St
Peter's
Barton-on-Humber
Location; On the south bank of the Humber estuary, just off the A15. Multimap
At present the tower is obscured by scaffolding, hopefully not for too long. The two pictures here were taken in the early 1980's. The churchyard is in better condition now!
Barton was in the small kingdom of Lindsey. It was part of the estate of a monastery founded by St Chad, Bishop of Mercia and Lindsey, in 699AD.
Description;
The most distinctive feature of St. Peter's is the Stripwork in the
tower. This stonework had a practical function in tying the rubble
walls and decoratively giving the walls a wooden appearance,
reminiscent of several buildings featured on the Bayeux Tapestry.
The tower and west porch date from c.970AD. All is original except the top story, which is 11thC Norman. The South door in the tower, shown on the picture on the right, is the original entrance to the building.
I
Inside, the east wall of the tower gives an impression of 3 different roof lines. The present one, below the triangular headed Saxon windows the line of the 11thC roof can just be made out, whilst the round headed “door” half way up the wall shows where access was gained into a loft in the original Saxon roof.
The
large arch which now gives access to the tower is the original
chancel arch. The light coloured flags on the floor show the outline
of the original chancel. This shows the layout of the complete first
building. The tower formed the nave, to the west was the baptistry,
which is the present west porch. The chancel was the same size as
the existing porch, therefore the building was roughly symmetrical
about the tower.
Sources; A Guide to St Peter's Barton on Humber; English Heritage.
All Photographs by the author.