
The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland

St Laurence (medieval)
Parish church
A section of medieval arch is built into the exterior S wall of the S porch. Various works on the church are attested during the 19thc, the most important being a major remodelling and restoration undertaken in 1893, when the S porch was added. It is generally held that this section of arch was taken from the original chancel arch of the twelfth-century church, but no documentary evidence to substantiate this claim is known to exist. The base level and certain sections of walling of much of the nave appear also to date from the original church. The parish of Lundie was joined with that of Fowlis-Easter in 1618, though the teinds for the parsonage and vicarage of Lundie had already been annexed to the prebends of Fowlis-Easter Collegiate Church sometime between 1522 and 1538. Lady Duncan was responsible for the erection of a mausoleum off the east end of the church, which was built in memory of her husband, Sir William Duncan, in 1787-9. Before this was added, the old chancel arch was still visible, as seen in a print of 1786 (see: MacGibbon and Ross).
Parish church
Northfield is now a residential area on the S outskirts of Birmingham. Traditionally it was in Worcestershire, but in 1912 the civil parish was given over to Birmingham (then in Warwickshire). Thus for the period from 1912 until 1974 it was in Warwickshire, which was where it was recorded in Pevsner (1966), and why it was recorded by two fieldworkers independently for this project. This report is synthesised from the reports of Harry Bodenham and G. L. Pearson, and includes photographs from both.
St Laurence's is a sandstone church, comprising a W tower, a nave with N and S aisles, the former built in 1900, and a chancel. Romanesque sculpture is found in the N doorway of the nave, reset into the modern aisle wall, and on carved fragments inset into the N and S faces of the later medieval tower.
Parish church
Long Eaton is a town on the River Trent about seven miles SW of Nottingham. The church lies to the centre of the town and is a rubble stone building with quoins and ashlar. The original church was built at the order of King Cnut the Great in 1025, but was rebuilt in the Romanesque period. The 12thc structure consisted of a nave and a chancel, to which a W tower was added in the 15thc. In 1868 George Edmund Street transformed the Romanesque church into the S aisle, and added to the structure a new chancel, a nave and a N aisle with N vestry. Romanesque sculpture survives on the S doorway and other fragments of similar date reset into the exterior S walls of the S aisle and the chancel chapel.
Parish church
The small village of Glympton lies in the valley of the river Glyme, 10 miles NW of Oxford. The church is hidden within the Glympton estate, accessible by public footpath from the village or by road via the N Lodge. A church was in existence on this site by the early 12thc, presumably consisting of a nave and chancel. The nave was rebuilt during the later Middle Ages. The W tower was largely rebuilt in the 16thc or 17thc, but the original internal Transitional tower arches were retained and its external walls include fragments of decorated Romanesque stone. The chancel arch was replaced and widened in 1849, re-using the original responds and probably simulating the Romanesque arch. In 1872 there was a thorough restoration by George Edmund Street, who rebuilt the chancel and its roof, and also added a S doorway, porch, vestry and new nave windows. The Romanesque features are fragments of zigzag and a possible corbel re-used in the tower, the chancel arch responds and capitals, part of the nave walls with internal corbels, and the decorated font. An inscription mounted in the chancel may also be Romanesque.
Parish church
The village of Toot Baldon is off the beaten track, mostly away from main roads. It occupies a ridge of high ground E of the old Roman road that ran NS between Alchester (Bicester) and Dorchester. The church lies on a rise at the end of a long lane with views SE from the churchyard over fields towards Baldon brook. It is 13thc. in appearance with continuous nave and chancel, two narrow aisles, south transept, north vestry, steeply pitched tiled roof and low rubble walls with ashlar dressings. There is a double bellcote over the west gable, according to VCH, an early example. The whole building has been much restored and the S porch rebuilt. Romanesque features are the plain N nave doorway and scallop detailing on the N arcade W respond.
Parish church
St Laurence's is in the centre of Reading, originally standing beween the W gate of the Abbey and the Hospitium of St John. It now faces Friar St with the Town Hall to the N. It consists of a nave with a N aisle only, a chancel with a N chapel and a 16thc. W tower. Construction is of flint. The original church on the site may have been early 12thc., but according to VCH all that remains standing of this is the S nave wall, the lower part of the tower S wall and a window reset in the SW of the nave. The foundation of the Hospitium of St John in 1196 may have acted as a spur to enlarge the church by demolishing the old tower to extend the nave, and at the same time new N and S doorways were added. The S is still in place, and fragments from the N are set in a blocked arch in the N nave aisle. The N aisle itself and the chancel chapel apparently followed in the 13thc. The N arcade was rebuilt in 1522, and the church was repaired and reseated by Joseph Morris of Reading in 1867-69. Late 12thc. sculpture is found on the S nave doorway and in a blocked arch in the N aisle wall, but more interesting is the folly in the churchyard NE of the church, centred on the former W window of St Laurence's but also including carved stones from the Reading Abbey site.
Parish church
Kilham is a large village in the East Riding of Yorkshire, about 5 miles W of Bridlington. It was a busy market centre until being surpassed by Driffield in the late eighteenth century. The church has chancel, aisleless nave and W tower. According to John Bilson, it was one of the largest of the earlier Wold churches and the wide nave is on its Norman plan, without aisles or chapels (1898, xviii). Traces of an impressive Romanesque church survive. Sculptural remains from this period include the spectacular gabled S entrance with doorway of six orders, an elaborate series of sculptured corbels on the N and S nave walls, some fine reused voussoirs in the interior tower walls, and a cylindrical font.
Parish church
The church consists of a chancel with vestry on the N, a nave, N aisle, W tower and S porch. The nave has a late 12th-century, four-bay, N arcade with a mixture of trumpet scallops and a moulded capital.
Parish church
Upton is a suburb of Slough, now in the Slough district of Berkshire but before the reforms of 1974 it was part of Buckinghamshire. The parish was formerly known as Upton cum Chalvey, and included both Chalvey and Slough, both small settlements. When the new civil parish of Slough was formed in 1894, Upton was a part of it. It forms the southern part of central Slough, between the centre and the M4.The church consists of a 12thc nave and chancel with a central tower. A separately roofed S aisle was added by Ferrey in 1850-51, with a vestry at its E end. Ferrrey also replaced the nave windows on the N side in a Romanesque style, replacing the 15thc windows that were there. The Romanesque church shows evidence of two phases. The first includes the tower and a shorter nave and chancel, all constructed using a large proportion of puddingstone. The nave had a N doorway and a window above it, both now blocked. When the church was extended E and W the doorway was moved a bay to the W. The chancel has a 2-bay rib vault belonging to the second phase. In addition to the N doorway the arcaded 12thc font, a pillar piscina in the chancel and the chancel vault remain to be recorded when access to the interior has been gained.
Parish church
The current church is entirely 19thc., built in 1879–80 by J. F. Gould, with a sliightly later tower by Webb of Barnstaple (Pevsner 1989, 726). It comprises chancel, nave with S porch and W tower. The font is the only Romanesque feature, surviving from an earlier building.