All Saints, Faringdon, Berkshire

I Location

Site Location: Faringdon
National Grid Reference: SU 28X 95Y
County: traditional: Berkshire
now: Oxfordshire
Diocese: medieval: Salisbury
now: Oxford
Dedication: medieval: not confirmed
now (or name of monument): All Saints
Type of building/monument: Parish church

II General Description

The present nave and crossing fall just outside the scope of this Corpus. The only 12thc. sculpture is on the reset doorway to the 19thc. baptistery, towards the W end of the N nave aisle.

III Exterior Features

1. Doorways

: N doorway, general view from N

: N doorway, upper part, from N

: N doorway, R embrasure from NE

: N doorway, L embrasure from NW

: N doorway, L impost from N

: N doorway, L side, lowest voussoir

(i) N doorway, Baptistery (reset)

Round headed, of one order.

L jamb, badly worn angle roll and symmetrical designs on inner (W) and outer (N) faces of jamb, consisting of a beaded band forming semicircles with their bases against the angle roll. Between adjacent semicircles is a lozenge. The band runs from the ground to the impost, but is very worn at the bottom. No capital, but an impost with hollow chamfer below a quirked roll, then an upright face carved, on N, with beaded bands forming three squares, the L one empty, the other two with worn flowers.The entire W face and part of the N face is lost.

R jamb, angle roll with a single spiral reed, and symmetrical designs on inner (E) and outer (N) faces of the jamb, of a vertical row of raised semicircular lobes, their bases against the angle roll, and their centres recessed to form horizontal vesicae. Between adjacent lobes is a lozenge (on the E face) or a roundel (on the N).

Imposts of same form as L jamb. Most of the carving on the N face is worn away, but it may have been the same as the E face, which has a fretted sawtooth design. In the arch, fret of a double fat roll with a reed between.

The label is a flat band, chamfered on the inside, with billet on the chamfer. Worn beast-head label stops, a dragon (?) on the L and a lion (?) on the R.

Dimensions

h. of opening	1.90 m (to present sill)
h. of opening	1.97 m (to ground)
w. of opening	1.18 m

VII History

Before the Conquest, Faringdon was held by Harold. In DS it was a demesne of the Crown, one hide, with the church, being in the possession of the Bishops of Salisbury. Subsequently it became a prebend endowed with the hide. This status was retained until the Dissolution.

VIII Comments/Opinions

Keyser (1911) and Zarnecki (card index) consider it to be by the same workshop as Lockinge.

IX Bibliography

C.E. Keyser, 'The Norman Doorways in the County of Berkshire', Berks, Bucks and Oxon Archaeological Journal, vol. 6 (1900), 12.
C.E. Keyser, 'The Norman Architecture of Berkshire, repr. from Transactions of the Newbury District Field Club, vol. 5 (1911), 20 and pl.XVII.
N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England. Berkshire. Harmondsworth 1966, 139-40.
Victoria History of the Counties of England: Berkshire. London. Vol. 4 (1924), 489-99.