Westhide is a village in E central Herefordshire, 5 miles NE of the centre of Hereford. It lies in hilly farmland on a minor road that snakes from Withington to Ocle Pychard, and has the wooded Shucknall Hill to the S. The village centre is compact, with dwellings grouped around the church. St Bartholomew’s is a stone church with nave, S aisle, N vestry, chancel and W tower. The 12thc. tower is unbuttressed with small lancets having pointed or roughly segmental chamfered heads. It has a modern slate pyramid roof. The N wall of the nave was rebuilt in the 19thc., when a N vestry was added at its E end. At that time it was given plate-tracery two-light windows in a style of the mid-13thc. The S porch is also a 19thc. addition. The S aisle, with a two-bay arcade, was added in the 14thc., and an early 14thc. date also fits the reticulated aisle windows and the chancel with its arch. The major restoration was in 1865-67, by Thomas Blashill of London, and included repairs to roof and walls, the rebuilding of the N nave wall and the chancel, and reseating. Romanesque features described below are the tower arch and a plain font.

Osgod held Westhide before the Conquest, and in 1086 it was held by Tezelin from Roger de Lacy. It consisted of one hide of ploughland, and no church or priest was recorded in 1086.

The tower arch shows signs of remodelling in the double-chamfered pointed arch and the want of an impost on the S side. The trumpet scallop capitals imply a later 12thc. date, and this must be the date of the tower. The plain font could be contemporary, or date from any time in the 12thc. The relatively small bowl and tall shaft suggest the second half of the century rather than the first.

(benefice of Withington with Westhide since 1928)