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I Location

II General Description

Late 12thc. nave and rib-vaulted crossing and chancel, with S nave aisle of similar date. N aisle added 14thc. and S chancel chapel c.1300. Perp. W tower and N and S doorways. 12thc. sculpture is found on the crossing pier capitals and crossing vault supports, on the S arcade capitals and a piscina serving the lost rood-loft altar.

IV Interior Features

1. Arches

b. Tower/Transept arches

(i) Tower arches

E, S, W, and N crossing arches, all single order, pointed springing from four crossing piers. Each arch on attached nook-shafts, a pair to each face, carried on attic bases. Three capital designs, all with plain necking.

These occur as follows

E arch, E face, N capital type (i); E arch, E face, S capital type (i); E arch, W face, N capital type (i) E arch, W face, S capital type (i); S arch, S face, E capital type (i); S arch, S face, W capital type (ii); S arch, N face, E capital type (i); S arch, N face, W capital type (ii); W arch, E face, S capital type (i); W arch, E face, N capital type (ii); W arch, W face, N capital type (ii); W arch, W face, S capital type (iii); N arch, N face, E capital type (i); N arch, N face, W capital type (ii); N arch, S face, W capital type (iii); N arch, S face, E capital type (i);

Imposts all hollow chamfered and run all the way round each pier. The archivolts on the W faces of the E and W arches have angle rolls; the remainder are all chamfered with plain triangular stop chamfers. The W face of the W arch has a hollow chamfered label with a groove on the face.

2. Arcades

c. Nave

(i) S Arcade

Of five bays and two orders. Bays 1-3 lower than 4 and 5. 1st order on half column responds with double-roll bases except bay 5 W capital on a rounded corbel. Capitals all semicircular with plain neckings and imposts with a deeply hollowed chamfer below a fillet and a roll except where noted below Bay 1, E respond moulded. Bay 1, W respond crude, windblown stiff-leaf

4. Vaulting/Roof supports

d. Other

(i) Crossing vault

Quadripartite rib vault with half-roll ribs carried on four corbelled capitals set well above the level of the crossing arch capitals. Corbels are short colonnettes on skewed cones. Capitals as follows:

All imposts are chamfered.

V Furnishings

3. Piscinae/Pillar Piscinae

(i) Piscina

High on E nave wall, S of W crossing arch. Pevsner suggests that it originally served an altar in the rood-loft, and there seems no other reasonable possibility. The bowl has the form of a capital hollowed out above with plain necking and a round lower surface drilled for a peg, ie. originally a pillar piscina. On it a design of five lozenges formed by two intersecting bands decorated with a row of nailhead, with large drilled bosses within each lozenge and in the upper angles. The canopy is a separate block with a pointed arch set in the wall above.

VII History

Blewbury appears twice in DS. The king held the larger part which included the church, held by William Beaufour, while the Count of Evreux held the smaller. The royal manor of Blewbury was granted to Reading Abbey by the Empress Matilda (1144 x 47), and the grant was confirmed by Pope Eugenius III (1145 x 53), by Stephen (1146 x 47) and his son Eustace (1146 x 47), by Henry as Count of Anjou (1147 or 49) and as Henry II (1156 x 57), by Richard I (1189) and John (1202).

VIII Comments/Opinions

There may well be three campaigns of sculpture here. The piscina appears to belong to the 1st quarter of the 12thc. and may have been moved to the rood loft when the chancel was remodelled. Other evidence for the earlier building (which must have replaced the church mentioned in DS) is found in a small, uncarved round-headed window in the N nave wall. The crossing, with its waterleaf capitals and pointed arches must date from c.1180-90, and its vault is by the same workshop. That the vault ribs are on raised corbels instead of falling onto capitals at the same height as the crossing arch capitals may, as Pevsner suggests, indicate a late decision to vault but it could just as well arise from difficulties in sorting out the vault geometry. The S aisle is by a third workshop using more advanced forms than the second (scallops and stiff-leaf as opposed to scallops and waterleaf) but their execution is much cruder. Pevsner suggests c.1190 for this work too, but it could have been carved well into the 13thc.

IX Bibliography