A stroll around the centre of Crewkerne in Somerset, and its Church of St. Bartholomew.

On a recent Spring afternoon I drove east along the A30 to the Somerset market town of Crewkerne.  I wanted to have a look at its Church of St. Bartholomew which is mentioned in Simon Jenkins’ England’s Thousand Best Churches (Penguin Books, 2000).  St. Bartholomew’s is one of Jenkins’ top one hundred churches.

I parked in the pay and display car park off West Street which is very convenient for the church and town centre, and inexpensive to boot.  Taking the direct route to the church I walked along the narrow, but interestingly named Oxen Road.  On reaching Church Street I walked up the wide steps to the church.

The Church of St. Bartholomew is very impressive, little wonder Jenkins awards it 4 stars out of 5!  Bryan Little in his Portrait of Somerset (Robert Hale - London, 1969) describes the church as “one of the county’s best” and having “a western façade of minsterlike quality, far surpassing those normally found outside abbeys and cathedrals”.

The Church of St. Bartholomew in Crewkerne, Somerset. The town's war memorial is to the right.

The "minsterlike" west front of the Church of St. Bartholomew in Crewkerne, South Somerset.

Crewkerne’s war memorial is in the churchyard, but although it appears well cared for some of the inscriptions are very difficult to read.  I managed to decipher the unusual, but fitting commemorative words from John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress: “SO HE PASSED OVER AND ALL THE TRUMPETS SOUNDED FOR HIM ON THE OTHER SIDE”.

A Blue Plaque on the western wall of the churchyard informs us that the building on the other side is a Victorian Tudor-style house “built in 1846 on the site of the ruins of one of Crewkerne’s three medieval clergy houses.  The south side incorporates an original fifteenth century window from the old house”.   

The Victorian Tudor-style house west of the Church of St. Bartholomew in Crewkerne, Somerset.

Leaving St. Bartholomew’s I strolled down Church Street to the Victoria Hall, part of which is the Town Hall.  It is freestanding on all sides and is in a Jacobean style, built around the turn of the twentieth century.  Prominent beside the entrance to the Town Hall is a stone tablet commemorating the visit of The Queen, accompanied by The Duke of Edinburgh, to Crewkerne on 2 May 2012 in her Diamond Jubilee Year.

The Town Hall, Crewkerne, South Somerset. 

Opposite the Town Hall is the George Hotel, mentioned by Pevsner.  The nearby Crooked Swan public house - its original name The Swan Inn still visible – displays its support for Ukraine in the ongoing war in Eastern Europe by flying that nation’s flag above its entrance.

The George Hotel - mentioned in Pevsner - Crewkerne, South Somerset.

The Crooked Swan, Crewkerne, Somerset.

In previous wars, in the days before steam, Crewkerne provided sailcloth for the Royal Navy.  Crewkerne’s prosperity was founded on weaving flax which was grown extensively in the surrounding area.  It specialised in sail cloth which was required in huge quantities for the Royal Navy, and also produced webbing for the British Army.  Lord Nelson and HMS VICTORY were carried to immortality at Trafalgar by canvas sails from Crewkerne. 

The town has another link to The Battle of Trafalgar in Thomas Masterman Hardy, Nelson’s Flag Captain and captain of VICTORY, who attended a long gone grammar school north of St. Bartholomew’s Church.

I walked along busy Market Street and back up West Street, where, before returning to my car, I spotted a picturesque terrace of almshouses.  The stone plaque on its wall read “ALMSHOUSES ERECTED IN THE YEAR OF THE DIAMOND JUBILEE OF HER MAJESTY QUEEN VICTORIA OUT OF A PORTION OF THE FUNDS GENEROUSLY BEQUEATHED TO ASSIST THE AGED POOR BY THE LATE GEORGE SLADE JOLLIFFE.  SURGEON.  CREWKERNE.”  Perhaps another indication of the town’s prosperous past? 

Almshouses in Crewkerne South Somerset.