St Bartholomew, Brightwell Baldwin

St Bartholomew’s is a Grade I parish church in Brightwell Baldwin, Oxfordshire, in the Diocese of Oxford and the benefice of Benson with Ewelme.

Overview

Historic England dates the church to the thirteenth century, rebuilt in the early fourteenth, with the west tower remodelled and a north chapel added in the fifteenth century, restored in 1895. The fabric is coursed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings, partly rendered to the north, under a gabled old tile roof. The plan is chancel, north chapel, aisled nave and west tower. The east window is reticulated three-light; the nave has early fourteenth-century four-bay arcades of double-chamfered arches on octagonal piers.

The listing records a complete Jacobean pulpit with tester, a fourteenth-century octagonal font with seventeenth-century cover, eighteenth-century pews, and medieval floor tiles in the south aisle and around the font. Monuments include a wall brass to John Cottesmore (died 1439), a floor brass to the same under canopies with eighteen children, a north-aisle brass to John the Smith of about 1371, and Carleton tomb chests of 1547 and 1562 in the Stone family chapel. The Victoria County History notes only a light nineteenth-century restoration for a substantial rural church reflecting successive resident lords.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1059763
• Benson and Ewelme Churches