The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
"bradenstoke"
Augustinian house, former
Bradenstoke Priory is situated near the village of Bradenstoke-cum-Clack in the parish of Lyneham, some 10 miles W of Swindon in the N of the county. The priory is sited on a high ridge of land which overlooks the Avon valley. The priory was dissolved in 1539, and its remains, including part of the 14th century hall and undercroft of the guest house that had formed the W range of the cloister, were subsequently used as a farmhouse. There was a 15thc tithe barn and a holy well nearby. The site was investigated in the 1920s and the plan of the monastic buildings and the 12th century church were recovered. Unfortunately most of this fabric was removed in 1929 by the then owner, the American newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, who had the hall removed and reconstructed at his property of St Donat's Castle in the Vale of Glamorgan. The only buildings that survive on site today are the undercroft of the guest hall with a 14th century garderobe tower at its north-west corner, and both are in a ruinous condition. No Romanesque fabric survives on-site, but a chevron voussoir, said to be from Bradenstoke, is preserved at Cartmel Priory (qv)
Parish church, formerly Augustinian house
Cartmel Priory was founded in 1189. Most of the surviving architecture is from the Gothic period, including its most unusual feature, the top stage of the tower rotated 45 degrees to make the corners face the cardinal points of the compass. A piece of ex-situ sculpture identified as originating from Bradenstoke Priory, Wiltshire, is preserved inside.
Parish church
The present church was built in 1849 to designs by JH Hakewill. However, the font, decorated with triangular arches, probably dates from the late 12thc.
Parish church
Marden is a small village about 6 miles SE of Devizes; the church lies to the NW of the village and is built of sarsen rubble with freestone dressings. The building consists of a chancel (enlarged in the 14thc and repaired in 1556), nave, S porch and Perpendicular W tower added in the 15thc. The S doorway and the chancel arch indicate that the body of the church dates from the second half of the 12thc.
Parish church
St Lawrence's is a large ironstone church with a tall W tower, a
clerestoreyed and aisled nave with four-bay
arcades, and a chancel with N
and S chapels and a N vestry. The S chapel contains
the tomb of William Sponne (d.1448); the N now houses the organ. None of this
is earlier than the 13thc. (the chapel arcades); the
tower is Perpendicular and the windows 14thc.-15thc. Earlier material has been
reused, however. Two elaborately-carved 12thc. shafts
have been incorporated into the (largely 19thc.) chancel arch; three of the capitals of the nave
arcades are recycled 12thc. pieces; and several
chevron
voussoirs have been
incorporated into the masonry above the arcade in the S
aisle.