St Bartholomew's Church, Longnor

St Bartholomew’s Church stands in the quiet village of Longnor in north-east Staffordshire. A Grade II* listed Anglican church, it occupies a site once used for markets and fairs. The present building dates from about 1781, replacing an earlier church that stood where the churchyard now spreads. The font in the nave is the oldest part, carved in the 12th century. The church has a rectangular nave with five rounded-headed windows on each side and a west tower. In 1812 builders raised the walls to add galleries, later removed, and inserted an upper row of matching windows. The church’s history is marked by changes that shaped its present form. In 1852 an organ was installed in the south gallery and later moved to the chancel’s south side. A false ceiling added in 1948–49 hides the upper windows from inside, though they can still be seen from outside. The font, once in the churchyard, was brought inside in 1830 after an archdeacon’s order. Its chalice shape and gritstone carving show a single block worked with a face and shields. The west gates and two monuments in the churchyard are also separately listed. Inside, the nave holds the 12th-century font at the west end beneath the former gallery. The exterior shows coursed ashlar walls and a west tower rising above the village rooftops. The churchyard retains the sense of an old market space, now filled with gravestones and monuments. The upper arcade of windows, though hidden inside, adds rhythm to the exterior. The church remains a quiet witness to Longnor’s past, its stones holding centuries of change.