The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
St Gregory (medieval)
Parish church
Weare is a village in the Axminster district of Somserset . Only separated from the Axe river to the N by 600m of water meadow, Weare village is strung out along the N edge of the termination of a line of low hills reaching NW from the important nearby centre of Wedmore. The Mendip Hills are only about 2mi to the N, and Axbridge 2mi to the NE. The church of St Gregory, which is located in the centre of the village, consists of a W tower, nave with S porch and N aisle and a chancel. It is largely 15thc in date but has an 11thc S doorway and Romanesque font.
Parish church
Of Saxon origin and built of a Cotswold-type stone. Tower, aisled nave and chancel, the last rebuilt in the early 14thc. The nave upper walls have remnants of pre-Conquest windows and doors, completely blocked. The piers and responds of the nave arcades are basically 12thc.; the arches are pointed except for those at the W end, which are round-headed and terminate in a later W wall. Romanesque sculpture is also found in the doorway once in the N wall but now reset in the S.
Parish church
The village is located in the Blackmore Vale in north Dorset and sits above the river Stour. The present building consists of a chancel rebuilt c.1882, a 14thc N chapel; a 15thc S chapel; a nave with a late-14thc N aisle; a S aisle and a porch of c.1852, and a 15thc W tower.
The only Romanesque architectural sculpture is a pier, with capitals, that forms part of the N arcade. A 12thc font bowl also survives, now located in the S aisle.
Parish church
Whitchurch, Somerset (one of many settlements of the same name across the British Isles) is a village and now a suburb adjoining south Bristol. Incredibly, there are still green fields to the S and W of the church: right up to the S churchyard wall. That is very deceptive, for Whitchurch ceased to be a discrete village some time between the world wars ― being swallowed up by the sprawling Bristol conurbation. Whitchurch itself sits on Lower Lias bedrock, mostly White and Blue Lias Limestone but there are areas of clay. The village must have been an important stage and crossroads on the route between Bristol and the south. It is perched on a gently north-shelving platform at an altitude of about 70m above OD, about 30m below the pass over which travellers have to pass. Keynsham, the manorial centre, is about 2.5 mi to the NE; there is equally easy access to the SW, to the Chew valley including the possible minster church of Chew Magna and the impressively Romanesque Compton Martin.
The church of St Nicholas was built between the 12thc and 15thc, with a 19thc restoration. It consists of nave, N porch, S chapel incorporated in a S transept, S aisle and porch, N transept, central crossing tower and chancel. The N doorway is 12thc but perhaps restored; the Crossing piers and font are also Romanesque.
Chapel, formerly parish church
The church was rebuilt in 1858 (tower in 1872); however, it preserves a Romanesque tympanum over the S door and a font. Both features have been dated to the first half of the 12thc.