A view of St Bartholomew's Church
Church · Notgrove, Gloucestershire

St Bartholomew's Church

A Norman village church on the high wolds at Notgrove, with much of its 12th-century stonework still intact and Elizabethan monuments to the Whittington family inside.

About

St Bartholomew's is Norman in origin and has stood at the heart of Notgrove for almost a thousand years. The tower and its short spire — topped by a cross and a gilded weathercock — have looked out over the village for around seven hundred years; the Victorian restorations of the mid-to-late 19th century left much of the original Norman detail in place.

Look for the Norman stones built into the west porch wall, a 15th-century window fragment also set into the porch, an east-side recess that once held relics with a stone coffin below it, and three medieval scratch dials — two at the Tudor doorway, the third on the chancel wall. Inside, six Elizabethan oak benches survive on the south side of the nave.

The chancel holds effigies of two men and one woman of the Whittington family, dating from the Elizabethan and Stuart periods. Whittington Manor stood nearby, and the family was supposed to be descended from Sir Richard 'Dick' Whittington, the medieval Lord Mayor of London. The church is open to visitors during daylight hours; service times are listed on the Northleach Benefice website.

In Notgrove

A small honey-stone village strung along a lane high above the Windrush valley, set around a Norman church and a working family estate.

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Gallery

  • Side view of St Bartholomew's, Notgrove — tower, short spire and nave seen across the churchyard
  • Looking up at the tower and short spire of St Bartholomew's with its gilded weathercock
  • The spire of St Bartholomew's, Notgrove, framed by ceanothus in full purple bloom
  • A great tree in the churchyard at Notgrove, with the lych-gate and a village house beyond
  • A weathered carved stone effigy of a Whittington family member set into the wall of St Bartholomew's
  • Inside St Bartholomew's — Norman arches, timbered roof and pendant glass lights down the nave
  • The painted reredos above the altar at St Bartholomew's — landscape panels of the church set into Gothic ogee arches, with a row of angels along the bottom
  • The chancel of St Bartholomew's, Notgrove — a painted reredos of landscape scenes within Gothic ogee arches above the altar
  • A three-light stained-glass window of haloed saints catching the light in the otherwise dark interior of St Bartholomew's
  • Detail of one of the 16th-century carved oak benches at St Bartholomew's, with a blue-and-yellow embroidered kneeler in front