Weight: 537 lbs Diameter: 29" Bell 1 of 1
Founded by Mears & Stainbank 1954
Dove Bell ID: 53435 Tower ID: 19794 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Cracked: No
East Ham: St Bartholomew
Overview
Grid reference: TQ 424 835
The church is large in every dimension, and the repetitive design of the bays facing the street makes it rather forbidding. Each is divided from the next by tall buttresses, severely plain with only one off-set close to the top before the sloping upper face leads them back to the wall-surface.
Visiting and facilities
Building is open for worship
Building
Ground Plan Description and Dimensions
Ground plan:
The church consists of nave and chancel under one roof with a co-terminous north aisle and chapel also under one roof and a south aisle which stops short of the onst and to allow space for vestries. The body of the church and the north aisle are ten bays in length. The western bay has porches to the north and south; there is no west doorway but access may also be gained through the south-east vestry and through a small porch in the fourth bay from the east in the north wall. The east gable of the south aisle is carried up to form a bell-cote, structure which must have been an alteration or addition in 1910 to Micklethwaite's design.
Description of Archaeology and History
By J.T. Micklethwaite (1843-1906), built 1901-2. The south aisle (part, it seems, of the original design), was added in 1910. The church was gutted by bombing in 1941 and for a time, worship was conducted in "St. Bartholomew-in-the-Ruins", a temporary wooden hut created in the nave. In 1947, this was destroyed by fire and services were hold in the vestry for a year until St. John's Institute was taken into use s a temporary church. The south aisle was restored in 1949 and the remainder 1953.
Exterior Description
The church is large in every dimension, and the repetitive design of the bays facing the street makes it rather forbidding. Each is divided from the next by tall buttresses, severely plain with only one off-set close to the top before the sloping upper face leads them back to the wall-surface. All the bays save the westernmost have three-light windows under two-centred heads, all of the same height and each with a narrow stone hood; those in the three eastern bays are shorter than the rest, to show the extent of the chapel within as opposed to the aisle, and the next window is shorter still to allow for a small doorway under a pent roof below.
The west wall has three tall gables all in the same plan, the central one with a five-light window with flowing tracery, through which the midle light runs uninterrupted to the apex of the arch. The aisles each have three-light windows of the same pattern as those in the north and south walls. Each window is constructed of stone, and each has a simple moulded hood and inverted brick strainer arch below. Again, the bays are divided by starkly simple buttresses. The south wall is similar to the north but without the small porch in the fourth bay from the east.
At the east end, to allow for reredoses within, the windows are set even higher in the walls than at the west. That to the chancel is also rather broader, with seven lights grouped in the rhythm 2-3-2 with reticulated and flowing tracery above, the prominent pair of mullions running straight up to the arch. The north chapel has a three-light east window with reticulated tracery.
Interior
Interior Description
It seems to have been the architect's purpose, to provide a capacious plain building with severly undecorated wall-surfaces an ceilings within which the richly decorated and polychrome furnishings would draw the eye to focal liturgical points of the building. As far as the architecture goes, this effect is to some extent achieved, and the impression is of a rather Netherlandish hall church without a clerestory but with aisles almost as tall as the nave standing under their own gables.
The arcades are carried on octagonal piers without bases or capitals into which the mouldings of the arches die. The arches, outlined by a continuous moulded hood, are tall and wide, and increase the impression of a hall church. The nave and chancel are ceiled with a panelled vault which extends uninterrupted from east to west with small turned pendants at the intersections of the ribs. The aisles are similarly roofed. The pale blue ceilings and the white walls exaggerate the size of the building. The floors are of wood blocks save in the western bay and in the chancel and sanctuary, where they are paved with concrete tiles.
The east end of the north aisle, running parallel with the chancel, is arranged as a chapel, separated from the chancel by minimal Gothic screens. The chancel itself is furnished with choirstalls in the western bay and the whole of the east bay forms the spacious sanctuary within which a second altar has been placed in front of the high altar.
Fixtures and fittings
Altar
1953
The high altar is of the "English" type, with octagonal riddel posts and curtains.
Organ (object)
A one-manual instrument all within a swell box.
Pulpit
The pulpit is cf oak, octagonal with traceried panels.
Lectern
c.1955
The Lectern is of lime wood, the stem supported by four buttresses incorporating shields of arms. By Colin Shewring.
Font (object)
The font is massive, on three steps of strange circular and figure-of eight plan. It is carved from dark-grey marble showing beautiful fossilised shells, and is an octagonal bowl on a moulded octagonal stem.
Bells
Churchyard
Grid reference: TQ 424 835
Burial and War Grave Information
It is unknown whether the building is consecrated.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has been used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard is used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has war graves.
National Heritage record for England designations
There are no records of National Heritage assets within the curtilage of this site.
Environment
Ancient, Veteran & Notable Trees
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
There are no records of Ancient, Veteran or Notable Trees within the curtilage of this site.
Renewables
| Renewable | Installed |
|---|---|
| Solar PV Panels | No |
| Solar Thermal Panels | No |
| Biomass | No |
| Wind Turbine | No |
| Air Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ground Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ev Charging | No |
Species summary
There are no records of species within the curtilage of this site.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
'Seek advice' Species
More information on species and action to be taken upon discovery.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
Further information
Quinquennial Inspections
Submit a change
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