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- 1. St Bertoline, Barthomley, Cheshire, England
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Parish church St Bertoline's is a 15th-16thc. Perpendicular church with chancel rebuilt by Austin and Paley in 1925-26. It has a four-bay nave with aisles and clerestorey and a N porch; a chapel (the Crewe Chapel) of c.1528 on the S side of the chancel and a vestry on the N, and a Perpendicular W tower. The oldest feature, however, is an elaborate 12thc. doorway, now blocked and reset in the N chancel wall, trimmed to fit the narrow gap between the vestry and the end of the aisle. Construction is of red sandstone blocks, generally eroded.
- 2. Chester Cathedral, Chester, Cheshire, England
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Benedictine Abbey originally, now Cathedral The church was begun in 1092, presumably at the E. Of the 11th-12thc. work the E wall of the N transept survives, with a chapel arch and above it a triforium. Judging from the evidence of the fabric, the chapel, originally apsed, was remodelled early in the 13thc. and given a square end. Towards the end of the 14thc. a doorway was inserted from the chapel into the N choir aisle, and it may have been at that time that the arch into the transept was walled up and the chapel turned into a vestry. It remained blocked and invisible, at least from the transept side, until 1930, when it was re-opened. At that time 'traces of colour and patterns' were visible (Story of Chester 1939), but they are not now. The higher levels of the transept are Perpendicular. The only other 12thc. feature of the church is the tower at the W end of the N aisle, now a baptistery and dateable stylistically some 40-50 years after the N transept. Inside the church its E and S arches and its N window have scallop capitals, and the remains of a similar window are visible in the W bay of the N aisle wall. For the rest of the church, the five-bay choir can be dated to c.1300, the Lady Chapel slightly earlier (c.1260-80), and the crossing and S transept to the early- to mid-14thc. The nave arcades appear uniform on N and S, but in fact the S side belongs to the 1360s and the N to Abbot Ripley's time (1485-93). St Werburgh's Chapel was a late Perpendicular addition to the end of the N choir aisle.
- 3. St John the Baptist, Chester, Cheshire, England
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Originally collegiate church, now parish church The Romanesque church was a cruciform building with an aisled nave with triforium and clerestorey; N and S transepts and an aisled eastern arm with a gallery rather than a triforium. Of the nave, the four eastern bays and the beginning of a fifth survive. In the fifth bay was a 13thc. north doorway under a porch, and west of the sixth stood the façade. There is no evidence for the original form of this beyond the ruinous lower part of a NW tower. This tower collapsed partially in 1572 and more drastically in 1574, destroying the western bays of the nave, and was rebuilt on a magnificent scale. Until 1881 it was reportedly the glory of the exterior and a notable Chester landmark, but in that year, while long-overdue repairs were taking place, it collapsed again, destroying the Early English north porch, which was rebuilt by J. Douglas in 1881-82. The eastern arm of the church was originally aisled and of five straight bays, but now the entire north aisle has been removed (except for its eastern chapel; see below). Of the main vessel and south aisle only a single bay survives within the building, which terminates in a straight wall. The remainder of the eastern arm was abandoned in 1547, when the King's Commissioners decided that the nave alone was sufficient for the parish, and that the lead on the choir roof along with the metal of four of the church's five bells should be removed and sold. To the east, outside the building, parts of the S choir aisle wall still stand, along with what remains of the east chapels. Originally the main vessel terminated in a deep apsidal chapel, and the aisles in shallower ones. All three chapels were remodelled and enlarged in the later middle ages, but the 12thc. wall containing their entrance arches still stands. This is in a disastrously eroded condition, which should be borne in mind while reading the descriptions of its elements in this site report.
- 4. St Mary de Castro, Chester, Cheshire, England
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Originally castle chapel, now Regimental chapel The present Chester Castle is largely Thomas Harrison's group of county buildings, dating from 1788-1822, and including the courts and the Shire Hall. The main medieval survival is Agricola's Tower, a three-storey tower on a rectangular plan, with a doorway to the south. The tower dates from the 12thc., but there was a fire in 1302, after which the lower room was remodelled entirely. Romanesque interest centres on the 2nd-storey chapel. This is a single space vaulted in two rectangular bays with quadripartite rib-vaults and an altar at the east. The present author was unable to gain access, and this report is based on what can be seen of the chapel through the grille that closes it off. For the guidance of future researchers, the chapel is now the Regimental Chapel of the Cheshire Regiment, and entry is controlled by the staff of the Military Museum, also on the castle site, who require at least two weeks' notice in advance of any visit.
- 5. Norton Priory, Cheshire, England
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Augustinian Priory, now owned by Norton Priory Museum Trust What survives is the undercroft of the west range of the cloister, once the west front of the house. A portico was added to the west front in 1886, and at the S end is a late-12thc. doorway assumed to be the reset chapter house doorway of the priory. At the N end of the portico is a replica of this doorway dating from 1886. The 12thc. doorway gives access to bay 3 of the undercroft, and the 19thc. copy of it to bay 4. Slight remains of an earlier doorway can be seen behind the replica. To the E of the undercroft, entry to the cloister is by large unarticulated arches in bays 2 and 3.
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