About Our Church
Click here for information on St. Bartholomew
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There has been a church standing on the existing site since the 12th or 13th Century, although none of the present building is from that era. Like many churches of its age, St. Bartholomew's has undergone heavy restoration. Much of the ironstone of the tower, and ironstone and chalk of the chancel are the original medieval fabric. The windows have all been replaced or restored in the last hundred years, though we can assume that they are replicas of the originals. The east window-a three light tracery window originally from the late 13th Century-is the earliest. The remaining windows date from the Decorated Period of the first half of the 14th Century with the exception of the large tower window, perpendicular in style, which would have originally been installed in the 15th Century. The North Door, font and ceiling of the chamber at the base of the tower all date from the 14th Century. The doorway from the chancel into the vestry is even older and is probably from the same period as the early English pillars of the south arcade. There was no vestry until 1910-the door would have originally led straight into the churchyard. |
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Line drawing of Keelby Church before the 1905 restoration, showing the west door and the blocked up north porch (Fran Hewis) |
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The tower contains three bells which all date from the 17th Century. There were no choir stalls until 1886, and an organ was donated by a single benefactor in 1887. It was unlikely that there was a choir or organ in existence much before then, as hymns were frowned upon in the first half of the 19th century as they were not mentioned in The Bible. |
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The East Window (Mark Tyszka) |
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Inside the church there is an alabaster roundel of Alice South who lived in the village in the 16th/17th Century. When she died in 1605, she bequeathed 10 acres of land in East Halton to found a charity for the poor of Keelby. To this day, this charity still exists and is administered by the Parish Council. At the end of the 19th Century, the church tower was declared unsafe, and the church closed for public use pending restoration. During the period 1900-1910, the church was repaired, restored and extended to its present state. Finally, a word about the vicarage. There was a small medieval vicarage in the village, but this was demolished (or fell down) in 1700 or thereabouts. For a century and a half there was no resident vicar in Keelby until 1851when Septimus Green Wood arrived. He lodged with a carpenter in a private house before eventually moving into the new vicarage. This was eventually purchased for his successor, John Mussendine Holt, from the Earl of Yarborough in 1887. It cost the princely sum of £200 with a grant from the Queen Anne's Bounty and remained the vicarage until the present one was built next door in 1957. It has since then been a private residence, and is now known as Yew Tree House. |
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Monument to Alice South sited in St. Bartholomew's (Rex Russell) |
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