St
Bartholomew's, Crewkerne
This church has very fond memories for the Haselbury Hunters as its
is the church where they got married, this cache was placed just
before their wedding anniversary.
St Bartholomew's Parish Church stands on higher ground west of the
town centre, it is the focal point of the rural prospect of the
western side of the town. The first church on this site was founded
in Saxon times, before the end of the 9th century, as a "minster",
the mother church of a Saxon royal estate that included the later
parishes of Seaborough, Wayford and Misterton. Nothing remains of
this church, which was replaced after the Norman Conquest with a
substantial stone building, cruciform in shape and with a central
tower in the same pattern as the present one. This, in turn, was
almost completely rebuilt on a grander scale, in the late 15th and
early 16th centuries. The result was, essentially, the church we
have today, a superb example of the Perpendicular style with many
unusual and individual features. These include the monumental west
front, the high and spacious, though short, nave, the vast
six-light aisle windows and the impressive collection of
Tudor-style chapels and windows in the north east corner. The
building material throughout is the golden-coloured Ham Hill stone,
quarried a few miles north of Crewkerne.
No major structural alterations have taken place since the
Reformation in the 1530s and 1540s, but there have been drastic
changes to its furnishings and fittings to suit the various phases
of Protestant worship that followed, including an oven used for
baking communion bread in the south east corner of the north
chapel. Considerable damage, including the destruction of virtually
all of the medieval stained glass, was done during the Civil War.
William III of England worshipped in the church on his way to claim
the English throne in 1689.
By the early 19th century, all the medieval furnishings, except
the font (a survival from the Norman church) had disappeared and
the church was re-pewed and galleries added in 1808-11. The
principal restoration that left the church interior as we see it
now, took place in the late 19th Century; it was more sympathetic
to the church's architectural character than many Victorian
restorations. At this time, the central section of the west gallery
was removed to reveal the great west window and the organ that
stood there was relocated to the south transept. The pews date from
around 1900 and have attractive carved bench-ends. It has been
designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building.
Like many Anglican churches, St Bartholomew's has to reconcile the
conservation of a Grade 1 historic building with 21st century
expectations in terms of comfort and facilities. The Parish Plan,
however, adopts a positive tone and states that "the outstanding
historic quality of our church building is an asset which plays a
major role in welcoming people".
The cache has a log book and a pencil
If any body would
like to expand to this series please do, I would just ask that you
could let Sadexploration know first so he can keep track of the
Church numbers and names to avoid duplication