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1. St Peter, Alton, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
Alton stands on rising ground on the S slope of the Churnet valley, five miles to the N of Uttoxeter in the region of hilly woodland to the S of the Weaver Hills. The castle to the E of the church was built by Bertram de Verdun from 1176, and rebuilt as a house for the Earl of Shrewsbury to designs by Pugin from 1847-52. There was a school on the site, which was taken over by the Sisters of Mercy in 1855, and a presbytery, which became their convent. The castle itself remained a private dwelling until 1919 when the Sisters of Mercy bought it to extend their boarding school. When the school closed in 1989 the castle was left empty until 1995, when the Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham bought it, reopening it as a residential youth centre in the following year. The church itself has an aisled nave without a clerestorey, a much taller chancel with a S chapel and a W tower, all in pinkish grey ashlar. In the nave, both aisles are of five bays with part of a sixth at the W end, curtailed by the later tower wall. The N aisle is 12thc. in origin with a round-headed arcade but heavily restored. It has been screened off from the nave with wooden panelling, glazed above, between the arcade piers. The W end of the aisle now accommodates a kitchen and lavatories, and the E end a chapel. The S arcade is much higher, with tall slender piers and stilted arches. Again it is heavily restored, but an odd respond at the E end may give some hint of an earlier arrangement. The nave has a S doorway without a porch. The chancel is much taller than the nave, and has a low chapel to the S, added by J. R. Naylor in 1884-85. It is unusual in having a four-centred chancel arch. The W tower has a grand early-13thc. W doorway but the upper parts are 15thc. The church was restored in 1830-31 by J. T. Holmes of Cheadle, when a gallery was added, and the church, in Pevsner's view, was all but rebuilt at that time. This is certainly true of the aisle walls and their arcades. The most interesting of the antiquarian views in William Salt Library SV I 63; an undated 19thc. drawing showing the S side of the nave and chancel. No chapel is shown, which dates the drawing before 1885, but the nave already has the Y-tracery windows it has today. The S doorway was then protected by a porch. There is probably no original 12thc. sculpture in the building, nevertheless both nave arcades are described below.
2. St Mary and All Saints, Checkley, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
St Mary's has a W tower, a very tall clerestoried nave with tall N and S aisles with four-bay arcades, and a square-ended chancel. The chancel is the only one of these elements that is straightforward. It has a five light E window and tall three-light side windows with intersecting Y-tracery, i.e. ofc.1300, and the continuous chancel arch with sunk quadrant mouldings is of the same date. The N arcade is 13thc., with moulded capitals, some decorated with nailhead, and alternating round and octagonal piers. The pier capitals of the S arcade are stylistically earlier, late 12thc., including flat leaves and volutes, but the respond capitals have very complex mouldings and are much later, as are the double-chamfered pointed arches. Furthermore the S arcade is considerably taller than the N, and must have been heightened. The clerestory windows are square-headed triple lights with ogees; a 14thc.-15thc. type convincingly attributed to the early 17thc. by Pevsner. The N aisle windows are 17thc., and the S doorway is ofc.1300. It is protected by a rib-vaulted porch. The lower storey of the W tower is 12thc. with a flat buttress and small round-headed lancets, all chamfered, plain and renewed. The upper storey is Perpendicular with mullioned and transomed bell-openings but a plain parapet with tiny crocketed pinnacles. The tower arch, confusingly, is 14thc. Decorated. In Pevsner's account, the church was practically rebuilt in the early 17thc. using the old elements and this seems the only way to account for the contradictions in the architecture. 19thc. views of the church, inside and out, and the font are available in the William Salt Library, Stafford (see IX Bibliography). The remodelled 12thc. S arcade is described below, as is the most important Romanesque feature in the church; the font.
3. St Mary, Enville, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
Enville is in the extreme SW of the county, less than 4 miles W of Dudley, but only 9 miles SE of Bridgnorth (Salop) and 6 miles N of Kidderminster (Worcs). The church is on a hill at the northern end of the village, and to the S and W are the extensive grounds of Enville Hall. St Mary's is a red sandstone church comprising a chancel with a N organ room; a nave with N and S aisles and a N porch; and a tower, incorporating a S porch, at the W end of the S aisle. The four-bay nave arcades are carried on cylindrical piers of coursed ashlar; the S arcade 12thc. and the N 13thc. but heavily restored. The tower does not respect the S arcade; i.e. its N wall blocks the W bay completely. The church was restored and enlarged by George Gilbert Scott in 1871-74. His work included the rebuilding of the chancel (including the organ room), the insertion of new aisle windows on both sides, the erection of new porches and the rebuilding of the tower. This has an elaborate crown based, according to Pevsner, on Gloucester Cathedral or Dundry. The tower was restored in 1990-92, following falls of masonry onto the aisle roof. Romanesque sculpture is found in the S nave arcade and on carved panels and corbels set into the spandrels above pier 1, on the nave and aisle sides.
4. St Mary, High Offley, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
High Offley is a scattered village in the W of the county near the Shropshire border. It stands on an elevated site above the Shropshire Union Canal. St Mary's has a nave and chancel of equal width but separately roofed and with no chancel arch between them. The present chancel step is some 2 miles E of the change in roof design. S aisle runs the entire length of nave and chancel, and the E end of it is given over to the organ. There are N and S nave doorways, the S under a porch, and a W tower. The earliest fabric is seen in the N nave wall and the E chancel wall, and consists of roughly shaped sandstone blocks irregular in size and coursing. It probably dates from the early 12thc. The present three-light chancel E window is reticulated (i.e.c.1320) but signs of a plain round-headed 12thc. triplet are visible to either side of it. The plain chamfered N doorway must be ofc.1200, and the squat, three-storey tower is slightly later, with shallow clasping buttresses, a W lancet whose round head is not original, and 13thc. double bell-openings. The parapet has battlements and neo-classical pinnacles, probably 18thc. Like the tower, the five-bay arcade dates from the beginning of the 13thc.; it is round-headed but its capitals are moulded. The E respond capital, however, is a reused 12thc. volute capital carved with heads, and this is the only Romanesque sculpture to be found here. Antiquarian views in the William Salt Library, Stafford, all dating from the first half of the 19thc. show various differences from the church we see today, indicating a later restoration. G. P. Harding's S view of 1821 (SV IV 320) shows a gabled porch, apparently of red brick, whereas J. Buckler's 1843 SE view shows a Tudor porch with a parapet (SV IV 321). Buckler’s NW view of the same year (SV IV 323) shows a two-light pointed W window in the tower, confirming that the present round-headed lancet is a replacement.
5. All Saints, Madeley, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
Madeley is in NW Staffordshire, just over a mile from the Shropshire border and four miles E of Newcastle-under-Lyme. The parish was formerly an extensive one, occupying the fertile, hilly ground as far W as the county boundary. It consisted of the three villages of Great, Middle and Little Madeley and Onneley, to the W. All of these lie along the A525 road from Whitchurch to Newcastle. Madeley was apparently always the largest settlement. The church is alongside the main road, with the Old Hall (now a 17thc. building) immediately to the N. Old Madeley manor is a mile to the S, but ruinous, and the new manor is in Little Madeley to the NE. Red and blue clay is still extracted for brick manufacture, and coal was formerly mined at Leycett colliery (closed 1957) and Silverdale (closed 1998). All Saints is a red sandstone church with a nave with aisles, a S porch and transepts, a chancel with a N chapel and a W tower. The oldest part of the church is the 12thc. N arcade. The S arcade and clerestorey are ofc.1300, and both aisles have been widened; the N in the 14thc. and the S in the 15thc., to judge from the windows. The nave aisles are of four bays and extend partway alongside the tower to the W. The S porch is 15thc. Its original entrance has been blocked, and the modern entrance to the church is through a doorway cut into the E wall of the porch, allowing the insertion of lavatories at the S end. The N transept was added in the 14thc., and a lancet at the W end of the N arcade wall (originally the outer wall) indicates that there was no transept here before that. The S transept is 15thc., as is the N chancel chapel (now a vestry). The chancel itself was completely rebuilt in 1872 as part of a restoration by Charles Lynam of Stoke-on-Trent. Views of the church before this restoration are in the William Salt library. The tower is 15thc. with a 19thc. battlemented parapet with finials. Romanesque sculpture is found in the N nave arcade.
6. St John the Baptist, Mayfield, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
St John's has an aisled nave with three-bay arcades and a S doorway under a porch. The chancel is square ended and the W tower has diagonal buttresses. The S arcade and S doorway date from the 12thc., both with round arches and the arcade with cylindrical piers. The N arcade also has round arches, but the piers have a quatrefoil plan and the capitals have crockets. The style is early 13thc., therefore, but Pevsner suggests that it belongs to the rebuilding of the aisle in 1854 by F. W. Fiddian and Ewen Christian. This is incorrect; Fiddian's plan suggests that the arcade was not replaced, and it also appears on J. Buckler's drawing of 1844 (William Salt Library SV VII 69). The S porch is dated 1866, and must replace the porch shown on Fiddian's plan. The chancel windows have Y-tracery or (at the E) reticulated tracery, pointing to a date in the first half of the 14thc. The external cresting of the chancel roof looks 18thc. According to an inscription on its W face, the tower was begun by T. Rolleston in 1515. It has Perpendicular bell-openings and W window and doorway, and a battlemented parapet with eight tall pinnacles. Construction is of reddish ashlar. A plain 12thc. window head is reused as facing stone above the S porch. Two 12thc. lancets are shown above the porch in a Buckler drawing of 1839 (William Salt Library SV VII 66), but they are no longer there, and this window head probably belonged to one of them. Romanesque features recorded here are the S arcade and the S doorway.
7. St Chad, Pattingham, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
Pattingham is in the SW of the county, close to the Shropshire border. The outer suburbs of Wolverhampton are only two miles away to the E, but the western prospect is of hilly farmland towards the Severn and the Shropshire Hills. The village centre retains some of its ancient charm, but the building of dormitory estates to the S and E has changed its scale and character significantly.
8. St Chad, Seighford, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
Seighford is a small village only 2½ miles NW of the centre of Stafford. St Chad's is a curious mixture of brick and stone building. he W tower is of red brick and 17thc., with brick clasping buttresses and stone pinnacles added in 1748. This, or something like it, is also the date of the brick nave, but the chancel and the N nave aisle and its eastward extension to form a N chapel are of stone. The tower was built in the western bay of the nave, so that the W bay of the four-bay N arcade is alongside it. This end of the aisle has now been converted for use as a kitchen and lavatory. The arcade itself is 12thc. and the nave has no clerestory. The chancel arch is also 12thc., but the chancel contains a 13thc. piscina and nothing earlier. The arch to the N chapel is segmental and very broad, presumably rebuilt. The responds supporting it are Perpendicular (Pevsner reports the W respond as EE). The chapel is now occupied by the organ, with a vestry to the E. There are two antiquarian view of the church in the William Salt Library. A sepia wash drawing of 1838 by T. P. Wood shows its elevated position well in a distant view from the N (SV VIII 155a), and another sepia wash drawing by Buckler shows the church from the SE (SV VIII 156). Both show the building much as it is today. The only Romanesque features are the N nave arcade and the chancel arch.
9. St Chad, Stafford, Staffordshire, England

Parish church
St Chad's is on Greengate Street, one of Stafford's main shopping streets running S from the market square. Its W front is entirely the work of George Gilbert Scott (1873-74), but this conceals a church that is substantially 12thc. and considerably larger than expected. It is cruciform with a crossing tower and aisles to the nave. The aisles have four-bay arcades carried on heavy cylindrical piers with scallop capitals and chevron decoration on the two eastern arches of each arcade. Above the E respond capitals and pier 1 capitals on the nave faces of both arcade walls are attached half-shafts rising to clerestory sill level, with plain cuboidal blocks where capitals and bases would be expected. The W responds of the arcades are of a later date than the rest, suggesting that the nave might originally have extended further W, but the vicissitudes undergone by the façade (see below) make this by no means certain. Above the arcades are round-headed clerestory windows; originally 12thc. but entirely remade. The aisles are entirely Scott's work. The only nave doorway is at the W. The crossing tower was rebuilt in the 14thc. and restored by Robert Griffiths of Stafford in 1884, and all four crossing arch heads are 14thc., although the beautifully carved 12thc. W arch was retained, the new W crossing arch being constructed immediately to the E of it. In the detailed descriptions below, the 12thc. arch is called the chancel arch. The N arch was rebuilt in the 19thc, incorporating 12thc. carved capitals and imposts discovered in the restoration. The E arch has 12thc. embrasures, capitals and imposts supporting the 14thc. archivolts above. The S arch appears to be entirely 14thc. work, but it is largely concealed by the organ. The N transept is by Griffiths (1886) and now houses the Jevons Memorial Chapel, furnished in 1937. The S transept was not rebuilt until 1953-55 and houses the organ with a vestry behind it. The chancel is now of three bays, with 12thc. windows in the two western bays, original on the N side, and 12thc. interior wall arcading in these bays on the N and S sides. The exterior chancel stringcourse also stops at the end of bay two, indicating that the 12thc. chancel was a bay shorter than the present one. It may have ended in an apse.