The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
St Lawrence (medieval)
Parish church
Preston-on-Wye is a village in the Wye valley, 8 miles W of Hereford. The village is on the S side of the river, with the church a half mile N of the modern centre, close to the river. St Lawrence’s church was drastically restored by T. Nicholson in 1883, and consists of a long chancel with a N vestry, an aisleless nave with no chancel arch, a N transept used as a store-room, a S porch and a W tower. Romanesque work is found in a lancet at the W end of the N nave wall, the N and S nave doorways and the font.
Parish church
Waltham St Lawrence is a small village in wooded farmland 4 miles SW of Maidenhead and 8 miles NE of Reading. The church stands in the centre of the village, and comprises a two-bay 12thc. aisled nave extended to the E by two Dec bays, and a W tower,and a chancel with N and S chapels all c.1300 or later. The nave has a S porch, and the N chapel a modern N vestry. Romanesque sculpture is found in the 12thc nave arcade capitals.
Parish church
West Challow is a village at the foot of the Berkshire Downs, in the Vale of White Horse district of the county, 2 miles W of Wantage. The village is on Childrey Brook, a tributary of the River Ock. The church is on the S edge of the village centre, and has a 12thc nave and a 15thc chancel and porch and the windows in the east, north and south walls are original. The church was reseated and repaired in 1891, according to a notice in the porch. Romanesque work is found on the N doorway and the font.
Parish church
Weston-under-Penyard is a village 2 miles SE of Ross-on-Wye, on either side of the A40 to Gloucester. The church is on the S side of the village, on the outskirts of Penyard Park; formerly a medieval forest and chase, and now a conservation area. St Lawrence's has a 13thc chancel with a S vestry, a nave with a N aisle and a 12thc arcade, N and S doorways and a W tower. The N doorway, under a brick and timber porch, is on the village side and is the main entrance to the church. Romanesque features recorded here are the N nave arcade with its figural label stops, and the N doorway with the reset corbel heads that flank it. The S doorway is completely plain and is not recorded.
Parish church
St Lawrence's has a 12thc. W tower and nave to which a tall, hall-church-like S aisle has been added. The arcade is apparently 14thc., and its two E capitals are carved with elaborate naturalistic foliage. There are N and S nave doorways, the latter under a porch. The chancel is early 13thc. to judge from the priest's doorway, although the chancel arch is later. The tower, of stone rubble, has a plain 12thc. window on the ground storey, W face, and c.1200 bell-openings on all faces except the S. It was originally of three storeys, and the third has been heightened in ashlar and given a gabled roof. This was done in the 14thc., when new bell-openings were added on all faces except the N. The church was restored in 1853-55. The tower arch, tower bell-openings and font are included here.
Parish church
Atwick is a small village in East Yorkshire near the North Sea coast. In 1876 the medieval church was entirely replaced. The present building consists of a nave and chancel in red brick. The only surviving medieval feature is a Romanesque font.
Parish church
North Wingfield is a village about four miles SE of Chesterfield. The church lies to the W of the village and is a structure of coursed squared sandstone and sandstone ashlar consisting of an aisled nave, a N transept, two N side chapels, a chancel with a N vestry, a S porch and an embattled W tower. The only original 12thc sector of the church is the N transept. Much of the current building is of the Perpendicular period; it was restored in 1880 by Richard Herbert Carpenter and Benjamin Ingelow. Romanesque sculpture consists of the E window of the N transept, a reset head in the S aisle, and two incised tomb slabs in the S porch.
Parish church
Priddy is a scattered village high up on Mendip at over 200m, 4 mi W of Wells, Somerset. The settlement is focused on the large central green still used for sheep fairs in an upland limestone landscape quite bleak in winter and replete with prehistoric monuments. The church occupies an eminence N of the green. There is good space all around except to the N, so that the building may be fully appreciated from most angles. The present building has fabric of 13thc, 14thc and 15thc date, and was restored 1881-8. It is made of coursed and squared rubble with freestone dressings. It has nave, chancel, N aisle, N and S transepts, S porch, N and S chancel chapels and a W tower. There is a Romanesque tub font.
Parish church
The church now stands in an isolated position, accessed via a track, though during the medieval period the village was a short distance to the SE. The current parish serves several small villages. The present church consists of a chancel, nave, N aisle, porch and tower. The absence of a S aisle creates a somewhat unbalanced feel to the church. A chantry chapel was constructed on the N side of the chancel by John Sigston, the then lord of the manor, in 1343, though this was subsequently demolished. The tower would appear to be an 18thc structure, with the porch added late in the 19thc. The building underwent a comprehensive restoration by Temple Moore in 1893. The original church has been considerably altered though it would appear from the masonry, and from a surviving window in the S chancel wall and also the remains of round-headed arches in both nave and chancel S walls, that the 12thc building comprised a nave and chancel. The remaining Romanesque features with sculpture are the N arcade and several reset and loose fragments.
Parish church
Stanton Prior is little more than a tiny hamlet comprising a manor house, a farm and a church. Although only less than a mile from Marksbury on the main A39 between Wells and Bath, it is remote. At about 100m above the sea level, it lies in a valley between hills rising to about 170m (geologically speaking, on White and Blue Lias Limestone between Inferior Oolite Limestone). Historically, it will be seen from Domesday Book entry that the medieval affiliation of Stanton Prior was with Bath Abbey rather than with Keynsham Abbey. The former priory was 200m E of the church (at ST 680 627).
The parish incorporates the Iron-Age enclosures of Stantonbury and Winsbury Camps and (skirting the N edge of Stantonbury Camp, one of a line of forts on the dyke, to the N of the church) a fragment of the Wansdyke — probable boundary between Mercia and Wessex.
The church has a 12th-13thc origin, but is mainly a 15th-c building and was heavily restored in 1860. The font is Romanesque; there is also a Romanesque scratch-dial and a cross on the chancel wall.