St Bartholomew, Stoke Rivers

St Bartholomew is a Grade I parish church at Stoke Rivers, North Devon, in the Diocese of Exeter, mainly of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries.

Overview

Historic England records a parish church of stone rubble with stone dressings and slate roofs, comprising a three-stage west tower, nave, chancel, south aisle and south porch. The listing notes possible earlier fabric, surviving eighteenth-century work, a main restoration in the 1880s and in 1905 by Tamlin, and possible earlier work of 1831. The embattled tower has corner gargoyles and a polygonal south stair turret. A slate sundial by John Berry dated 1770 sits above the Perpendicular south doorway. Listing NGR is SS 63332 35469.

The interior has a four-bay south arcade with Pevsner ‘B’ type piers, plastered basket-arched ceilings, eighteenth-century dado panelling, and groups of medieval floor tiles. Fittings include an undecorated stone font with a sixteenth-century cone cover, a pulpit that reuses richly carved sixteenth-century bench ends, an altar table reusing sixteenth-century panelling inscribed for Rector C. Hiern in 1831 and churchwardens J. and P. Tamlyn, a seventeenth-century chest, and painted Royal Arms. Some original bench ends and the screen were removed to Weare Gifford in 1902.

Further Information

• Historic England list entry 1107658
• Shirwell Mission Community: Stoke Rivers history