Building record COR 019 - Church of St Bartholomew

Aerial view of St Bartholomews Church (S1). Semi-ruined. Big church with tall W tower open to sky, nave also roofless for two-thirds of its length. Decorated with Perpendicular elements (S2).
Once part of the possessions of Leiston Abbey in common with Leiston, Aldringham and probably other churches. There appears to be a pattern in their Post Medieval state of preservation in that each parish was poorly endowed, the original churches thatched and in the case of Corton and Aldringham ruinous (pers comm Anthony Breen, Sept 2010).

2013: "Bawdsey " tile found

"discovered by some workmen digging a drain in the churchyard, only a few inches from the north wall of the nave.

The interesting thing is that I believe these tiles were manufactured over a very short period at the end of the 14th Century (between 1380 and 1395, according to some authorities), which fits in with extensive rebuilding of the church about then. It would seem that the old church was paved, at least in part, with the earlier 14th. Century 4.5 inch square plain yellow and green glazed tiles. which were taken up and used as rubble in the new walls, where many can still be seen. Perhaps the Bawsey tiles were used to pave the new chancel; the nave was certainly floored with the larger and later green, yellow and brown (Flemish?) tiles, some of which survived there until about thirty years ago, when they were discarded" (S3)