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St Bartholomew-the-Great

Coordinates: 51°31′7.92″N 0°05′58.77″W / 51.5188667°N 0.0996583°W / 51.5188667; -0.0996583
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51°31′7.92″N 0°05′58.77″W / 51.5188667°N 0.0996583°W / 51.5188667; -0.0996583

St Bartholomew the Great
Priory Church of
St Bartholomew the Great
West door and entrance from Smithfield
Map
LocationLondon, EC1
CountryUnited Kingdom
DenominationChurch of England
Previous denominationRoman Catholicism
TraditionAnglo-Catholic
Websitegreatstbarts.com
History
Founded1123
Founder(s)Rahere
Architecture
Heritage designationGrade I listed building
StyleNorman
Administration
ProvinceCanterbury
DioceseLondon
ParishSt Bartholomew the Great
Clergy
RectorMarcus Walker

The Priory Church of St Bartholomew the Great, sometimes abbreviated to Great St Bart's, is a church in the Church of England's Diocese of London located in Smithfield within the City of London. The building was founded as an Augustinian priory in 1123. It adjoins St Bartholomew's Hospital of the same foundation.[1]

History

Interior facing east: sanctuary in centre with Sir Robert Chamberlayne's monument (1615) on the left wall, opposite a memorial tablet to Alderman Percival and Agnes Smallpace[2][3]

The church was founded in 1123 by Rahere, a prebendary of St Paul's Cathedral and an Augustinian canon regular. While in Italy, he had a dream that a winged beast came and transported him to a high place, then relayed a message from "the High Trinity and...the court of Heaven" that he was to erect a church in the London suburb of Smithfield.[4] Rahere traveled to London and was informed that the area in his vision--then a small cemetery--was royal property, and that nothing could be built upon it. Henry I, however, granted the title of the land to Rahere after he explained his divine message.[4]

Rahere started construction on the building with the use of servants and child laborers, who collected stones from all over London.[4]

The priory gained a reputation for curative powers, with many sick people filling its aisles, notably on 24 August (St Bartholomew's Day). Many miracles were attributed to occur within and without the walls of the building, including "a light sent from heaven" from its first foundation, and especially miraculous healings; many serious disabilities were claimed to be cured after a visit.[4] Many of these cures were undertaken at the church hospital, the still existing St Bartholomew's Hospital. [4]

St Bartholomew the Great Priory Church's coat of arms (after its founding patron, Henry I)

While much of the hospital survived the Dissolution of the Monasteries, about half of the priory's church was ransacked before being demolished in 1543.[5] Having escaped the Great Fire of London of 1666[6], the church fell into disrepair, becoming occupied by squatters in the 18th century. W. G. Grace, however, was one famous congregant before its restoration in the late 19th century,[7] when it was rebuilt under Sir Aston Webb's direction.[8] During Canon Edwin Savage's tenure as rector, the church was further restored at the cost of more than £60,000.[9]The surviving building had comprised part of a priory adjoining St Bartholomew's Hospital,[10] but its nave was pulled down up to the last bay but the crossing and choir survive largely intact from the Norman[11] and later Middle Ages, enabling its continued use as a parish church. The church and some of the priory buildings were briefly used as the third Dominican friary (Black Friars) of London, refounded by Queen Mary I of England in 1556 and closed in 1559.[12] Part of the main entrance to the church remains at West Smithfield, nowadays most easily recognisable by its half-timbered, late 16th-century, Tudor frontage built on the older (13th-century) stone arch. This adaptation may originally have been carried out by the Dominican friars in the 1550s,[12] or by the post-Reformation patron of the advowson,[13] Lord Rich, Lord Chancellor of England (1547–51).[14] From this gatehouse to the west door of the church, the path leads along roughly where the south aisle of the nave formerly existed. Very little trace of its monastic buildings now survive, although part of the cloister now houses a café.[15]

St Bartholomew the Great is so named to distinguish it from its neighbouring smaller church of St Bartholomew the Less which was founded at the same time within the precincts of St Bartholomew's Hospital to serve as the hospital's parish church and occasional place of worship. The two parish churches were reunited in 2012 under one benefice.

South aisle, looking east toward the sanctuary and Lady chapel

The Lady chapel at the east end had been previously used for commercial purposes and it was there that Benjamin Franklin worked for a year as a journeyman printer. The north transept was also formerly used as a blacksmith's forge. The Priory Church was one of the few City churches to escape damage during the Second World War and, in 1941, was where the 11th Duke of Devonshire and the Hon Deborah Mitford were married.

North aspect from Cloth Fair

The poet and heritage campaigner Sir John Betjeman kept a flat opposite the churchyard on Cloth Fair. Betjeman considered the church to have the finest surviving Norman interior in London.[16]

In 2005 a memorial service was held for Sir William Wallace, on the 700th anniversary of the Scottish hero's execution, organised by the historian David R. Ross.

Charitable distributions in the churchyard on Good Friday continue. A centuries-old tradition established when twenty-one sixpences were placed upon the gravestone of a woman stipulating that the bequest fund an annual distribution to twenty one widows in perpetuity,[17] with freshly baked hot cross buns nowadays being given not only to widows but others.[18]

The church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950.[19] In April 2007 it became the first Anglican parish church to charge an entrance fee to tourists not attending worship.[20]

After a few years in which the rector of the church was simultaneously priest-in-charge of the nearby St Bartholomew the Less, which retained its own Parochial church council (PCC) and churchwardens, on 1 June 2015, the parishes of both churches were dissolved and replaced with the united benefice of Great St Bartholomew. The Rector of the former parish of St Bartholomew the Great became rector of the united benefice. The boundary of the new parish incorporates precisely both former parishes. There is now a single PCC and churchwardens responsible for both buildings. The parish church is St Bartholomew the Great, while St Bartholomew the Less is a chapel of ease within the parish.

Oriel window

Prior William Bolton's oriel window

The oriel window was installed inside St Bartholomew the Great in the early 16th century by Prior William Bolton,[21][22] allegedly so that he could keep an eye on the monks. The symbol in the centre panel is a crossbow "bolt" passing through a "tun" (or barrel), a rebus or pun on the name of the prior.

William Camden wrote:

It may be doubtful whether Bolton, Prior of St Bartholomew, in Smithfield, was wiser when he invented for his name a bird-bolt through his Tun, or when he built him a house upon Harrow Hill, for fear of an inundation after a great conjunction of planets in the watery triplicity

Associated organisations

St Bartholomew the Great is the adopted church of various City livery companies hosting services throughout the year: the Worshipful Company of Butchers (one of the seven oldest livery companies), the Worshipful Company of Founders (whose Hall abuts the church), the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers (incorporated 1448 and No. 8 in City precedence), the Worshipful Company of Fletchers, the Worshipful Company of Farriers (incorporated 1674), the Worshipful Company of Farmers (incorporated 1955). The more recently established Worshipful Company of Information Technologists (incorporated 1992), the Worshipful Company of Hackney Carriage Drivers (incorporated 2004) and the Company of Public Relations Practitioners (incorporated 2000) also have an association with St Bartholomew's.

The church served as the chapel of the Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor before the establishment of the society's permanent chapel in St Paul's Cathedral in 2005.[23]

Film, television and music video

The church was the location of the "fourth wedding" in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) and of scenes in other films: Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Shakespeare in Love, the 1999 film version of Graham Greene's 1951 novel The End of the Affair, Amazing Grace (2006), Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), The Other Boleyn Girl (2008), Sherlock Holmes (2009), Richard II of The Hollow Crown (2012), Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) and Transformers: The Last Knight (2017). It was also used in Taboo[disambiguation needed]. It was used by T-Mobile as a stand-in for Westminster Abbey in its "royal wedding" advertisement (2011). It has also been the location for six music videos of Libera.[24]

Rectors

Music

Organ

Priory Church's pipe organ (2009)

St Bartholomew the Great had an organ installed by John Knopple in 1715. This was superseded by an organ in 1731 from Richard Bridge. In 1886, it was replaced by the organ from St. Stephen Walbrook which was installed by William Hill. Further modifications were made in 1931 by Henry Speechly & Son, in 1957 by N.P. Mander and in 1982–83 by the firm of Peter Wells. Specifications of the church's organ are detailed on the National Pipe Organ Register.[34] Currently, the church is using a Viscount digital organ for services, but the process of acquiring a new instrument (an American Symphonic Pipe Organ built by Schoenstein & Co.) has begun.

Choirs

Unusually for a parish church, the Priory Church Choir comprises professional singers; it is directed by Rupert Gough. A choir of amateur singers, the Rahere Singers, sings for some services.[35]

Organists

  • Adrian van Helsding, 1715–21
  • Isaac Orbell, 1721–31
  • Rowland Evans, 1731–39/40
  • Richard Ward, 1740–177
  • Nicholas Steele, 177–1785
  • Thomas Ball, 1785–73
  • John Whitaker, 1793–1805
  • William Bradley, 1805–19
  • John Monro, 1819–27
  • Miss Wafforne, 1827–34
  • Jolly, 1834–36
  • Elizabeth Ellen Wafforne/Williams, 1836–49 (became Mrs Williams in 1843)
  • Mary Ann William, 1849–67
  • Henry John Gauntlett, 1872–1876
  • 1876–85, church was closed
  • W. C. Ling, 1885–88
  • W. A. B. Russell, 1888–93
  • Clifford Parker, 1893–1913
  • Leonard S. Jefferies, 1919–1934[36]
  • Nicholas Choveaux, 1934–48
  • Paul Steinitz, 1949–61
  • Brian Brockless, 1961–71
  • Andrew Morris, 1971–79
  • Brian Brockless, 1979–95
  • David Trendell, 1995–2009
  • James Sherlock, 2009–12
  • Jeffrey Smith, 2012–14
  • Ben Giddings, 2014–15

Director of music

In 2009 the roles of Organist and Director of Music were divided into two posts.

Organist and director of music

In 2015 the roles of Organist and Director of Music were recombined as the new post of Organist and Director of Music.

  • Rupert Gough, 2015–present[38]

Sub-Organist

  • Ben Horden, January 2016 – May 2017

Notable burials and monuments

Prior Rahere's tomb

Folklore

The ghost of Rahere is reputed to haunt the church, following an incident during repair work in the 19th century when the tomb was opened and a sandal removed. The sandal was returned to the church but not Rahere's foot, and Rahere since then, as a "shadowy, cowled figure appears from the gloom, brushes by astonished witnesses and fades slowly into this air. Rahere is said to appear every year on the morning of July the 1st at 7 am, emerging from the Vestry".[39]

The church's environs were also the location of many executions, especially during the reign of Mary Tudor. Reportedly during some nights there was a strong scent of burning flesh.[citation needed]

See also

References

  1. ^ G. Cobb, The Old Churches of London, London: Batsford, 1942.
  2. ^ "Farringdon Ward Without", British History online.
  3. ^ "Smallpace memorial St Barts church", imagetourist.com.
  4. ^ a b c d e Akroyd, Peter (2001). London: The Biography. London: Vintage. pp. 39-40. ISBN 0099422581.
  5. ^ The records of St Bartholomew's Priory and St Bartholomew the Great, West Smithfield: volume 2, E. A. Webb, 1921.
  6. ^ Samuel Pepys, The Shorter Pepys, Robert Latham (ed.), Harmondsworth, 1985, p. 484. ISBN 0-14-009418-0.
  7. ^ The Guild of St Bartholomew's Hospital. Archived 10 December 2014 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ T. Tucker, The Visitors Guide to the City of London Churches, London: Friends of the City Churches, 2006. ISBN 0-9553945-0-3.
  9. ^ C. Hibbert, D. Weinreb, J. Keay, The London Encyclopaedia, London: Pan Macmillan, 1983 (rev. 1993, 2008). ISBN 978-1-4050-4924-5.
  10. ^ N. Pevsner and S. Bradley, London: the City Churches, New Haven: Yale, 1998. ISBN 0-300-09655-0.
  11. ^ "The City Churches" Tabor, M. p29:London; The Swarthmore Press Ltd; 1917
  12. ^ a b Holder, Nick (2017). The Friaries of Medieval London: From Foundation to Dissolution. Woodbridge: Boydell. pp. 57–65. ISBN 9781783272242.
  13. ^ "Rich, Baron (E, 1546/7 – 1759)", Cracroft's Peerage.
  14. ^ "Art in Parliament", Parliament of the United Kingdom.
  15. ^ St Bartholomew's Church website
  16. ^ John Betjeman, The City of London Churches, Andover: Pitkin, 1967. ISBN 0-85372-112-2.
  17. ^ "Present and Past". London: George Bell and Sons. 1876. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  18. ^ "Hot Cross Buns at St Bartholomew the Great". Spitalfields Life. 30 March 2013.
  19. ^ Historic England. "Details from listed building database (1180873)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 23 January 2009.
  20. ^ Patrick Sawer (18 November 2007). "'Four Weddings' church to charge". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 3 December 2014. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |quotes= (help)
  21. ^ Lost City of London website
  22. ^ "William Bolton", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography..
  23. ^ St Paul's Cathedral website
  24. ^ Love and Mercy; Glory to Thee; Sancte (short version); Sanctus and Salva Me - Libera Official, 2011 (YouTube). See also: Gaudete-2008 (solo: Liam Connery). via YouTube, 2009.
  25. ^ The Weald.
  26. ^ "Rectors and their times: Eighteenth century", British History Online.
  27. ^ "Owen Edwardes", The Peerage.
  28. ^ British History Online.
  29. ^ "Reverend William Fitzgerald Gambier Sandwith", The Peerage.
  30. ^ "Rectors and their times: W.F.G. Sandwith (1907–)" British History Online.
  31. ^ Phyllis Wallbank MBE, founder of the Gatehouse Learning Centre and wife of Rev Preb Newell Wallbank MusD (qv: www.churchmusicians.org)
  32. ^ "Rev. Dr Newell Wallbank", Biographical Dictionary of the Organ.
  33. ^ http://www.greatstbarts.com/Pages/Announcements/New_Rector.html
  34. ^ "St. Bartholomew the Great, West Smithfield [D03193]". National Pipe Organ Register.
  35. ^ "Choral Music at the Priory Church". St Bartholomew the Great.
  36. ^ organ-biography.info
  37. ^ "Nigel Short appointed Director of Music". St Bartholomew the Great. 2009. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  38. ^ "Rupert Gough – Director of Music at The Parish of Great St Bartholomew". Great St Bartholomew. Retrieved 4 June 2015.
  39. ^ Jones, Richard (2001). Walking Haunted London. London: New Holland Publishers. p. 31. ISBN 1843300753.
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