Church Of St Bartholomew

The Church of St Bartholomew is a parish church located in Oake, dating from the 13th to 15th centuries. It features a two-storey porch that serves as the base of a crenellated two-stage tower, which was added around 1535. The church has a 6-light window inserted in the nave and the porch is said to be dated 1601. Significant renovations include reseating in 1840, rebuilding the chancel roof in 1850, and restorations in 1875 and 1911, when the base of the tower was converted into a vestry.

The church is constructed of red sandstone random rubble with red sandstone dressings and Ham stone for the imported window and 19th-century alterations. It has slate roofs and coped verges. Architectural features include a south-east chapel, a south tower with a vestry, a south-west porch, and a two-bay nave. The tower has a 2-light trefoil-headed louvred bell-opening and a blocked pointed arch opening with an inserted 4-centred arch doorway above two small glazed openings. The east end features a 3-light window, and there is a moulded 4-centred arch priest's door, along with various other windows throughout the church.

Inside, the church has roughcast walls, exposed jambs, and a section of random rubble wall in the south-east corner. The chapel has a two-bay arcade with octagonal piers and scratch-moulded capitals, and the arches are chamfered in two orders. The nave features a 19th-century barrel vault, although a fine 14th-century oak roof was noted in Kelly's Directory in 1914. The chapel has a 19th-century ceiled barrel vault, and the chancel includes a trefoil-headed piscina. Other interior features include half-glazed double doors to the vestry, a 17th-century octagonal wooden pulpit, a 19th-century wooden lectern and pews, and a circular font on a stem and circular base, possibly of Saxon origin.