Listed Building record MDR13464 - St Bartholomew's Church, Church Lane North, Chesterfield

St Bartholomew's Church, Church Lane North, Chesterfield, built in 1896. 'There was a church on this location at least as early as 1140. The medieval church was replaced in 1863 by a new building, which was destroyed, apart from its tower, by a fire in 1895. The present church by E. R. Rollinson, incorporating the tower and with a higher roof and a clerestory was opened in the following year.' (1) From the National Heritage List for England: '908/7/185 CHURCH STREET NORTH 26-SEP-77 Whittington (East side) PARISH CHURCH OF ST BARTHOLOMEW II Parish church of 1896 by Rollinson. MATERIALS: Coursed rock-faced gritstone with freestone dressings, slate roof. PLAN: Nave with aisles, south-west tower and spire, lower chancel with south organ chamber and north-east vestry. EXTERIOR: Decorated style. Openings have hood moulds with head stops and windows have cusped heads. The 3-stage tower has set-back buttresses and a broach spire. Its south doorway is within a projecting gable and has a single order of nooks shafts. The west wall has a pair of single windows. The second stage has short windows and the upper stage larger triple belfry openings with louvres. The 5-bay nave has paired clerestorey windows. Aisles have 2-light windows except for the easternmost bay, which has 3-light segmental-pointed windows. The west front has a doorway with continuous chamfer, flanked by small windows. Above is a 4-light window. The chancel has 3-light east and 1-light north and south windows. The organ chamber, gabled to imitate a transept, has a 2-light south window and 2 east windows. The lean-to vestry has a tall eaves stack. INTERIOR: Nave arcades, which are 5-bay on the north but only 4 bays on the south on account of the tower, have round piers and double-chamfered arches. Linked hoods have foliage stops. The first 2 bays have been partitioned off below the level of the west window. The chancel arch is double-chamfered on short polygonal responds on angel corbels. The nave has an open polygonal roof, the chancel an open keeled wagon roof on a deep cornice of quatrefoils and cusping. Walls are plastered. Floor tiles remain under carpets, and raised parquet floors are beneath the pews. The sanctuary is laid with glazed and encaustic tiles. PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: Some fixtures survive from 1896. The round font has an inscription around the bowl and is on a round stem. The polygonal pulpit has open arcading. Pews have shaped ends and frontal with blind Gothic arcading. Choir stalls, re-set facing west at the east end of the chancel, have traceried ends with poppy heads. Stained-glass windows in the aisles show a sequence of important people in church history, from St Alban to William Gladstone. They are of variable quality. One is signed by E. Frampton of London, and one north aisle window is by Morris & Co (1915). The east window shows the crucifixion and the 1914-18 war-memorial west window is by Jones & Willis. HISTORY: Parish church of 1896 by E.R. Rollinson (an obscure architect), built on the site of an earlier church. The interior was re-ordered in the 1970s when some of the pews were removed to create a vestibule and service rooms at the west end of the nave. SOURCES: Pevsner (revised E. Williamson), The Buildings of England: Derbyshire (1978), 148. REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The church of St Bartholomew, Whittington, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * It is a well-designed, if relatively modest, Gothic Revival church retaining original external character and detail. * The interior retains most of its plan form and original detail, and includes choir stalls of medieval character and a complete scheme of stained-glass windows.' (2)