Church of St Bartholomew, Elvaston

St Bartholomew’s Church stands in the village of Elvaston, Derbyshire, as a Grade I listed parish church. The building began in the 13th century and reached its present form in 1474, paid for by Walter Blount, 1st Baron Mountjoy. Inside, the chancel was remodelled in 1904 by George Frederick Bodley, who added eleven feet of length and installed a large carved white clunch reredos. Two new three-light traceried windows were cut into the north and south sanctuary walls to light the space. Black and white marble paving now covers the sanctuary floor, while the nave floor is laid with wooden blocks and the aisles with slate and white stone. The church holds several notable memorials to local families. A white marble monument by Antonio Canova commemorates Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl of Harrington, who died in 1829. Other tablets remember Henry and Margaret Robinson, Elizabeth Countess of Harrington, and several Earls of Harrington from the 17th and 19th centuries. A single war memorial honours Lieutenant Talbot FitzRoy Eden Stanhope, who fell in 1915. The nave walls carry monograms of ‘B’ for St Bartholomew, picked out in gold and blue. Visitors enter a plain nave whose roof and wall decorations use the same gold and blue scheme. The aisles are paved with slate and white stone, contrasting with the black and white marble of the sanctuary. The pipe organ by Eustace Ingram, installed in 1904, stands at the west end. The church is part of a joint parish that includes All Saints’ Aston-upon-Trent and five other nearby churches.