The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
"haughmond"
Augustinian house, former
Haughmond Abbey lies 3 miles NE of Shrewsbury. The monastic site is built on a sloping hill. The 12thc original church (of which the foundations were brought to light during archaeological excavations in the 1950s) was replaced by the present, ruined building in the 13thc. A N aisle and N porch were added to the church in the late 13thc, whilst in the 15thc the chapel of St Anne was built N of the presbytery. The cloister adjoining the S transept was completed by end of the 12thc. The annexes were largely restored and, in some cases, rebuilt, from the 14thc onwards: the kitchens and the abbot's great hall were rebuilt during the 14thc, whilst the Chapter House was rebuilt in c.1500.
The Romanesque parts of the ruined abbey comprise the entrance to the Chapter House, situated at the E end of the cloister, the processional doorway on the N side of the cloister leading into the nave of the church, a doorway in the W wall of the cloister, now blocked but formerly leading into the W range, a large lavatorium in the W wall of the cloister, blind arches in the SW of the refectory and sculptural fragments in the museum.
Redundant parish church
Wroxeter is a village 5 niles SE of Shrewsbury on the River Severn, best known for the Roman city on the N side of the modern village. The church is in the centre of the village, on the E bank of the river. It consists of a chancel that is Anglo-Saxon in orgin (see N wall) but largely late-12thc, with an 18thc S vestry, a 12thc unaisled nave, wider on the S side than the N, a 19thc S porch and a W tower. According to Pevsner (1958) there was a S nave arcade that was removed. The aisle must date to c.1300 (see S nave windows), and the aisle removed and the S wall rebuilt in 1763. The font is of interest, being formed of the base of a Roman column, and a photograph is included. The church was closed on 1980, and came under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust in 1987.
Romanesque features recorded here are the S chancel doorway, now blocked; the chancel arch; the tower arch, and two animal reliefs in the exterior S nave wall.
Augustinian house, former
The ruined priory of Ranton and the remains of the Georgian hall alongside it stand in landscaped parkland 1 mile W of the village of Ranton and 5 miles W of Stafford. All that survives of the abbey church is the W tower and a short section of the S nave wall rebuilt to house the S doorway. This doorway is of the late 12thc. The 15thc. tower has angle buttresses, a five-light W window and two-light bell-openings below a saltire frieze and an embattled parapet. All the main windows are now blocked with bricks. To the S of the church is the ruined shell of the house, called Ranton Abbey and dating fromc.1820 according to Pevsner. Various antiquarian drawings survive in the William Salt Library, many by Buckler and most concentrating on the W tower. SV VIII 59 (Buckler 1842) shows the S doorway looking much as it does today, but it is not clear from this whether any more of the nave wall was standing at that date.
Parish church, formerly chapel
Edstaston is a small village at the north of the county, 12 miles N of Shrewsbury. The church stands in the village centre, and is a single-cell church, nave and chancel in one, with a S porch and a vestry on the N side of the chancel. Apart from the two last named the building all belongs to the late-12thc. There is no tower but a 19thc double bell-turret on the W gable of the nave. The porch was added in 1710 and remodelled in 1875, when the W wall of the nave was rebuilt. There was a restoration by G. H. Birch in 1882-83.
Only two of the original 12thc windows survive; the rest being replaced with larger 14thc and 15thc windows in nave and chancel. Both sides of the church have late-12thc corbel tables with trefoil headed arches carried on simple roll corbels. The church is distinguished by its three elaborate doorways: the N and especially the S have fine late-12thc carving and even the Priest's doorway is grander than usual. All retain their original doors, decorated with ironwork. Apart from the features mentioned above, there is a 12thc recess in the nave.
Parish church, former
Burwarton is a small village about 9 miles SW from Bridgnorth and 20 miles SW of Telford; the ruins of the church lie to the S of the village. The church was restored by Mr Hamilton in 1843 before it fell into ruin; the chancel wall with a round-headed and chancel arch survive, as do a round-headed window at the E end of the chancel and the lower section of the nave walls. Sculptural remains consist of two capitals on chancel arch and two fragments of labels immured in the remnants of the S wall of the nave.
Parish church
Astley is a village in E central Shropshire, 4½ miles NE of Shrewsbury. Despite its proximity to the county town, Astley retains its rural status, lying as it does on a junction of minor roads in the fork between the main roads from Shrewsbury to Whitchurch and to Market Drayton. The church is on a bend on the road through the village, and has a single nave and chancel with no chancel arch, and a tower at the W end that serves as the only entrance to the church. It is of Grinshill ashlar and is substantially of the early 14thc, restored in the 16thc. The tower dates from 1837 and there was a major restoration in 1883. The only 12thc feature is a reset and blocked S nave doorway.
Parish church, formerly chapel
Lee Brockhurst is a small village, part of the civil parish of Moreton Corbet and Lee Brockhurst, about 12 miles SW of Market Drayton. The church lies to the N of the parish, on the N bank of the River Roden, and consists of a structure built in coursed sandstone rubble. It is a single-aisled 12thc church with a nave and chancel.
The S porch, bell-cote and a N vestry were added in 1884 when the building was restored. On the N and S walls of the nave two plain small 12thc windows survive. Romanesque sculpture is found on the the S doorway and one fragment that was lying loose in the porch in 1998 but was not there in 2023, when the church was found to be locked. It may have been moved inside.
Augustinian house, former
What survives of the precinct consists of the cloister square in the angle between the nave and S transept of the church, and buildings on the N, E and S sides. The open W side is presumed to have contained the Abbot's lodgings. The finest scu;lpture is on the processional doorway to the nave of the church, at the E end of the N cloister walk, and this is recorded with the church rather than here. In the E walk, from N to S, is the end of the S transept with a book locker in the wall, a sacristy at the S end of the transept, the slype leading to an area that is empty now but may have contained the infirmary and the cemetery. Next comes the chapter house. Finally the S range contains the refectory with a doorway towards the W end.This was later divided in two; the E part becoming a warming room. The features described here all belong with the first campaign of work on the site, dateable to the 1170s.
Parish church
Shawbury is a village in central Shropshire on the W bank of the River Roden, 6 miles NE of Shrewsbury, at a junction on the A53 road to Market Drayton. The church stands at the S end of the village It dates from the mid 12thc and is of local Grinshill ashlar. It consists of a 12thc nave and S aisle, a N aisle that was rebuilt in the late 15th/16thc, a 13thc and later chancel, a N chancel chapel, a late-medieval W tower of two stages, and a late 17th/18thc N porch.The church was restored in the 19thc. Surviving Romanesque features are the N and S doorways, a round-headed 12thc window in the S aisle wall, the capitals of N and S nave arcades and the font. The chancel arch is Transitional.
Augustinian house, former
Lilleshall Abbey is 1 mile to the SE of Lilleshall village, 4 miles NE of Telford in the E of central Shropshire. The ruined site, now administered by English Heritage, is at the end of a track on the N side of the minor road linking Lilleshall and Weston Heath. What survives is the church, a cruciform building with a 4-bay chancel, 2 bay transepts with E chapels and a long, aisleless nave. The cloister is on the S side of the nave, and substantial remains of the E and S ranges survive. These are treated as a separate site (Lilleshall Abbey Cloister Buildings).
Of the church, the chancel, transepts and crossing are late-12thc, while the rest of the nave, except for the E bay which goes with the crossing, dates from the 13thc. The crossing is unusual in that the W crossing piers are larger and more complex than the E, because the W crossing arch was by far the most elaborate, with extra orders framing the view into the chancel. Unfortunately, little survives of this above base plinth level, so the only crossing arches that can be described in any detail are the S arch and the E arch. The most impressive Romanesque feature is the doorway from the cloister into the first nave bay on the S side.The chancel is 4 bays long, 2 storeys high and vaulted. The vault responds and their capitals survive and are described below. The S transept arch responds and their capitals survive, but little remains of the N transept. The most impressive Romanesque feature is the doorway from the cloister into the first nave bay on the S side.