Lostwithiel

The Church is dedicated to St. Bartholomew, Patron Saint of Tanners.

The exact date of its building cannot be stated but it is thought that Robert de Cardinan commenced work there in the year 1190 on the foundations of an earlier Church built around 542 AD.

The outstanding feature of the Church is its Lantern Spire. The tower is square and buttressed and rests on the North and South sides on arches which were, at one time, open and formed a right of way through the tower. This was closed and doors fixed at the time of the restoration of the Church in 1878-9. Surmounting the tower is the very beautiful, octagonal Lantern Spire built in the Early English style of architecture.

The spire was struck by lightning in 1757 and severely damaged. In January 1876 a violent gale, almost amounting to a cyclone, passed over the town when the tower was again damaged, shattering the stone cross with which the spire was finished.

The most ancient monument in the Church is a brass to the memory of Tristram Curtys who represented Lostwithiel in Parliament 1419-1421.

During the occupation of Lostwithiel by Parliamentary forces in the Civil War, the Church was used as a stable for their horses. According to records taken from a diary of 1644 there is an entry which read “In contempt of Christianity,Religion and the Church they brought a horse to the font, and there, with their kind of ceremonies, did as they called it, christen the horse and called him by name of Charles in contempt of His Sacred Majesty.”

The font is made of Pentewan stone and is thought to be dated about the middle of the 13th century, sometime in the reign of King Henry III.

The fabric of a building of this size and age requires constant, necessary and expensive attention to cope with the host of relatively minor problems that occur. Year on year these expenses swallow up that part of the Church’s income which can be devoted to repairs and no funds are available either to meet extraordinary current expenditure or to build up a fund against future contingencies.

The Friends of St. Bartholomew Church (FOSB) has been set up with the sole aim of rectifying this financial shortfall. Since 1995, FOSB have raised - via donations, Gift Aid (formerly called “Deeds of Covenant”) and fund-raising events - around £70,000.

Find out more details of the church and fundraising activities on the FOSB