The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
St Andrew (medieval)
Parish church
St Andrew’s has a nave with a north aisle, the plain three-bay arcade dating from c.1200. A north transept was added in 1847 to house a Robinson family pew. The chancel has chapels to north and south; the north now housing the organ, and the south monuments of the Robinsons. The west tower is late-13c in its lower parts, including an elaborate west doorway and the bell-openings. It was heightened and battlements added in the 14c. Only the N arcade is described below. The two Cranford churches were united under a single rector in 1841, and in 1954 St Andrew’s became a chapel-of-ease to St John’s. It passed into the care of the Churches Conservation Trust in 1996.
Parish church
A cruciform church of c.1200 with aisled nave, transepts and aisleless chancel. The crossing tower was removed and a W tower built to replace it, referred to in 1502 as the novum campanile and probably dating from around that time. The nave clerestorey is also late medieval, as is the chapel added to the N of the chancel. The W crossing arch provides a spectacular display of chevron ornament, and all four crossing arches have carved capitals, as do the nave arcades. It should be said that each crossing arch is supported on half columns, and between adjacent half columns within the crossing space are slender shafts with capitals. The capitals of the major supports differ from one another, and those of the secondary shafts always continue one or other of the designs alongside them, but the system is not really regular enough to say that some of the arches have two orders towards the centre and others have only one. For example, the shafts on the E side of the N and S arches clearly belong to the E crossing arch, while those on the W side belong just as unambiguously to the N and S arches rather than the W arch. In addition it should be noted that orders in the arch never correspond to what is going on in the piers below, and for that reason the arch decoration is always described separately from the piers.
Finally there are plain arches leading from the nave aisles into the transepts.
Parish church
The N and S nave arcades and the north door of the nave demonstrate that the nave dates from the second half of the 12thc. though the clerestory was added in the 15thc. A piscina in the chancel is made from a reused scalloped capital. The chancel has flat buttresses suggesting a Norman origin, though it was altered in the 14thc. The church was restored by William Butterfield in 1847-9.
Parish church
Sonning is an attractive village on the Thames, NE of Reading. St Andrew's is at the western edge of the village, close to the river. As it stands the church consists of a rectangular nave and chancel with N and S aisles throughout, the chancel aisles, slightly wider than those of the nave, forming chapels and a vestry. There are nave doorways covered by porches to N and S, and a W tower. The fabric is all of flint with ashlar dressings. The VCH identifies a complex building history beginning in the 13thc., but the overall visual effect is of Woodyer's extensive restoration of 1852. The interest of the church lies in the carved stones, presumably from Reading Abbey, set into the tower (which became unstable and was rebuilt at the Reformation), and in an elaborate pillar piscina, repositioned against a pier of the N arcade opposite the N doorway.
Parish church
Quatt is a small village in the Severn valley on its E bank, 4 miles SE of Bridgnorth. The church stands in the village centre.
St Andrew's has a chancel that is 11thc in origin with a 12thc doorway and window and evidence of work in the 14thc including a N chapel (restored in 1950). The tower, nave and N aisle are 18thc work and there is a 12thc font. This and the S chancel doorway are the only features recorded here.
Parish church
Bridge Sollers is a village on the River Wye 6 miles W of Hereford. The village consists of a few dwellings and the church clustered around a crossing of the river. The church is on the N bank, alongside the main A438 road from Hereford to Brecon. It consists of 12thc nave with a later 12thc W tower and N aisle and a 13thc chancel. The Romanesque features here are the S doorway, under a 19thc timber porch, and the later 12thc N arcade.
Parish church
Wolferlow is a village in NE Herefordshire, in a tongue of land projecting into Worcestershire. It is thus half a mile from two Worcestershire borders - to the E and the NW. The nearest Herefordshire town of any size is Bromyard, 4 miles to the S. The village comprises the church, two farms, Wolferlow House and a few cottages, and is the site of a Deserted Medieval Settlement SW of the church.
The church consists of a chancel with a N vestry, nave with S porch and a timber-framed bell turret with a broach spire. It was restored by James Cranston in 1863-64, but has medieval material in the shape of the N and S doorways; the former blocked and the latter protected by a porch. It has been disused since 2002, and it was not possible to gain entry. Hence only the two doorways are recorded here.
Parish church
The town is the market and shopping centre for a dale still very much centred on farming. The church is long and low with a western tower. There is no chancel arch and the arcades are of 8 and 6 bays; the last arch to the east in each arcade is pointed. Considerable rebuilding in the Perpendicular and Tudor periods besides alterations at the restoration of 1885-86 have affected the appearance of the church (Frankland 1938, 293-4). Late 12thc remains are found in parts of the restored arcades, and the N doorway to the nave; an earlier tower arch may be seen in the W wall of the nave.
Parish church
The small village of Blagdon is in the Mendip Hills, 11 miles SW of Bristol. It lies on Dolomitic conglomerate bedrock at an altitude of about 100m above OD on the fairly steep south side of the upper Yeo valley. The Black Down after which the settlement is named is an expanse of upland heath on Portishead Beds of Old Red Sandstone 2.5km to the SW; its summit, Beacon Batch, is the highest point of the Mendips at 325m above OD. Above the village towards Black Down the underlying rock is composed of bands of limestone of varied width (specifically: Hotwells Limestone-Harptree Beds-Clifton Down Limestone-Burrington Oolite-Black Rock Limestone-Lower Limestone Shale); below, down to the reservoir NE of the village (Blagdon Lake - opened in 1901), is the inevitable Mercia Mudstone (Keuper Marl). The village looks across its lake to gentle Lias hills on the other side of the valley — hills which hide from view the conurbation of nearby Bristol.
Blagdon village lies along the main A368 Weston-Bath road and adjoining lanes. The church part of the village is kept discrete from the commercial part by a deep combe which even today preserves a totally rural landscape; the two parts are connected by a footpath which gives fine views from the west of the church on its eminence (at an altitude of about 100m above OD) commanding the lake.
St Andrew’s is a very grand large church which has been obviously refurbished by Bristol mercantile money, probably more than strictly necessary for fabric-survival: a building proclaiming proud patronage. This healthy situation (for the fabric) is possibly now ended since the last substantial contributions came from Wills tobacco money and the present congregation is unable to match those. It has an aisled nave with a south porch, a short chancel and an impressive 4-storey W tower. The tower is 15thc but the rest of the church is by Sir Frank Wills of 1907-09. Construction is of closely jointed squared and coursed dressed stone to the tower and rock-faced rubble squared and coursed with ashlar dressings to remainder. The only Romanesque feature is a piscina with figural carving.
Parish church
The town of Shifnal lies 3 miles E of Telford. The church, built of red sandstone, is on the SW side of the town. The nave of the church was substantially rebuilt during the restorations of 1876-79, when the aisles may have been added; the 13thc S porch remains. The crossing tower is of c.1300. The chancel has 14thc additions to the E and S and an additional c.1300 chancel arch.
Romanesque elements date from the late 12thc and include parts of the chancel: two 12thc windows in the N wall with decoration both on the interior and exterior; a chancel arch with sculptural decoration behind the later one. The S transept is also substantially 12thc with sculptural decoration on the S transept arch leading into the S chancel chapel, on the 12thc window on the W wall, now the E end of the S aisle, as well as remains of the doorway on the S wall of the S transept.