 2-light segmental-pointed arched windows between wall shafts. The 7-light west window has 20th-century stained glass above a door which is rough, diagonally planked-and-studded to the back, and panelled to the front.

South Aisle

The south aisle has a similar ceiling to that of the north aisle with 19th-century stained glass and a gallery to the west end, and a similar frame to that on the north aisle which contains a painting of the royal arms.

South Porch Interior

The south porch has a high fan-vaulted ceiling with foliate bosses and round columns at the corners, descending to stone seats to the sides.

South Transept

The south transept is simple and houses the organ. It has a panelled ceiling and a brattished wall-plate.

Memorials

Most of the memorials are 19th-century brass plaques, but one dated 1525 to Thomas Goulde is in the chancel. The Merefield family memorial in the small north-east chapel is notable. Two large marble panels inscribed with the names of the members of the family from 1666 onwards are separated by a colonnette and flanked by plain round columns on strapwork plinths, with Corinthian-style caps and cornices below an entablature richly decorated with fluting, egg-and-dart, bead-and-reel, and dentilled below a cyma moulded cornice. This steps forward over the columns and the colonette.

Fittings

The font, probably 13th century, is of Purbeck marble: a slab supported by a cylinder with columns to the corners with round caps and plinths. An oak chest with elaborate hinges to the top, panelled to the front, bears the inscription along the bottom rail: "Robert Smythe. Richard Warlock. Wardens. A.D. 1616."

Historical Context

The earlier church was a minster, serving as the mother church of a late Saxon estate. The Victoria County History suggests that the presence of royal chaplains between 1479 and circa 1536 may explain both the splendour of the building and some elements of the design, such as the twin turrets on the west front which Pevsner has compared to examples at Bath Abbey and the Tudor Royal chapels.