Church Of Saint Bartholomew

The Church of St Bartholomew is a parish church dating back to around 1300, and substantially restored in 1872. It’s constructed of local lias stone with squared and coursed construction, and features Ham stone dressings, with a plain clay tile roof that includes bands of fish scale tiles between coped gables. The church has a simple 2-cell layout, consisting of a 2-bay chancel and a 3-bay nave, and includes an added South chapel, a North porch, and a West tower.

The chancel has a large 3-cusped East window with 14th-century tracery, and 2-light, ogee-head traceried windows on its sides. It also features angled corner buttresses with offsets, bay buttresses extending to full height, and a narrow, now blocked, South door. Remains of a small figure are found within a trefoiled niche above the East window. The nave has 2-light, pointed arch, Perpendicular windows, largely restored on the South side. The South chapel appears to be mostly 19th century, although a Norman doorway arch is incorporated as a band course under the South window. The South porch may be largely 14th century, with a small 2-light opening with a trefoil rere-arch in the East wall, and a sexfoil window on the West side. It has plain doorway arches.

The tower is relatively heavy, with a square proportion and three stages of plain detail. It has a West door set within a moulded, almost semi-circular headed arch inside a flat headed recess, with foliated spandrels. The original door, possibly from the 16th century, features a sanctuary handle. Above the door is a 3-light window, likely a product of the 19th-century restoration. A statue recess, possibly from the late 15th century and heavily eroded, is situated on the North side. Small rectangular windows are found on the North and South walls of the second stage, followed by triangular-headed, 2-light, 15th-century traceried windows on each face of the third stage. The tower is characterized by a plinth, string courses to each stage, and a low, slightly crenellated parapet, incorporating centre gargoyles and corner pinnacles. An octagonal stair turret is located in the South-west corner.

The interior, which is usually locked, is said to contain a 14th-century piscina in the chancel, with an ogee arch supported by a bust corbel; double-chamfered chancel and tower arches, which die into imposts; a wagon-roofed nave with bosses; a statue bracket on the South wall of the nave; and late 13th/early 14th century rere-arches to the windows of the nave and chancel. The funds for the tower's construction were bequeathed by a Rector in 1486.