The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
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Parish church
The church is 13thc. cruciform, comprising nave, chancel, S transept and N transeptal tower of c. 1300. The church was restored in 1848 and 1870-72. The font is the only 12thc. feature.
Parish church
The south doorway is the only major carved work of the Romanesque building still in its 12thc. position, but several loose Romanesque carved stones also remain, these kept in the E end of the church and in the on-site museum. What appears to have originally been a two-cell church was rebuilt in 1579 and has extensive later additions on the N and S sides. In 1851, the Rev’d John Sime drew a plan of the church as it existed at that time. In 1893, the church was extended at the W end and a new aisle was built along the N side of the nave, at which time the so-called ‘Duddingston Aisle’ on the N side of the nave was taken down.
Cathedral church
A Romanesque impost block with chip-carving and a wheel-headed cross missing the lower original arm are preserved inside the former cathedral church. Along with other medieval stone fragments, they have been kept inside since at least 1906. In 2000, the cross head was repaired and mounted onto a modern shaft. It is presently (2020) sited in the south aisle of the church. The impost block is kept in a room above the S porch. Restoration work on the church was carried out in 1832, 1867-8, 1926-8,1965-73 and 1976-91. No Romanesque work is known to suvive within the existing fabric of the church.
Parish church
The old church, described by Sir Stephen Glynne as 'only a nave and chancel with western tower and spire...', with the exception of the tower was demolished in 1861, and rebuilt by Salvin (who also worked at Sherburn-in-Elmet) in 1861-2 and 1891. Photographs were taken in 1946 of photographs that had been taken during the demolition (Ryder reproduces three of these (plates 33, 148, 149)). The tower still has a few original (very worn) corbels and there is a small Norman window reset in the N wall of the chancel.
Parish church
The parishes of Albar and Aberlemno were merged in the 17thc. The baptismal font inside the Aberlemno Church belonged to the church or chapel at nearby Aldbar. It was was moved to Aberlemno sometime after 1887 and placed outside the church there. In 1992 the baptismal font was moved inside the church, where it remains.
Round tower
The round tower stands in the SW section of the churchyard, isolated from the church. It is built of coursed dressed-ashlars on both the interior and exterior faces, with a change in stone type observable above the lower section. The only significant elements are on the exterior: the raised N doorway and the four window openings of the highest level. There are no stringcourses on the exterior face, except for that at the top of the structure, which appears to be of later date. Only a few small plain openings light the the lower interior levels. Gordon stated in his published itinerary of 1726 that the interior of the tower was 'hollow' like a 'deep draw well'. In a letter to his sister in 1760, Pococke reported that the tower had seven stories and that the internal 'floors extend to rather more than three quarters of the circle, the rope of the bell coming down by the open space'. With no stairway built into the interior, it seems that ladders were the only means of ascending the various levels. The N doorway, which inclines slightly towards the top is heavily weathered and shows no distinctive decoration, while the upper window openings have been covered with some sort of protective coating. In the Statistical Accounts of 1794, it was stated that the church, which stood a short distance NE of the tower, 'is remarkable for nothing but its antiquity' and that there was no record of when it was built. However, in Pococke's letter of 1760 he wrote that the church was small and had a door of 'the plainest Saxon architecture' (i.e. round-headed). He wrote that it was also believed that the 'great church' had been built to the NE of this, but no longer existed. The church which was still existent at that time was taken down in 1802 and a new church built north of it, apparently using stones from the earlier church. In 1821, excavations of the base of the tower discovered a skeleton and green urn buried inside the tower, below which were flagstones and more skeletons. Brash drew a section of the tower for his article of 1862, which showed six floors built onto the interior stone stringcourses, separating the tower into five main areas. There were, as well, a basement level and top parapet. Butler (1893) reported that the Earl of Home had introduced a spiral staircase into the tower so that visitors could climb to the top, and that some repair work had been undertaken. This would have required the removal of the previous floorings. The present metal spiral staircase fills the entire interior space. New stones from various repairs are evident in the stonework.
Parish church
The church of St Nicholas stands in the Market Place, alongside the west gateway of the abbey precinct. The W front and N wall date from the mid 12thc., but no original sculpture survives. The present W doorway belongs to a restoration of 1880, and is based on drawings by H.Neil (1804, engraved by J.C.Smith and published in 1805), and J.Storer (1808, engraved by the artist). These show the doorway in a dilapidated state, but substantially as it appears today, with the exceptions noted below.
Benedictine house, former
Nothing of the abbey church remains in situ, and the surviving abbey buildings all postdate the 12thc. In the Abbey Gardens, where the church once stood, is an artificial ruin constructed of fragments from the site. Reset in the S wall of this are the voussoirs described below.
Parish church
The church has a 13thc. chancel as shown by a small lancet in the N wall, now opening into the N chapel. There is a S chapel too, and both now give onto a wide, approximately square nave. This had aisles originally but after a storm in 1821 they were removed and the present nave created. The windows in the side walls are large and pointed with gothick Y-tracery. The wooden gallery at the west end dates from 1924. The nave has N and S doorways; the S of c.1200 under a porch, the N slightly later, single-order, continuous, pointed and chamfered and completely plain. This now gives access to an L-shaped suite of modern vestries and offices that surrounds the NW angle of the nave, abutting the N wall of the west tower. The tower arch from the nave is of c.1200, and the tower itself is very tall and of four slightly stepped storeys with a blocked c.1200 window in the S wall of the third storey. The fourth storey is Perpendicular with transomed bell-openings and battlements. The Romanesque features described here are the S doorway and the tower arch.
Parish church
Aisleless nave and chancel with W tower, all of
flint with ashlar facings. The chancel has a N
vestry and the S nave doorway has a porch. The N wall of the nave is cement-rendered. The fabric
is 14–15thc., but the chancel was rebuilt in
1875. The only Romanesque sculpture is a fragment mortared onto the seat of the
S porch, described below as a loose stone.