The church of St Bartholomew, Longnor, was rebuilt in the 18th century and stands on foundations at least 800 years old.
"The survival of a Norman font in the present church may indicate the existence of a church at Longnor by the 12th century. A church was first mentioned, however, in 1448. It had its own wardens in 1553. In 1594 the inhabitants of Fawfieldhead were reminded of their duty to help maintain Longnor graveyard, a fact which suggests that Fawfieldhead was part of a chapelry served by Longnor church. The townships of Fawfieldhead, Heathylee, Hollinsclough, and Quarnford were certainly part of Longnor chapelry by the late 17th century. A separate chapelry for Quarnford was established in 1744. Longnor was a perpetual curacy from 1735, the patron being the vicar of Alstonefield, and the benefice was styled a vicarage from 1868. A parish of Longnor, covering Longnor, most of Fawfieldhead, and the eastern halves of Heathylee and Hollinsclough, was created in 1902. In 1985 the benefice was united with those of Quarnford and Sheen, although all three parishes remained separate, and the patronage was vested jointly in the bishop of Lichfield as patron of Sheen, the trustees of the HarpurCrewe estate as patrons of Quarnford, and the vicar of Alstonefield. Longnor was made the incumbent's place of residence.
In 1549 the curate was stated to be entitled to a toll of 1d. for every covered booth and ½d. for every open stand at each of Longnor's four fairs. The value of the tolls was then 4s. a year. In 1644 the parliamentary committee at Stafford awarded Anthony Gretton of Longnor, evidently the curate, a salary of £5 from the estate of Sir John Harpur, and the income survived the Restoration. In 1661 Vincent Weston vested land at Sheen in trustees who were to use the income to pay a minister of their choice to preach a sermon at Longnor on the first Tuesday of every month. The land appears to have become part of the Longnor glebe by the early 19th century. In 1733 the inhabitants of the chapelry agreed to make payments in order to secure the residence of Joseph Bradley, a curate recently chosen by them with the approval of the vicar of Alstonefield. The payments were for a period of seven years, or until the governors of Queen Anne's Bounty could be persuaded to make a grant. Grants of £200 were made in 1737 and 1751, and by 1768 the living was worth £10 a year. A further scheme to increase the curate's stipend, initiated by Bishop Egerton in 1769, involved Sir Henry Harpur's settling £10 a year, in addition to the £5 charged on his family's estate since 1644. In the event he agreed in 1775 to give £7 10s., in respect of which the Bounty governors gave another £200 in 1776. The money was evidently handed over to Sir Henry, who charged Potlock farm at Findern, in Mickleover (Derb.), with a rent of £15. The £5 annuity was also charged on the farm. In 1824 the endowment consisted of £21 from glebe, which comprised 22 a. in Sheen and Fawfieldhead, the £20 charged on Potlock farm, and £6 from a farm near Barnsley (Yorks. W.R.). In 1825 Queen Anne's Bounty gave a further £1,200. Because of the curate's non-residence, the money had accumulated by 1836 to £1,600 and produced £48 a year. There were 25 a. of glebe in 1887, with an estimated rental of £40 5s.
In 1830 the newly appointed curate, William Buckwell, lived just outside the village, probably at Townend where in 1831 Sir George Crewe rebuilt a house for him. The present vicarage was built to the west in 1986.
Francis Paddy, the curate of Longnor in 1604, also officiated at Alstonefield. The financial arrangements of 1733 were made to secure a resident curate, and Robert Robinson was appointed in 1735. By 1751 Robinson was also the incumbent of Sheen and lived on his estate at Waterfall. He had resigned Sheen by 1760 but continued as curate of Longnor until 1768. When Luke Story became curate in 1769, he was already assistant curate at Alstonefield and also apparently served the chapels at Warslow and Elkstone. He was keen to move to Longnor, even though he considered that it lay 'in a disagreeable country'. In the 1820s the cure was served for the absentee curate by James Roberts, the curate of Quarnford. He lived at Flash and was unable to visit Longnor as often as he would have liked. Pastoral care suffered, and in 1825 he complained that 'Longnor has been like a furnace of affliction to me', mainly because of the activities of Methodists. The appointment of William Buckwell as resident curate in 1830 brought a change. Described by Sir George Crewe as pious and worthy, Buckwell put the church's fabric into good order and encouraged Sir George to establish dependent chapels in Fawfieldhead and Hollinsclough.
Before the Reformation there was a light in the church, perhaps indicating a fraternity for its maintenance. Psalm singers at Longnor were mentioned in the later 1760s and in the 1790s. They may have survived until the mid 19th century: the church did not acquire an organ until 1852, although there was apparently a barrel organ from 1832. There was only one Sunday service in 1830, and Communion was celebrated four times a year. On Census Sunday 1851 there were two Sunday services, with attendances of 135 in the morning and 126 in the afternoon, besides Sunday school children.
Two chapelwardens for Longnor were recorded in 1553. One of the four churchwardens of Alstonefield parish recorded in 1569 may have been for Longnor, the arrangement in the early 18th century. He presented accounts at the Easter vestry for Alstonefield parish until 1827. Longnor chapelry, however, continued to contribute to the maintenance of Alstonefield church. The warden was paid a salary of £4 a year in 1842, raised to £5 in 1844. Longnor township was not obliged to provide candidates for the wardenship as were the other townships in the chapelry. The system was altered in 1854, when Longnor became liable in rotation with the others. Longnor had a clerk by 1767. There was a dog whipper by the earlier 1720s and still in 1827, and a sexton by 1842.
The present church of ST. BARTHOLOMEW, a dedication probably in use by 1631, dates from the later 1770s. Only the plan of its predecessor is known. It was apparently a long, narrow building with a nave and a chancel, and in the later 18th century the pulpit and reading desk stood against the north wall of the nave. Between 1774 and 1781 the church was demolished and a new one built on a site to the north. Of coursed ashlar, it is a rectangular building of five bays with a west tower; there is a Venetian east window. An upper arcade of windows was added to light west and south galleries inserted in 1812, and it was probably then that the tower was heightened. Formerly there was a door half way along the south side of the nave, but it was blocked up in 1897. The west gallery is approached by an external staircase on the north side of the tower. In 1857 the pulpit and reading desk were separated, the pulpit being placed on the south side of the communion table and the desk on the north side. The organ, installed in the south gallery in 1852, was moved in 1864 to the west gallery, possibly after the dismantling of the south gallery, which no longer exists. The organ was later placed on the south side of the chancel. A false ceiling was inserted c. 1949, making the upper windows blind.
The present Norman font was in the churchyard in 1830, when the archdeacon ordered it to be put back into the church; he had to repeat the order in 1837. In 1857 the font stood at the west end of the nave. There was a single bell in 1553. A bell of 1745 was replaced by a new one in 1947. The plate in 1553 comprised a silver gilt chalice with paten. There was also a wooden cross. The present plate includes a silver chalice of c. 1675, a silver paten of 1715, and a flagon and plate bought in 1791–2. Royal arms of the 18th century hang on the front of the west gallery. Boards of 1793 with the text of the Commandments and the Lord's Prayer hang at the west end of the nave, along with a benefaction board which dates probably from the 1790s.
The registers date from 1691. In the later 19th century there was also a register dating apparently from c. 1600.
Stone gateposts dated 1833 were part of a general improvement of the churchyard undertaken by the curate, William Buckwell. It was closed for burials in 1888 and ½ a. north of the church was consecrated instead in 1891. An extension of 2/5 a. was consecrated in 1934."
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