The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
"Thurlow"
Parish church
Aston, known as Pipe Aston locally, is a small village in the far north of the county, 8 miles N of Leominster and a mile from the Shropshire border. The church is a small 12thc 2-celled building with a later S vestry to the nave. Plain Norman lancets survive in nave and chancel, but the upper levels of the chancel were rebuilt in the 13thc. There is a single bell-cote over the W gable. The nave has 12thc N and S doorways - the N, facing the village street, is elaborately carved, while the S is plain, and now serves as the internal entrance to the vestry. There are plain round headed lancets in the lateral nave and chancel walls, but the sawtooth-decorated W windows are 19thc. Construction is of buff sandstone coursed rubble with some contrasting red sandstone in the dressings. Romanesque features recorded here are the two nave doorways and the font
Parish church, formerly Benedictine house
This well-known building was begun c.1100 as the main church of a Benedictine abbey. It is a very large church in the centre of the town, comprising a C12th aisled nave of eight bays, crossing, transepts and tower, with a later medieval aisled chancel.
The E end of the church was apsed, as found by excavation in 1890-91 (Harrison and Thurlby 1995, 51), but the ends of the chancel aisles are of unknown form. The central tower collapsed onto the S transept in 1690, the N and W arches remaining in place, together with the NW angle of the tower containing the stair vice. It is said the Norman S transept is lost, but there are fragmentary remains to be seen in its interior walls. For example, the restorers put a window in the E wall: this is in place of the opening to a chapel for which the N jamb remains; there would have been a chapel on each transept, Pevsner 1967, 439 says they 'seem to have been square on the outside and apsed inside'.
The N and S transept walls retain evidence of the original triforium and clerestory, and the fenestration can be reconstructed (Harrison and Thurlby 1995, 51-54; Figs. 1-4). This plain 'Early Romanesque' work is the earliest remaining phase (Fernie phase I); 'Later Romanesque' introduces chevron mouldings as in three of the first two bays of the nave and the arches of the crossing (Fernie phase II). Both phases date from the time of Abbot Hugh, 1097-1123. Later work in the nave arcades and N clerestory is Transitional (Fernie phase III), with keel mouldings and shafts (Fernie 1995, Fig. 2; 40-44).
The cruciform church became the parish church without, apparently, any demolition or damage at the Dissolution. In modern times, there was a restoration in 1871-3 and 1889-90, but a fire in 1906 severely damaged the church. The central tower and S transept were restored after this fire (in 1908 and c.1912 respectively). The lead from the roof melted, and some of the interior stonework is still marked by it, for example, SW of the crossing. The upper stages of the west towers were built in 1935. The most detailed plan of the church, in Hodges 1892, pre-dates these major restorations but it shows well the phases of work relevant to the Corpus at ground level; see also Fernie 1995, fig. 2. The post-fire works included the reconstruction of the S transept and W front and the building of a vestry off the W end of the S nave aisle. For restorations and sources, see Harrison and Thurlby 1995, 50-51.
Twelfth-century remains range in date from 1100-1110 for the N transept to the 1170s for the N porch (Pevsner 1967). Surviving parts include the N transept, much of the crossing and two stages of the central tower, the aisled nave with most of the galleries or triforia, also the lower parts of the west façade, and the N porch, which is on the nave N aisle.
Castle
Goodrich lies within the ancient district of Archenfield, a border area betweenWalesandEnglandin the 11thc (see Preface to Herefordshire). GoodrichCastlestands on a sandstone scarp overlooking the river Wye, some 3 miles SW of Ross-on-Wye and 6½ miles NE of Monmouth. Close by was an important strategic crossing point on the road fromEnglandintoWales. Earthworks around the castle indicate the presence of an Iron Age hillfort here, but the first notice of a castle, Godric’s Castle, dates from 1101-02. Nothing of this survives; the oldest building on the site being the mid-12thcGreatTower, probably the work of Richard “Strongbow” de Clare (Lord of Goodrich 1148-76), or his father Gilbert fitz Gilbert de Clare (1138-48). This Gilbert had been given Goodrich along with the title of Earl of Pembroke, by King Stephen, whom he supported in the Civil War, and the Clares continued to support the king even when most of their neighbours had transferred their allegiance to the Empress Matilda. TheGreatTowerwas retained when the castle was rebuilt around 1300 probably by William de Valence (d.1296) and his wife Joan (d.1307). Thenew castleconsisted of a courtyard with ranges against a curtain wall with towers at three of the angles. The fourth corner, the NE, was occupied by an asymmetrical twin-towered gatehouse with a chapel in the larger S tower and a guardroom above the entrance from which the portcullises and murder-holes were controlled. East of the gatehouse, on the other side of the surrounding ditch, was a fortified barbican, and a bridge with a drawbridge section linked this to the entrance. Within the courtyard, the Great Hall occupied the west range; the kitchen and the oldGreatTowerthe south; the solar block the north; and another hall, perhaps for lower members of the household, the east. Also in the east range is a later medieval garderobe tower, perhaps 15thc. There is an outer ward surrounded by a wall on the north and west, and in the western section of the outer ward are remains of 17thc stables. The medieval stables cannot have been in this position, as it is not accessible from the barbican, where visitors would have dismounted.
The approach to the castle was from the south, giving the 15thc visitor a view of the tall, ancientGreatTowerrising above the battlements of the curtain wall and flanked by the round SE and SW towers. The visitor would have turned to the right, following the outer wall along its south and east sections. On turning the SE corner he would have been visually and nasally alerted to the consumption of great quantities of food here by the effluent from the garderobe tower. He would also have seen the barbican ahead of him; a signal to dismount and continue on foot. Passing through the entrance, the portcullises poised ready to fall and the murder holes above his head emphasized the fact that he was putting himself in another man’s hands. Finally emerging into the brightness of the courtyard he would have seen the Great Hall ahead of him and theGreatTowerto his left.
Only the Great Tower falls within our period, and it is there fore worth describing in more detail. It is approximately square, and its lowest levels are of rubble masonry, suggesting that they were originally hidden under an earth mound. From approximately 2m (6 ft) above the present courtyard level the rubble gives way to fine ashlar facing of grey sandstone (unlike the red sandstone used for the later parts of the castle). There are shallow buttresses clasping the angles, and flat pilasters in the centre of each face except the west. The tower is of three storeys. The undercroft is now entered from the courtyard through a doorway in the north face, but this is a late-medieval addition, and Ashbee suggests that the undercroft was originally only accessible by stairs from the floor above. Certainly the main entrance was through the round-headed doorway, converted into a window in the 15thc, in the N wall. This must have been reached by a timber staircase, as at Chepstow nearby. This doorway leads to the main storey which is impressively tall at more than 6m (20 ft), though not large in floor area. An internal doorway with a tympanum in the west wall of this storey gives onto a vaulted passage and a spiral staircase leading to the top storey; a fine room marked externally by its elaborately-carved N and W windows and internally by window seats, which could have served as the lord’s chamber. Romanesque features described here are the main N doorway, the internal doorway noted above, the top-storey windows and a stringcourse running below them.
Parish church
St Mary's is one of the longest churches in the county at 36.3 metres (119 feet). The central tower is 12thc., as is the eastern part of the nave. A south aisle was added in the 13thc., and nave and aisle extended westward c.1300. The present chancel is of the early 14thc., as is the chapel to the south of the tower, now a vestry. A shingled oak broach spire was added in the 14th or 15thc. The jewel of Fownhope is a tympanum of the Virgin and Child by Herefordshire School sculptors, now detached from whatever doorway it once adorned and displayed inside the church. Also recorded here are the E and W tower arches, and the tower bell-openings, string courses and angle corbels.
Parish church
Bridge Sollers is a village on the River Wye 6 miles W of Hereford. The village consists of a few dwellings and the church clustered around a crossing of the river. The church is on the N bank, alongside the main A438 road from Hereford to Brecon. It consists of 12thc nave with a later 12thc W tower and N aisle and a 13thc chancel. The Romanesque features here are the S doorway, under a 19thc timber porch, and the later 12thc N arcade.
Parish church
The medieval church was rebuilt in neo-Norman style by G. E. Street in 1857 incorporating two doorways, the only Romanesque sculpture in the building.
Parish church
Kilpeck church is a three-cell building consisting of nave, chancel and rib-vaulted apse, all dating from the 12thc. At the west end of the nave is a wooden gallery including material dating from the 16thc. to the 19thc. There is no record to show when it was erected. The church is constructed of old red sandstone blocks; irregular in size and shape in the nave and chancel but of regularly coursed squared ashlar in the apse, which was refurbished by Cottingham in 1846 at the same time as its roofline was lowered. The walls are supported by flat, slender pilaster buttresses of ashlar, dividing the nave into three bays, the chancel into two, and the apse into one straight bay and three curved ones. There is no pilaster buttress at the NE angle of the nave, although traces of one remain at the top of the wall. Below, the angle is of long and short quoins and the nave wall to the N of the angle is of masonry different to that of the rest of the nave wall, sloping inwards so that it dies into the wall just below the level of the original nave window sills. This section of wall is on a slightly different line to the rest of the nave wall. Its interpretation, as a vestige of an earlier church on the site or as a later rebuilding, is discussed in section VIII. Over the west gable of the nave is a gabled double bell-cote; also part of the 1846 restoration.
Kilpeck is generally considered the jewel of the Herefordshire school of Romanesque sculpture; for its completeness, its virtuosity and its remarkable state of preservation. The south nave doorway, with a Tree of Life tympanum and richly carved jambs and arch orders, was protected by a wooden porch of unknown date until 1868. It has never been replaced, but a lead mantle was installed around the label in 1962 to prevent water penetration. The great west window is also elaborately carved. Of the other windows, those in bay 2 of the north nave wall, bay 1 of the south nave wall and the three curved bays of the apse are original. The south window of the chancel is 13thc., but two 12thc. corbels have been reused as label stops (described in section III.3.c.vii). A corbel table runs around the entire church, originally consisting of 91 corbels, most of which survive in excellent condition. They depict human and animal heads, birds, beasts and obscene subjects, some in a simple, almost cartoon-like style, others with classicising features, and all very easy to read since the eaves are not high. In addition there are projecting dragons' heads at the tops of the buttresses at the NW, SW and SE angles of the nave and in the centre of the west facade, all at the level of the corbel table.
Inside, the chancel arch has jamb-figures and chevron- and lozenge-decorated arch orders. The apse arch is plain, but the apse vault ribs are chevron-decorated, the vault boss is carved with lion heads, and there is sculpture on the inside of the apse windows. The font has an enormous plain bowl of conglomerate, and the church also contains a holy water stoup, imported from elsewhere, with a carved bowl and base; and a rare font-stopper carved with basketweave.
The monochrome photographs of corbels were taken on a Courtauld Institute of Art photographic trip in 1970; the colour photography was carried out in March 2005.
Parish church
The church comprises chancel, crossing tower, N and S transepts, and nave. The nave
has N and S aisles, S porch, and clerestorey. The crossing survives from the original
12thc. cruciform church. The original transepts were rebuilt in the late 13thc. as
was the chancel. The nave arcades are early 14thc. Much of the exterior has been
rendered, with the exception of the tower and transepts which have rubble walls. The
transept walls are coursed. The church was restored by William Butterfield in
1869-72.
Parish church
St Mary's was a grand aisleless cruciform church in the 12thc. Much of the surviving building dates from the 14thc and 15thc, including the present aisled nave and both transepts, but the lower stage of the central tower is Romanesque, as are the four arches of the crossing, complete with their carved capitals and supports. Above the W crossing arch, on the W face of the central tower - which is also the internal E wall of the nave - there are two decorated Romanesque round-headed openings, one above the other, on slightly different axes. They light the two-storeyed wall passage running around the tower, and also look down into the nave. The openings now serve the bell chamber above the crossing.
The unaisled Romanesque chancel had been replaced by 1405 by an aisled structure, which was itself demolished in 1541. The massive timber Rood Screen of c. 1480s extends across the full width of the nave and aisles. Important wall-painting associated with the screen partly survives in the nave, above the W arch of the tower.
The only Romanesque sculpture at St Mary’s is found on the capitals of the crossing, the W crossing arch, the bell openings and the interior of the tower.
Parish church, formerly Benedictine house
Tewkesbury lies at the northern tip of Gloucestershire, adjacent to the county border with Worcestershire. It is around 15 miles south of Worcester and 10 miles north of Gloucester. The town itself is located on the east bank of the River Avon, at the point where the Avon meets the River Severn. Tewkesbury Abbey stands south of the town centre on a quasi-peninsula formed by the confluence of the River Swilgate, which runs from the east, with the Avon. The area has been prone to flooding over the centuries and especially in recent years. Fortunately the abbey stands on a slightly elevated point, although this has not fully protected the building from flood damage.
Tewkesbury Abbey is regarded as one of the most important Romanesque buildings in the British Isles due to its architectural features and the state of preservation. The church has a cruciform plan comprising an 8-bay aisled nave (with additional 9th bays at the west end of the aisles), aisleless transepts with east-projecting chapels, and a 2-bay chancel flanked by an ambulatory with radial chapels. All of the ambulatory chapels are later medieval constructions. Many alterations were made to the E arm and vaulting throughout the church during the 14thc. There was originally a cloister to the S of the nave as well as other claustral buildings, however these were demolished after the Dissolution.
The abbey was restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott between 1865 and 1879. During this period, the stone screen dividing the nave from the crossing and E arm was removed. One bay of the cloister was reconstructed by Thomas Collins at the end of the 19thc and the W front was repaired in 1906. Various projects were carried out between 1932 and 1938, including repairs to the tower and the strengthening of pier foundations. The site of the E ambulatory Lady Chapel was excavated in 1940 by Sir Charles Peers and Thomas Overbury (the footprint of this structure is marked out on the grass at the E end of the abbey). Major repairs were made to the abbey roofs between 1978 and 1985. The roofs of the eastern chapels were repaired between 1994 and 1996. Repairs were made to the W nave turrets between 1999 and 2002.