The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
St Helen (medieval)
Parish church
Stillingfleet village lies either side of the Fleet, a stream running west to the Ouse.
The church has a nave and chancel on the Norman plan, a 13th-century north aisle to both (the continuation to the east end of which was a chapel and is now a vestry), a south chapel off the nave, and a west tower of early 13th-century date, its top is 16th-century. The plinth remains in situ on the south and east sides of the chancel according to Hodgson Fowler, showing that the chancel was square-ended; its profile is more complex than the usual chamfered and plain.
Romanesque sculpture in situ is only the south doorway and lengths of string course at the western end of the nave, but there is much elsewhere that has been reset. These remnants include string course on the chancel, and remains of what was probably the chancel arch; mostly re-used for the north doorway, reset in the vestry and (according to Hodgson Fowler) in the upper stage of the tower. The church is famous for its old door and the ironwork on it; this has now been remounted inside.
Parish church
Sandal Magna and its church is about two miles south of the centre of Wakefield. The basically-cruciform church has a 6-bay nave with aisles, a crossing tower; transepts and a choir with S aisle; attached rooms to N of chancel; and a S porch. Externally, the church appears late Gothic, in a churchyard having many grave monuments from the 17thc onward. The internal layout has been reordered so that spaces east of the crossing and transepts are function rooms, offices, etc. Sculpture is found in the bases of the piers of the crossing tower; on two fragmentary grave slabs and in reused stones in the 14thc N arcade.
Parish church
Welton is a large church with an aisled nave, transepts, and a chancel with a north chapel and vestry. The church was restored in 1862-3 by G. G. Scott: ‘a typical restoration which resulted in a virtually new church in Scott’s favourite Middle Pointed’ (Pevsner & Neave 1995, 739; Borthwick Institute faculty papers). There is a pond or lake below the church on the north and west, held up by a dam.
All that remains of Romanesque sculpture is one reset capital and a pillar below it.
Parish church
Austerfield is about a mile and a half NE of Bawtry. The small church lies off the village street in a narrow plot, up a gated track. This approach first reveals a W wall with two slit windows (lancets), massive buttresses, and a later bellcote; beyond are the red tiles and slates of the nave, S porch, N aisle and chancel.
There is an early 12thcnave doorway with a tympanum, a chancel arch of the same period, and a late 12thc N arcade. The arcade had been walled up, probably in the 14thc, but was rebuilt in 1879 ( Morris 1919); Pevsner (1967), 87 says it was rebuilt, ‘faithful to the original’, in 1898.
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
Demolished and rebuilt in 1828. A painting and an engraving made shortly before that date (Bodl. MS Top. Oxon. a.65, No.34; Bodl. G.A. Oxon.a.76 f.3) show that there were plain, round-headed doorways in both the N and S walls of the nave, the former with continuous chamfers or rolls and a label. The font is the only Romanesque feature.
Parish church
Healaugh, one of two villages of this name in Yorkshire, is 3 miles NNE of Tadcaster in the Selby district. Nearby are the remains of Healaugh Park Priory (Augustinian, founded 1218). The church of St John the Baptist (originally, St Helen), sited across a hilltop ridge, has a nave with W tower, chancel, north aisle and north chancel aisle. Its plan is still substantially 12thc, however. The E wall and E end of the chancel S wall are later, perhaps partly due to structural weakness developing on this sloping site. The upper parts of the tower are later too, and a crack has been patched over the S doorway.
Sculpture is found on two doorways, an extensive sculptured corbel table to N and S, the chancel arch, and the capitals of the N arcade.
Redundant parish church
Kilnwick Percy is a hamlet in the East Riding of Yorkshire, 1.5 miles NE of Pocklington. According to Pevsner and Neave, ‘The hall and church stand alone in parkland providing the classic deserted village landscape. Hollow ways and traces of house platforms to the S of the church mark the site of the small village finally deserted in the early c18.’ (Pevsner and Neave 1995, 579). The Norman church was rebuilt in 1864-5 ‘in a more elaborate Norman’ style but perhaps on the same plan. In 1901, A. H. Leadman wrote that the doorway ‘has had a chisel over it instead of a scrubbing brush and hot water’ (p. 284).
The church of St Helen has nave and chancel with north porch. Two doorways were reused together to form the N entrance; since the disappearance of the village in the previous century, the Victorian rebuilding was done for the entire benefit of the Hall, and both doorways now face it. The corbels are all likely to be copies, though good ones. There are said to be remains of the chancel arch, but none were identified.
Ruined church
The ruined church of St Helen has a two-celled ground plan, with a rectangular chancel narrower than the nave. At one time both the chancel and nave were barrel vaulted. The south nave wall has been thickened on the interior side at some later date, which raises the question as to whether a vault in the nave, at least, was part of the building as first built. Muir, in 1848, wrote that in the nave there were 'indications of a north-west doorway', and that the decoration of the east window consisted of 'a hollow chevron carried round the head and down the sides close to the edges'. He also stated that the chancel arch 'apparently has been of two chevroned orders', that the central capitals were 'double-escalloped', and that the imposts were of 'trigonal form', carved with a double row of chip-carved saltires. The moulding of the jambs of the chancel arch consisted of a larger central half roll, flanked on either side by two smaller rolls. The west wall of the nave has been rebuilt and incorporates several stones carved with chevron. After the Reformation, control of Aldcambus came into the hands of Alexander, Lord Home. By 1556, the church appears to have been in a perilous condition. Sometime after the Reformation the parish of Aldcambus was annexed to that of Cockburnspath and the parish moved to the church there. The uniting of the two parishes was undertaken by the Lords Commissioners of Teinds before 20th May 1610. By 1750, and probably before, the church was in ruin. In 1847, much of the decorated areas of the church remained and were drawn by James Drummond, but large areas were soon afterwards destroyed by someone searching for stone to use for mending other structures. At that time, the land in and around the church had risen considerably and it was not until the early 20thc that the excavations were made to discover various ground-floor level features. Since then, the overgrowth has once again covered most of the surviving carved stones. Amongst the various stones recorded are a number of early coped graves, which are now no longer visible.