• 1. St Mary and St Cuthbert, Worksop, Nottinghamshire, England
    Exterior from SE.
    Priory originally, now parish church
    The church consists of a nave with N and S aisles; two transepts with a long Lady Chapel attached to the south transept; two W towers; and N and S nave doorways under porches. The cloister lay to the N of the nave, and there are further doorways into its S range from the N aisle. Vestigial remains of other monastic buildings are lying to the N. Nothing remains of the chancel. The eastern bay of the nave is assumed to date from shortly after the priory received a grant from its founder, William de Lovetot, in 1130. It was not completed until the last quarter of the century. It has three storeys: a ten-bay arcade; a gallery with alternating wide and narrow openings, the wide openings placed above the arcade bays; and a clerestorey with no passage, its windows positioned above the nave piers. This odd arrangement allows the heads of the main gallery arches to impinge on the clerestorey zone, rising between the windows. In about 1200 the Romanesque choir was replaced and in 1240 the Lady Chapel was built. This fell into disrepair at the Dissolution and stood, ruinous and detached, until its restoration by Breakspear in 1922. In 1929 he joined it to the nave by means of a S transept, which he reconstructed from the evidence available. The N transept dates from 1935, and the E end is by Laurence King (1966-74). The Romanesque features are the nave and the lower portion of the towers. Despite the rebuidling of the walls of the aisles in the 19thc. all the doors appear to be in their original settings. The exterior string courses, corbel tables and aisle windows are all 19thc. replacements, and the exterior of the south transept is entirely 20thc.