The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Our Lady (medieval)
Parish church
The medieval church was demolished and totally rebuilt by Alfred Waterhouse in 1876-7. Apart from some 15thc window tracery reused, all that survives are the partly recarved capitals of the late 12th arcades, and a 13thc Purbeck marble font, with a frieze of plain pointed arches. Images of the church show that it had a late-medieval exterior.
Parish church
St Luke's was originally a cruciform church and retains its central
tower. The form of the original nave is visible on the W facade, and apparently
had no aisles. The nave has N and S aisles, extended eastwards to subsume the
former transepts, providing N and S chapels. The N chapel now houses lavatories
and a kitchen, and the S is used as a vestry. The
crossing has narrow arches to N and S, and broader,
taller ones to E and W. All four are apparently 14thc., as is the upper part of
the tower, although the lower storey may be 12thc. The nave has a
clerestorey on the S side only, and there are N and S
doorways in the aisles, the S early 13thc. under a porch, and the W windows are also 13thc. work. The
three-bay nave arcades and the
aisle windows date from c.1300, but the W respond of the S arcade is 12thc. An
altar has been installed at the W end of the nave in addition to that at the E
end of the chancel, to make St Luke's a double-ended
church with the two liturgical spaces separated by the crossing.
The font is 12thc.
Parish church
Grafton Regis is in the SE of the county, less than half a mile from the
river Tove (Great Ouse) that forms the border with Buckinghamshire. The village
extends along minor roads running E from the A508 Northampton to Buckingham
road, and the church and manor house are sited at the eastern end of the
village, close to the river and the Grand Union Canal. The church comprises: a
W tower; a nave with a S doorway in a porch; a N aisle
with a 13thc. arcade, and a square-ended
chancel with an organ chamber/vestry on the N side. The slightly pointed, chamfered arches of the N arcade, and
the more steeply pointed chancel arch, have sawtooth
labels. The church was repaired and re-roofed in 1840,
and many of the furnishings were replaced in 1889. More restoration was
required by the 1970s, and work on the tower, roof and windows was eventually
completed in the following decade. The only 12thc. feature is the
font.
Parish church
Gayton is a substantial village towards the S of the county, 4 miles SW
of Northampton. Gayton stands on a hill with the church and manor house at the
NE edge of the village. St Mary's comprises a W tower, an aisled nave with a
clerestorey and a square chancel with N and S chapels. The tower is of three storeys;
the lowest 12thc. with plain lancets, the next with plate-traceried 13thc.
windows and the top storey with flowing bell-openings and a battlemented
parapet. The upper part, however, is 19thc. The nave has aisles with
three-bay
arcades of
c.1300. The chancel has a large 14thc. E window.
The N chapel has the tomb of Sir Philip de Gayton (d.1316) in the arch to the
chancel, and that of his daughter Lady Scholastica de
Meaux (d.1354) with effigies of her and her baby against the N wall. The S
chapel now houses the organ. The font is the only Romanesque
feature.
Parish church
St Mary's is a substantial church with an aisled and clerestoreyed nave,
a late-13thc. chancel (restored in 1866-68) with a S
vestry of 1882 and an octagonal parish room added to
the S of this in 1984, and a 13thc. W tower with a 14thc. embattled parapet and spire. Pevsner's analysis suggests that
the original church was cruciform, on the basis of the nook-shafted
respond of N arcade,
pier 3. The tower and spire were entirely rebuilt in
1866-68 by W. Slater, and the rest of the church restored. Romanesque interest
centres on the nave arcades, each of six
bays with part of a seventh at the W. The three E
bays of both arcades are of
c.1300, with tall pointed arches and quatrefoil
piers. Then, on the S the three and a half western
bays, with their round-headed arches, and the three
western piers, cylindrical with scallop capitals, are
all 12thc. The N arcade is more complex, since only
bay 4 is round-headed, and the western bays are pointed with 13thc. stiff-leaf capitals. Pevsner described the exterior as 'much
too restored'.
Parish church
St Mary's has an aisleless nave with plain 12thc. N and S doorways, both under porches but the N porch blocked off and converted into a vestry. The chancel is entirely 19thc. (by St Aubyn, 1891), with big niches to N and S. The N niche contains the 1634 tomb of Katherine Lady Gorges (d.1633); the N contains the organ. The west tower is 13thc. and unbuttressed but has shafts at the angles. Its bell-openings date from 1705. The church is faced with grey rubble except for the chancel, of regularly coursed brown sandstone.
Parish church
St Mary's has a nave with N and S aisles and Perpendicular clerestoreys. The arcades are both of the 13thc. and very similar, of four bays of which the W bays on either side are very narrow. The reset nave doorways are of c.1200; the N unprotected, the S, of two orders with nook-shafts, under a porch. The S aisle was rebuilt in 1877, and the chancel in 1883. On the N side of the chancel is the Raynsford Chapel (now used as a vestry), built in 1679 in a gothic style and containing family monuments of some pretensions. The W tower is of four slightly stepped storeys, the lowest three of c.1200 to judge from a blocked window in the S wall. The top storey is Perpendicular. Romanesque features recorded here are the N and S doorways.
Parish church
St Mary's has an aisled nave with a clerestorey. The nave is more or less rectangular in plan, but the arcades to N and S are differently treated. On the S are five uneven bays; the two western bays round-headed and the remainder pointed. The N arcade piers are more regularly spaced, i.e they are entirely out of step with those on the S. In the N there are three round-headed bays at the W end, then two full-sized pointed bays and a short pointed bay, leading to a vestry and partly blocked with a later doorway inserted. These different arrangements bring the two arcades to roughly the same point, and here the aisleless chancel starts, although there is no masonry chancel arch. The liturgical arrangements have been altered at some time, and a chancel step built right across the nave at S pier 1, which is part-way along the first full-sized bay on the north. This bay now houses the organ, and the liturgical changes have brought it into the chancel. The chancel is short and square-ended, substantially 13thc., although on its E wall are the remains of an earlier round-headed window. The W tower arch is 12thc., but a pointed arch has been inserted to reduce its size. The tower itself has a tall lower storey of rubble with plain 12thc. windows, and to which a 13thc. storey has been added. There are N and S nave doorways, both under 19thc. porches. Romanesque work is found in the nave arcades, the tower arch, the N nave doorway and a piscina set in the S nave aisle. The church was restored by Ewan Christian in 1885-87 (N and S porches, N aisle wall), and by H. F. Traylen and F. J. Lenton in 1933-35 (tower).
Parish church
Whittlebury is a village in the S of the county, a mile from the
Buckinghamshire border on the A413 road from Buckingham to Towcester. A large
part of the medieval parish was occupied by Whittlewood Forest, where assarting
was recorded as early as the 13thc. and probably took place before that.
Remains of the forest are mostly to the S and E, forming a ring of discrete
woods and copses. The settlement itself was centred on the area of the church,
at the N end of the modern village, where finds by the Whittlewood Project
indicate Iron Age habitation. The church consists of a 12thc.-13thc. W tower,
an aisled nave with no clerestorey, offset from the
line of the tower and a square-ended chancel, largely
of 1878. Pevsner describes the church as "restored beyond redemption", but it
retains some Romanesque features. A datestone suggests that the N aisle was
rebuilt in 1638. The church was repaired and refurnished in 1832, and a
vestry was added in 1850. The entire church was
restored in 1878. The tower arch is included here, although it may be 13thc.,
and a sawtooth stringcourse above it. The N nave arcade
includes a waterleaf
capital.
Parish church
St Mary's has a chancel with a S
vestry, a central tower and a nave with a 19thc. N
aisle and no clerestorey and a S doorway under a
porch. The N nave doorway now communicates with a
church hall, added in 1972 to replace the old church institute, dating from
1886, which had fallen into disrepair. The original aisleless nave and
chancel are mid-12thc. work, to judge from the small
round-headed lancets in the chancel and the S nave
doorway, with beakhead decoration. The tower, a
substantial structure of stone rubble, is presumably contemporary, but the
pointed lancets and the spacious triple arcading on the
N and S walls suggest a remodelling around 1200, while the transomed,
trefoil-headed double bell-openings of the upper
storey must date from the 15thc. The nave roof collapsed in 1660, and in 1669
it was re-roofed and new windows put in the S wall. At the same time one of the
tower arches was bricked up, and only a small door provided to give access
between nave and chancel. In 1822 the chancel was still walled off from the nave, and was in use as
a Sunday School. The partition was eventually taken down in 1840. Meanwhile the
nave was repaired in 1822, when the floor level was raised and a
gallery was added at the W end. The N aisle was added
in 1850. The tower was restored in 1856, and the chancel in 1857 by E. F. Law, including re-roofing with the
present high-pitched roof. The nave roof was raised to match the
chancel roof in 1864. The S vestry was added in 1879. A major restoration of the tower
took place in 1949-50, and in 1950 the interior of the church was restored. A
further restoration of the exterior took place in 1981. Features described here
are the S nave doorway and the tower arcading.