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- 1. St Boniface, Bunbury, Cheshire, England
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Parish church The church that stands today is on the plan of the collegiate church projected by Sir Hugh Calvely in 1385-86 and begun after 1388. Of this only the lower parts of the S nave wall, the W tower, the N treasury and the chancel with its arch survive. The parish retained the nave, and they replaced it c.1500 with the present light and airy six-bay construction with its large aisle windows and the aisles extending alongside the tower. In 1527 the Ridley Chapel was added to the S of the chancel, the chancel wall being pierced by a two-bay arcade while the E window of the S nave aisle was retained (as at Acton). The present clerestorey dates from 1865, and replaces one of c.1500. None of the fabric of the Romanesque church survives in place, but carved stones have been discovered beneath the floor from time to time, and all are now stored in the S porch, along with the assortment of ironwork and flower-arranging equipment essential to the operation of a modern church. This store is something of an Aladdin's cave, containing as it does a substantial collection of later medieval carved tomb-slabs, moulded stones, and the 12thc. stones described below. There may well be more.
- 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 Michael and All Angels, Middlewich, Cheshire, England
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Parish church St Michael's is a large church, mainly Perpendicular, with a W tower of c.1500 over the end of the N nave aisle, and an aisled, clerestoreyed nave of four Perpendicular bays with a fifth narrow bay of late 12thc. date at the E end of each arcade. The aisles continue alongside the chancel, providing an organ loft and vestry on the N side, and a spacious chapel on the S. The chancel aisles are divided from the main vessel by two-bay arcades, that on the N of the 13thc. The S aisle is canted at the E and W ends. The exterior is faced with red sandstone, but its appearance owes much to the intrusive restoration of 1857-60 by Joseph Clarke. 12thc. work is found in the narrow E bays of the nave arcades and a loose chevron voussoir.
- 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.
- 6. St Edith, Shocklach, Cheshire,
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Parish church (benefice of Tilston and Shocklach) St Edith's has an aisleless 12thc. nave with a 14thc. chancel, its E window with flowing tracery. There is no tower, but a 12thc. double bellcote on the W gable of the nave. A pair of buttresses on the W wall encloses a vestibule. The N doorway is a later modification; pointed and now half blocked to turn it into a window. On the S side, and unprotected by a porch, is one of the finest Romanesque doorways in Cheshire. A plain N vestry was added to the chancel in 1926, but otherwise the church has received little attention in recent years. Construction is of irregular sandstone blocks with thick mortar courses. A corbel above N doorway is not Romanesque and is illustrated for reference only.
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