The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
"newton longville"
Parish church
Newton Longville is a village in the rolling, wooded pasturelandofNE Buckinghamshire, just outside the southern boundary ofMilton Keynesand in the Domesday hundred of Rowley. The village stands on rising ground with the church at the crossroads marking the centre. The manor house is to the S of the church.
St Faith’s has an aisled and clerestoried nave, a chancel with a N chapel formed from the continuation of the nave aisle, and a W tower. The nave arcades are of two bays with cylindrical piers and half-column responds. The capitals of the central pier of each arcade are late-12c; the arcade was remodelled c1300; the responds given moulded capitals the arches a double-chamfered inner order. The N arcade arches retain nailhead labels, and both arcades have spandrel figures above the piers reused from the 12thc arcade. The aisles belong to the c1300 remodelling, when they were widened and given new, plain doorways. The S porch and clerestory are 15thc. The chancel arch is, like the nave arcades, a mixture of late-12thc and c1300 work. In the chancel, the arch to the chapel is also of c1300, but the chapel itself is Perpendicular work of the 15thc, so was presumably rebuilt. The W tower is 15thc, with diagonal buttresses at the W angles. It is constructed of large blocks of grey ashlar, badly eroded, whereas the remainder of the church is of irregular stone rubble. The embattled nave parapets are 15thc, while that on the tower is modern. The 15thc work is presumed to correspond with the grant of the church to New College Oxford in 1441. The church was restored by A. W. Blomfield in 1881 and was again restored in 1891. Romanesque sculpture is found in the nave arcades, the chancel arch and the font.
Parish church
Whaddon is a village in the Aylesbury Vale district of Buckinghamshire, sited in the medieval hunting forest of Whaddon Chase. The village is less than a mile outside the boundary of the Milton Keynes Unitary Authority, on the W side and is clustered around a staggered crossroads of minor roads to the N of the A421 – the main road from Milton Keynes to Buckingham. The church is aat the end of a short lane to the S of the main village street. Its nave has N and S aisles with doorways under porches, and the remains of a rood loft visible at the E end on the S side. Medieval wallpaintings including the murder of St Thomas Becket were discovered in 1854 in the chancel, but have since been obliterated with whitewash. On the N side is a large chapel containing the elaborate Purbeck tomb of Thomas Pigott (d.1519) and his wives Agnes and Elizabeth. The chapel communicates with the N aisle. The W tower is of early 14thc date with an embattled parapet. 12thc sculpture is found on the capitals of both nave arcades and a loose fragment of a nook-shaft.
Parish church
West Hanney is a village in the Vale of White Horse district of the county, 3 miles N of Wantage. Along with East Hanney it forms a settlement alongside the Roman road linking Oxford and Wantage, now the A338. The church is in the village centre and consists of a 12thc nave with a short tower on its N side, added in the later 12thc. The S transept dates from the 13thc, and in the 14thc the nave was lengthened westwards and a S arcade and aisle were added. The chancel was rebuilt in the 15thc. In the 19thc the church was restored, the nave was heightened and a clerstory added, and a S porch was built. Romanesque sculpture is found on the N nave doorway, the respond capitals of the arch linking the nave to the N tower, and the font. The church also has an impressive, but completely plain altar, illustrated here but not treated as a feature. It was described as being under the Jacobean communion table - i.e. the nave altar- by VCH (1924), 291-92.
Parish church
Wotton Underwood is a village in the west of central Buckinghamshire, 8 miles W of Aylesbury and a similar distance SE of Bicester. The church stands in the landscaped grounds of Wotton House, built for Richard Grenville between 1704 and 1714 and rebuilt by Soane after a fire in 1820. All Saints’ church consists of a nave, chancel and W tower, and on the S side of the nave the Grenville aisle, separately roofed. The church dates largely from the early 14thc, and the Grenville aisle was originally a chantry chapel founded by William de Grenville in 1343. It received new wrought iron gates by Jean Tijou at the E end in the early 18thc, and was rebuilt with a stone screen in the Decorated style by the Duke of Buckingham in 1867. Around that time the entire church was comprehensively restored. The W tower was rebuilt in a 13thc style at the beginning of the 19thc, and the green copper spire also dates from that time. The only Romanesque sculpture is a section of frieze now set as a pseudo-lintel above the door connecting the nave to the W tower. It is described below as interior decoration.
Parish church
Hambleden is on the edge of the Chiltern hills, among rolling wooded pasture. It stands in a valley 4 miles W of Marlow and 3 miles NE of Henley. The picture-postcard village with its brick and flint cottages arranged around a triangular open centre has often been used for filming, and the church stands on the N side of the triangle.
St Mary’s is an imposing building consisting of a W tower; a long unaisled nave with windows of c.1300; N and S transepts and a square-ended chancel. Off the chancel are two-bay N and S chapels, entered through the transepts. The N chapel now contains the organ, with a vestry to the E, and to the N of the organ room is a small chapel with the grand tomb of Sir Cope D’Oyley (d.1633) and his wife and ten children. The S chapel is called the Lady Chapel. The chancel is equipped with 14thc triple sedilia and piscina, and on the N wall is the tomb of Henry, son of Thomas Lord Sandys (d.circa 1555). None of the internal fabric appears Romanesque, but both the font and a blocked doorway in the W wall of the N transept are of 12thc date, and there are fragments of chevron moulding re-used in the exterior nave walls. There was originally a crossing tower that collapsed in 1703 and was replaced with the present W tower in 1721 (heightened in 1883). A date of 1859 refers to a general restoration that included the building of the N vestry, the S chancel aisle (now Lady Chapel) and the timber S porch.
Parish church
Ashendon is in the W of central Buckinghamshire, seven miles W of Aylesbury. This
small village is on a limestone hill on one of the network of minor roads in this
area of pasture on the Kimeridge clay, and the church is in the centre of the
village. St Mary's consists of a nave with a S aisle and S porch, a chancel and a W tower. The church is of
limestone rubble with patches of herringbone masonry in the N
wall of the nave, where there is also a completely plain, round-arched doorway. At
the E end of this N wall are signs of the former Falconers chapel in the form of a
blocked arch and a roofline visible on the exterior. A date of 1554 is associated
with this, but it is probably 14thc. in origin to judge from the arch profile and the
W capital. The E capital is castellated and may reflect a 16thc. modification of the
chapel. There are the remains of the rood-loft to be seen on
both sides of the nave, and a squint from the S aisle into the nave at the E end. The
nave was lengthened westwards at the beginning of the 13thc., for which a single
plain lancet provides the evidence. The nave roof was heightened in the 15thc., when
a clerestorey was installed. The S arcade is in two parts. At the W end is a single 12thc. round-headed bay cut through the wall, with broad rectangular piers to the E and W and the arch supported on imposts. The two eastern bays are 14thc., with moulded
capitals, double-chamfered arch and an octagonal pier. The chancel is 19thc., and the low,
two-storey W tower is 15thc., with diagonal buttresses and Perpendicular W doorway
and window. The only Romanesque sculpture here is on the font.
Parish church
Lathbury is a small village inNorth Buckinghamshire(ancient hundred of Bunsty), a mile from the northern edge of Newport Pagnell. It stands in fertile, low-lying farmland in a loop of the Great Ouse. The village is on the road from Newport Pagnell toNorthampton, and the church with the hall alongside it is some 300 yards away from the village centre, alongside the river. The present hall,LathburyPark, dates from 1801 and replaced a medieval manor house on the same site.
All Saints consists of an aisled and clerestoried nave, chancel and W tower. Remains of the original early-12thc structure can be seen in the form of a blocked window in the S wall of the nave, now partly removed by the later arcade, and a tympanum carved with lions now reset in the N nave arcade wall at the E end. The S arcade dates from the end of the 12thc, as does the S nave doorway (the N doorway is 18thc). The unbuttressed, thick-walled W tower is apparently slightly later (early 13thc according to RCHME). The tower arch has been entirely remade but retains some 12thc features; and the tower windows, plain pointed and chamfered lancets on the first two levels and double pointed and chamfered bell-openings on the third, are early 13thc work. The S porch also belongs to this period but was rebuilt in the 19thc. The N arcade dates from c1300, as do the clerestory and the aisle windows, which have intersecting or Y-tracery. The chancel arch is contemporary with the N arcade, but the chancel windows are stylistically later, with reticulated tracery. Battlements have been added to nave, aisles and tower, all in blocks of brown ironstone that contrast with the greyish yellow irregularly coursed limestone rubble of the rest of the building. The tower battlement is recent; the rest possibly 15thc. There was a restoration in 1869 and Lathbury received a grant for repairs, carried out by L. E. King ofLondonin 1962-65.
Parish church
Linslade is on the eastern edge of the traditional county of Buckinghamshire, some 9 miles S of Milton Keynes. The modern town of Linslade forms a single conurbation with Leighton Buzzard (Beds); the two being divided by the river Ouzel which forms the traditional border between Bedfordshire to the E and Buckinghamshire to the W. In 1965 Linslade was moved to the administrative county of Bedfordshire, and in the following year the towns of Leighton Buzzard and Linslade were amalgamated for local government purposes. Old Linslade is a mile to the N of the centre of modern Linslade, and consists only of the church and the hall, immediately to the E. The hamlet is on higher ground overlooking the floodplain of the Ouzel, close to the Grand Union canal that runs alongside it.
St Mary’s consists of a nave with a S porch, chancel and W tower. The nave is early-12thc, with traces of original masonry visible and the original chancel arch remaining (much restored). The chancel is of c1300 (N window, piscina), and the 15thc tower has diagonal W buttresses, a tall polygonal NE stair turret and battlements to tower and turret. The nave doorways (N blocked) and most of the nave windows were also replaced at this time, while the chancel was apparently remodelled and given a new E window in the early 16thc. Construction is of dark brown ironstone with yellow limestone dressings. In the chancel is an unusual early-13thc stone seat with arms. The font is of the late-12thc, related to the Aylesbury group.
Parish church
Eaton-under-Heywood is a small village under Wenlock Edge in the Shropshire Hills. The nearest town of any size is Church Stretton, 4 miles to the NW. St Edith's stands at the end of the lane from the larger village of Ticklerton, alongside the manor site.
St Edith's has a long nave and chancel in one with a tower at the E end of the nave on the S side. The church slopes up steeply from W to E and the chancel is marked by a step but no chancel arch. The nave is 12thc., with two plain Norman windows on the N side and one on the S, and a partially blocked up N doorway and a plain S doorway. The chancel is 13thc in its details but with E windows dating from the restoration of 1869. There is a vestry on the N side of the chancel. The tower dates from c.1200, with a pointed tower arch, very plain, but carved capitals in the bell-openings. The bell opening on the N face of the tower cannot be seen from the ground. There is also a 12thc font. Romanesque features recorded here are the N doorway, the tower bell-openngs and the font.