Church of St Bartholomew, Ruswarp, Whitby, North Yorkshire

Summary

Anglican Church, 1869, designed by Charles Noel Armfield, Victorian Decorated style.

Description

Anglican Church, 1869, designed by Charles Noel Armfield, Victorian Decorated style.

MATERIALS: coursed Grosmont sandstone blocks with ashlar dressings, steeply pitched Welsh slate gabled roofs with terracotta ridge tiles and ashlar coped gables, the half-conical roof over the apse having contrasting bands and patterns of coloured slate.

PLAN: the church has a five-bay nave with a two-bay chancel finished with an apsidal east-end which forms the sanctuary. The steeple is attached to the south side of the chancel and houses the vestry in its base. Extending west of the steeple is a two-bay side aisle forming the Lady Chapel, originally the children’s aisle. Entrance to the church is via a south porch that extends from the westernmost bay of the nave.

EXTERIOR: the church stands on rising ground. It has a continuous chamfered plinth, each bay being set between buttresses, the corners having set-back buttresses. Windows are generally late-C13 style plate tracery, mostly paired lancets with a foiled roundel above, the west window to the nave having geometric tracery incorporating four lancets topped by three multifoiled roundels.

Nave: this is of five bays with a steeply pitched roof with coped gables topped with finials, that to the east being in the form of a wheel-headed cross, that to the west being broken.

South Porch: has an added external ramp and steps. It is gabled with flush side buttresses, a lancet doorway closed by a pair of timber doors, and a striated-edged roundel set within the gable apex, this containing a skewed carved bust of St Bartholomew holding a scimitar. The west wall of the porch is blind, but the east wall has a pair of small lancets. Above the porch there is a single lancet to the nave.

Lady Chapel/south side aisle: has a mono-pitched slate roof with a plain coped verge, a small plate tracery window with two lancets and a trefoil roundel to the west elevation, and a pair of double lancet windows separated by buttresses to the south. Above the roof of the chapel, the nave has a pair of quatrefoil windows.

Chancel: although the chancel with apse is slightly lower than the nave and has narrower bays, it is visually prominent because it extends over falling ground, being set on a tall plinth. The bays to the chancel and apse are separated by buttresses and are lit by plate tracery windows and octofoil roundels similar to those in the nave walls.

Tower: this is in the form of a five-stage steeple attached to the south side of the chancel and the east end of the south aisle. It has three angle-buttresses that extend up to the bell chamber and a stair turret (with small slit windows and a narrow doorway) that rises against the remaining north-east corner. The south side of the tower has an external stone stair with a cast-iron Gothic balustrade rising to a chamfered vestry door with a Caernarfon arch lintel, this vestry lit by a pair of lancets in the east wall. The ringing room above the vestry is lit by single slits in the west and east elevations, and a pair of slits to the south. The clock chamber above the ringing room has painted wrought-iron clock faces to the south and east elevations and a blocked oculus with a small window to the west. The bell chamber rises off a deep chamfered belfry stage above the clock chamber with paired louvred lancet openings to each side set within deep reveals. The chamber has a carved dentil string course at the springing level of the bell openings on three sides, with a foliate decorated band to the west and a moulded cornice above. The octagonal ashlar broach spire has two tiers of gabled lucarnes, a band of triangular openings, a weathercock, and large pyramidal pinnacles to the corners spirelets.

INTERIOR: the church is entered via the south-west porch where internal double doors give access to a single-storey narthex inserted in 1990 (containing a parish room/Sunday school, cloakroom, toilet and kitchen) within the two western bays of the nave. The narthex is separated by a panelled timber screen wall with a double half-glazed door leading into the nave. The narthex’s ceiling forms a floor to a west gallery, which partially obscures the stained-glass west window depicting the 12 Apostles, produced by Mayer and Company of Munich.

Nave: has a parquet floor with a central processional aisle flanked by heating grilles and a stone paved area in front of the chancel steps. The nave's plastered walls are painted except for the exposed ashlar dressings and it has a painted board wagon roof ceiling incorporating a row of pierced quatrefoils to either side of the ridge, with two exposed and painted purlins to each side. The bases of six curved principal nave rafters are exposed and their ends rest on plain stone corbels; the easternmost pair of rafters are tight against the chancel arch. The nave's south wall has a two-bay arcade open to the lady chapel (formerly the children's aisle), which is carried on paired shafts with stiff-leaf capitals and a central column comprising a large central shaft with four secondary shafts.

Chancel Arch: is approached by three steps and consists of two simple orders; the inner is carried on wall shafts with carved capitals supported on carved corbels, and the outer is simply moulded, with a hood mould on head corbels, it is flanked to its right by an oak cased organ by Chandos St George Dix.

Chancel: has elaborately painted and patterned radiating roof timbers forming a ribbed vault over the chancel and the sanctuary, carried on stone wall shafts with carved floriated capitals springing from a moulded sill course with carved corbels. Ceiling panels are elaborately painted with angels, stars, planets, comets, a shaft of lightning, the sun, a crescent moon, round shields decorated with quatrefoils, and oval shields displaying the monograms: IHS (Greek abbreviation of Jesus) and INRI (Latin initials for Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews). A memorial glass lantern with a foliate decorated cover, hangs from chains suspended from the crown of the vaulted ceiling. The sanctuary is formed within the apsidal east end of the church and is delineated by a wrought-iron altar rail with a timber handrail, which is raised up on a step. The 12 memorial stained-glass panels of the chancel windows were installed in 1879 and depict events from the life of Jesus from birth to crucifixion and commemorate members of local families.

Lady Chapel: has a painted board ceiling like that of the nave, which is carried on an arched ashlar masonry rib. A stained-glass window in the west wall of the lady chapel commemorates the golden jubilee of Queen Victoria. A deeply recessed Caernarfon arch doorway in the opposite wall leads into the vestry beneath the steeple.

INTERIOR FITTINGS:
Font: sited in the nave next to the central column of the arcade to the lady chapel is an elaborately carved octagonal font that is raised on a stone podium with a brass plaque that reads: THIS FONT AND ACCOMPANYING / BRASS EWER BEARING MONOGRAM / (initials TWB) / WERE GIVEN TO THIS CHURCH IN / THE YEARS OF OUR LORD 1869 & 1876 / BY THOMAS WILLIAM AND JANE BELCHER / OF MAYFIELD IN THIS PARISH. The font is formed of a pillar supported by four secondary pink marble shafts that rise from the podium and support the bowl of the font. The font's sides have carved panels depicting the presentation of the baby Jesus, Christ baptised by John the Baptist, Christ the protector of children, and five floral motifs. The panels are set between eight pink marble shafts with floriated capitals, a cornice, and a carved frieze that reads: GOD / THE / FATHER / ONE / FAITH / ONE / LORD / ONE BAPTISM / ONE / SPIRT / ONE / BODY / ONE HOPE.

War Memorials: (these are planned for removal in 2022 for eventual public display elsewhere) an oak rood beam war memorial by Robert (Mouseman) Thompson of Kilburn was installed in the chancel arch in 1920. It has a pierced gallery and is surmounted by a carving of Christ crucified. The rood beam cuts across the chancel arch and has gilded lettering that reads: SO GOD LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON. There is an associated white marble dedication tablet set within an alabaster frame decorated with roses, attached to the right-hand side of the chancel arch, which reads: TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND IN / SACRED MEMORY OF THOSE WHO / FROM THIS PARISH GAVE THEIR / LIVES IN THE GREAT WAR 1914-19 / THIS ROOD IS DEDICATED. / - list of 14 names. An iron crucifix from Ypres that was pierced by a bullet, is attached to the wall above the dedication plaque with a brass tablet that reads: THE BULLET PIERCED CRUCIFIX / ABOVE THE TABLET WAS PICKED UP / BY A BRITISH SOLDIER ON THE / BATTLEFIELDS OF YPRES, AND WAS / PRESENTED TO THIS CHURCH / WITH THE PERMISSION OF THE / BURGOMASTER OF THAT CITY.

History

St Bartholomew’s Church, Ruswarp was built to a design by the Diocesan Surveyor Charles Noel Armfield of York, who was responsible for the design of several contemporary churches in Yorkshire, including the Church of St Matthew, Grosmont. Prior to its construction, the congregation of up to 100 had been meeting in a room at the nearby Ruswarp Hall. The church was built on a limited budget, costing a total of £3,052 for the site, building and furnishings, and it was consecrated in 1869. Two years later, a manual organ by Gray and Davison of London was installed at a cost of £85. In 1903 the original organ was replaced by a new manual instrument built by Chandos St George Dix of Whitby, this organ was renovated in 1931 by Hill Norman and Beard of London, who installed an electric blower, and it remained in use until the closure of the church in 2020.

A children's aisle was provided in the original design, later becoming the lady chapel, and in 1873 an associated National School was built opposite to the church, which is now (July 2022) a C of E primary school. Stained-glass panels depicting the twelve apostles were installed in the west window in 1885 by Mayer and Co, Munich, and a pair of stained-glass windows were installed in the west window of the children's aisle in 1887, commemorating the golden jubilee of Queen Victoria.

Following the end of the First World War the church gained three war memorials: a carved oak rood beam set in the chancel arch, an associated memorial plaque on the wall and a bullet-pierced crucifix recovered from the battlefield of Ypres. At the time of assessment in summer 2022, these war memorials were planned for removal from the church for public display elsewhere just before the sale of the church building into private hands, the church having been closed at the start of 2020 because of diminishing local congregations. The rood had been made by Robert (Mouseman) Thompson, the nationally renowned woodcarver and joiner from Kilburn, famous for his signature trademark carved mouse. Thompson had also made much of the church’s other furniture and fittings, these since removed. The narthex, that formed a parish room with a kitchen and toilet, which was inserted into the west end of the nave in 1990 was made by a local carpenter Thomas Whittaker: one of the panel frames includes Whittaker’s trademark of a smiling bearded gnome, carrying on Mouseman Thompson’s tradition of carved signatures.

Reasons for Listing

The Church of St Bartholomew, Ruswarp, opened in 1869, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* a clever design for a relatively small church with an imposing presence and a real sense of quality despite a limited budget;

* the church retains good-quality interior features, most notably the painted ceiling to the chancel and the stained-glass windows;

Historic interest:
* designed by the well-respected architect, Charles Noel Armfield, one of the leading regional church architects of the C19, it is the earliest known church design for which he was solely responsible and it compares favourably with his other listed churches.

External Links

Historic England Listing

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