Summary

The church of St. Bartholomew 27m south-east of Church House Farm.

Source: Historic England

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 20 May 2015. This record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records. As such they do not yet have the full descriptions of their modernised counterparts available. Please contact us if you would like further information.

This monument includes a parish church situated in the Paradise Valley, south of an un-named river tributary of Sapey Brook. The monument survives as a church measuring up to 20m long and 8m wide that was constructed of sandstone and travertine stone during the 12th century with 14th and 15th century additions. The church consists of a single cell nave and chancel with a double pitched clay tile roof with an entrance porch on the southern side. The nave entrance porch is constructed of timber on a stone rubble base with curved wind braces and decorated bargeboards with a double pitched clay tiled roof. The southern entrance to the nave has a segmental head with jamb shafts and scalloped capitals. To the east of the doorway is a round headed window and a large lancet window. The western façade of the nave has a low rectangular window and a small lancet window beneath wooden bell louvers in the apex of the gable. The northern façade has a single lancet window and a blocked doorway. The chancel is slightly stepped in from the nave and retains a blocked priest’s door in its southern façade and a flat arched window with trefoil headed lights. The eastern window has a two centred head and the northern wall has a small round headed window. The interior of the church has traces of medieval wall paintings on the north wall of the nave.

The chapel was established by the early 12th century. The roof timbers have been dendrochronically dated to between 1465 and 1490. The adjacent Church House Farm is believed to have been the former rectory.

The church of St. Bartholomew is listed at Grade II*.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

A parish church is a building, usually of roughly rectangular outline and containing a range of furnishings and fittings appropriate to its use for Christian worship by a secular community, whose members gather in it on Sundays and on the occasion of religious festivals. Children are initiated into the Christian religion at the church's font and the dead are buried in its churchyard. Parish churches were designed for congregational worship and are generally divided into two main parts: the nave, which provides accommodation for the laity, and the chancel, which is the main domain of the priest and contains the principal altar. Either or both parts are sometimes provided with aisles, giving additional accommodation or spaces for additional altars. Most parish churches also possess towers, generally at the west end, but central towers at the crossing of nave and chancel are not uncommon and some churches have a free-standing or irregularly sited tower. Many parish churches also possess transepts at the crossing of chancel and nave, and south or north porches are also common. The main periods of parish church foundation were in the 10th to 11th and 19th centuries. Most medieval churches were rebuilt and modified on a number of occasions and hence the visible fabric of the church will be of several different dates, with in some cases little fabric of the first church being still easily visible. Parish churches are found throughout England. Their distribution reflects the density of population at the time they were founded. In regions of dispersed settlement parishes were often large and churches less numerous. The densest clusters of parish churches were found in thriving medieval towns. Parish churches have always been major features of the landscape and a major focus of life for their parishioners. They provide important insights into medieval and later population levels or economic cycles, religious activity, artistic endeavour and technical achievement. A significant number of surviving examples are identified to be nationally important. Despite the building’s use as a barn and store, the church of St. Bartholomew survives well and contains a number of architectural features of considerable interest.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Brooks, A, The Buildings of England: Worcestershire, (2007)
Other
PastScape Monument No:- 112635

Source: Historic England