The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Parish church
The tiny hamlet of Lovington (Lufa’s tun) lies 1km S of the Somerset river Brue and only about 500m N of the Cary, on the SW edge of a terrace deposit of gravel on top of the locally predominant Lower Lias rock, with extensive tracts of such terrace deposit to the NE. The church is about 0.5 mi S of the secondary B3153 road linking Castle Cary to Somerton. The church has 13thc origins. The tower, nave and porch were all rebuilt from 1861-3. There is a font of unknown date, most probably post-c.1200, but which is included here for reference.
Parish church
Winkburn is a village in the Newark and Sherwood district of the county, 6 miles NW of Newark. The church is of dressed coursed rubble, rendered except for the tower. It consists of chancel, nave, S porch and W tower. The doorway in the S porch, the openings in the tower and the tower arch are Romanesque. The fabric of the church appears to be largely 11th/12thc.. An inscription on the tower tells of a restoration in 1632. There was a further restoration in 1996.
Parish church
The Mendip hamlet of Ston Easton (‘Stone’ on old maps) is 7mi N of Shepton Mallet. It lies on a gentle N-facing slope down from Old Down to the S, at about 150m OD, on the main A37 Bristol-Weymouth road about 0.5 mi S of its junction with the main A39 Wells-Bath road. Ston Easton Park occupies the valley E of the hamlet, and the church is adjacent to the main road at its S end. The church of St Mary, which was heavily restored in the 19thc., has a nave with N and Saisles, a chancel with N and S chapels, and a W tower. There is a Romanesque chancel arch.
Parish church
Tangley is located in the NW corner of Hampshire, close to the Wiltshire border. The church comprises a W tower, a nave with a S porch, a N transept containing a vestry, a chancel and an apse. A twinned Norman window is positioned in the gable of the chancel, above the apse roof.
Parish church
Litchfield is located in the N of Hampshire, between Andover and Basingstoke. The church of St James the Less comprises a continuous chancel and nave, a N aisle (rebuilt 1874-75) and a S porch (1874-75). Carved corbels in an Early English style, perhaps for vaulting, survive in the chancel. The two-bay arcade of a late 12thc. demolished S aisle is visible in the S wall of the nave. The plain three-bay N arcade, preserved in the Victorian N aisle, is probably slightly later in date, c.1200. There is a wooden bell turret (with a shingled spire of 1874-75) over the W end of the nave. The font may date from the 12thc. but is heavily recut.
Parish church, formerly chapel
Kniveton is a village in the Derbyshire Dales district of the county, 3 miles NE of Ashbourne. The church is in the village centre and has an aisleless nave with a W gallery and a S porch, a W tower with a spire and a chancel with a N vestry. The nave and S doorway are 12thc work. The W tower is late 13thc with battlements and tower added in the 15th-16thc. Both nave and chancel were rebuilt with new windows in 1663. Construction is of coursed gritstone rubble with ashlar dressings.
Parish church
Killamarsh is a town in the NE Derbyshire district of the county, 8 miles NE of Chesterfield but for practical purposes on the SE outskirts of Sheffield. The church is on the N edge of the town and consists of nave, chancel, south porch and embattled tower. The N aisle and vestry were added in 1895 by J M Brooks, but there was an earlier 19thc restoration in which the chancel was rebuilt. The only Romanesque feature remaining in the church is the S nave doorway.
Redundant parish church
Clapton-in-Gordano is near Clevedon in the NE tip of Somerset near the seaside town of Clevedon. Although still a marshy area, the Gordano valley must once have been muddy enough to deserve its naming: the first element meaning ‘mire’ and the second ‘valley’. ‘Clapton’ means ‘hill-settlement’. The church of St Michael lies quite high above the valley, at about 30m OD, above the lane which runs along the southern edge of the Gordano valley, all alone on its platform above the nearby Court. As Pevsner says: ‘The dedication is explained by the sitiing of the church, all alone on a bluff.’ The church, which is built with sandstone and limestone rubble, with limestone dressings, consists of a W tower, nave, S porch, N chapel and chancel. The Romanesque elements consist of N and S doorways, tower arch and windows and corbel table.
Augustinian house, former
Mottisfont Abbey is a country house with, as the name implies, monastic origins. It occupies extensive grounds by the River Test, to the NE of Mottisfont village, between Romsey (S) and Stockbridge (N). The house was built by Sir William Sandys in 1538-40 within the shell of the dissolved Augustinian priory of Mottisfont. It was remodelled by one of Sandys’s successors, Sir Richard Mills, c.1740. Works for John Barker-Mill in the 1830s uncovered a piscina and part of the pultipum. Several additional medieval features were exposed in 1900-1902 by the then-owner, Mrs Vaudrey Barker-Mills. Modernisation and redecoration were undertaken by Gilbert and Maud Russell, who bought the property in 1934. Maud Russell donated Mottisfont Abbey to the National Trust in 1957 but continued to live in the house until 1972. Shortly afterwards it opened as a visitor attraction.
The main body of Mottisfont Abbey, running E to W, has a double pile. The present form of the pedimented S range, on the site of the N cloister walk, is mid-18thc., but it may have originated as a Tudor gallery with stairs in the re-entrant angles of the E and W ranges. The parallel N range was built in the late 1530s within the shell of the nave and central tower of the cruciform priory church. The chancel and side chapels to the E of this, together with the N transept, were probably demolished by Sandys (see History). The upper stages of the tower were removed but two orders of the N crossing arch can still be seen on the N elevation, together with their capitals. A Venetian window within the blocked arch lights the dining room. The S side of the W crossing arch is preserved in a cupboard inside this room.
Two nave windows have been exposed in adjoining bedrooms beyond the dining room, in the SE corner of the Red Room and the S wall of the White Room. Three bays of internal blind arcading survive on the S side of the nave, in what is now the café kitchen on the lower ground floor. The damaged remains of similar arcading have been uncovered in the N wall, within the café. The public entrance to the café has an Early English doorway on its inner face: this has been largely renewed and possibly repositioned.
The S transept is preserved in the E wing. The arch that formerly opened from the transept into the S chapel now provides access, via the E porch, to the National Trust café and lower ground floor passage. One jamb of the corresponding arch, which led from the N transept into the chapel on the N side of the chancel, is buried in a buttress on the NE corner of the house.
The E and W claustral ranges were remodelled as part of Sandys’s house in the 1530s, then truncated by Sir Richard Mills in the mid-18thc. to create short wings terminating in canted bays (see History). The W wing and terrace overlie the outer parlour and the vaulted undercroft (cellarium) of the cellarer's range, while the E wing occupies the S transept and part of the chapterhouse. Remains of the chapterhouse are preserved beneath a double flight of steps on the S side of the wing, and two responds, complete with springers, have been reset inside the E porch. The shafts and capitals are of Purbeck marble. The N jamb of the chapterhouse doorway also survives.
The chapterhouse, cellarium and nave doorway have round moulded capitals and bases characteristic of the mature Early English style and are not included in the CRSBI record.
Oratory (ruin)
A small oratory, 23'7" x 15'7" (7.18 m x 4.75 m) (Westropp); ruined and ivy-covered, but with walls and gables standing to full height. The W doorway is damaged but enough of the bases and inside L jamb survive to indicate an arched opening. There are no carved or moulded stones on the jambs or arch apart from some ashlar springers on the interior R. Of rubble masonry apart from the ashlar E window.