St Bartholomew's Church, Lostwithiel

St Bartholomew’s Church stands in the quiet town of Lostwithiel, Cornwall. The earliest part is the sturdy 13th-century tower, topped by a slender spire added in the early 14th century. Most of the rest of the church comes from the later 14th century, making it one of the larger town churches in the area. The spire rises from an unusual octagonal screen built of Pentewan stone, which is the church’s most striking feature. Inside, a clerestory above the nave lets in extra light, a rare detail for Cornish churches. Fine Georgian monuments line the walls, and a brass dated 1423 records an early parishioner. The church has been carefully restored twice, once in 1878–79 by local builders Phelp and Brown under architect Mr Clark. The work removed the old plaster ceiling and replaced it with an open pitch-pine roof designed by Harry Hems of Exeter. In 1894 Edmund Sedding added a new vestry in the north-west corner to house the enlarged organ. The tower holds a peal of six bells cast by Gillett & Johnston in 1924. The organ itself began life around 1888 with pipes from an 1828 instrument by Alexander Buckingham. Visitors step into a spacious nave with a high open roof and plain new floors laid after the 19th-century stripping. The east window, made of five lights, is among the finest in Cornwall and matches the date of the spire. The early fourteenth-century font is carved with a huntsman and hawk, leafy faces, an evil mask, wolves and hounds, and lions. In the churchyard stands a medieval lantern cross, its head found in the 19th century and restored by local historian Frances Margery Hext before being re-erected.