The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
St Leonard (medieval)
Parish church
St Leonard's Church reflects a number of changes over the past several centuries, but the E apse and W arch survive from the Norman period. The present church consists of a chancel with semi-circular end, a wider nave and a narthex, divided from the nave by an arch. There is also a S porch. William Thornton, prior of Wetheral and later abbot of St Mary’s, York, seems to have been responsible for certain changes to the church in the early 16thc, as his rebus appears on the S buttress of the chancel. In 1703, the church was in a poor condition. In the same report, Bishop Nicolson made mention of a supposed W tower, said to have been removed at some earlier but unknown date. Pennant, in 1772, wrote that the nave of the church had previously been extended at the west end and that at that time there was still ‘a good rounded arch, now filled up’. Some work was carried out on the church in 1807. The nave was rebuilt in 1869 and some stained glass windows put in the apse in the 1870s. A stone-built S porch and narthex were added in 1908. In 2017, the church was made redundant and put up for sale.
Parish church
The tiny hamlet of Chelwood, in the Mendip Hills south of Bristol (the church is at an altitude of c.90m above OD), is just half a mile east of the crossroads of the main A368 between Bath (8 miles distant) and Weston-super-Mare, running east-west through it and the main A37 road between Bristol and the English Channel coast. It thus enjoys easy road communications.
The distant view from the south-west of the hamlet from the main A37 near the top of Red Hill (174m), brings out the rural landscape seen as one looks slantwise across a gentle north-facing slope predominantly pastoral with some considerable woodland towards the southern flanks of the Cotswolds north-west of Bath across the river Avon. The meaning of the place-name has nothing to do with a wood: it signifies ‘Ceola’s or Ceolla’s worþ’, ‘worth’ meaning ‘enclosure’.
The church of St Leonard, which is built of sandstone and limestone rubble with limestone dressings, consists of a W tower, nave, N porch, S aisle, chancel and S vestry. Constructed in the 14thc., it was almost entirely rebuilt c.1860. The only Romanesque feature is the font.
Parish church
Southminster is a small town on the Dengie peninsula, in the Maldon district of the county. It is 8 miles SE of Maldon and 2 miles N of Burnham-on-Crouch. The church stands in the centre of town, on the S side of the main street, and has a surprisingly spacious churchyard behind it. It is a curious-looking cruciform church with a W tower. The nave, (originally 12thc as indicated by the S doorway and the nave W window, visible only on the interior) is of mixed rubble, and has been heightened twice; once in large knapped flints in the 15thc, when a clerestory was added, and again in brick in 1819. The N doorway, facing the town, is protected by a 15thc stone-vaulted porch. The tower is largely 15thc on a 12thc base. It is of rubble with a low double-pitched roof decorated with flint chequerwork on the gables. The transepts are massive, and the chancel, of 1818-19 by Hopper, is on a similar scale and has a semi-octagonal apse with 5 tall gabled chapels. Transepts and eastern arm are rendered in an unattractive brownish cement mortar. From 1891 the interior was remodelled, but no attention was paid to the exterior which remains, possibly, the ugliest in the county. There is no Romanesque sculpture, but the plain S doorway allows this singular church to be included here.
Parish church
The present church consists of a nave with S aisle and W tower, and an aisleless chancel (with chancel arch) terminating in an apse (with apse arch). There is some herringbone masonry in the nave N wall, suggesting an 11thc. date for the earliest work. The church was used as a Parliamentary barracks during the siege of 1646, and was left in a ruinous state with only parts of the chancel and N wall still standing. There were repairs in 1656, 1695 and 1700, but the church owes its present appearance to Hakewill's restoration of 1849-50, which included the rebuilding of the apse, and the replacement of the S aisle, the W tower and the font.
Despite its heavily restored state, St Leonard's contains important 11thc. work in the chip-carved chancel and apse arches. The N doorway appears to be entirely 19thc., but Pevsner (1966) calls it Norman, and it is also described below.
Parish church
St Leonard is located at the north end of the village, on the edge of a county house estate, Thrybergh Park. The church is partly ashlar, partly rough stone. The nave was built between 11thc-12thc (Pevsner 1967, 516-7); traces of herringbone work are visible at the W end of the N wall of the chancel (Ryder 1982, 98). The chancel is of 14thc, and the W tower with a spire, lying in a wooded churchyard, was built during the 15thc. The church was restored in 1871 and 1894, and by 1970 a vestry block was added. Romanesque sculptural remains consist of a blocked doorway on N side of nave, a stringcourse near the doorway, a former chancel arch, and a stone shaft set close to the churchyard wall.
Parish church
Hubberholme is a village in Upper Wharfedale in the Yorkshire Dates. It is famous for connections with the playwright J.B. Priestley, who is buried at the church. This has a rectangular plan, with aisled nave and chancel in one, with squat W tower; this plan, with absence of a chancel arch, is common in the NW of the county and surrounding area. Later medieval windows to aisles. Restored 1863. The interior walls resemble the rough walls on the hills (field walls near the river are of rounded water-worn stones).
The S doorway and the S arcade have round arches but are unlikely to be Romanesque. Twelfth-century work is found in the tower and tower arch.
Parish church
Ingleton is a large village between Settle and Kirkby Lonsdale, about 19 miles from Kendal. The church overlooks the river Doe just above its confluence with the Twiss; these two streams have many waterfalls which are a major attraction. The building consists of an aisled nave, chancel, and W tower. The only sculptural feature of our interest is a cylindrical font carved with figures arranged in an arcade.
Parish church
The church, of red sandstone ashlar, was rebuilt in 1862-64. The Romanesque font came from the old church.
Parish church
Watlington sits just to the N of the Chiltern hills and the historic Icknield Way, in the SE of the county of Oxfordshire. The church of St Leonard is located at the edge of the village, NW of the high street. Its peripheral location is perhaps explained by being next to the site of the 'castle'; the location of the Crown manor. The present building mainly dates to the 14thc, but some 12th-c features survive. The church consists of a four-bay nave, a S aisle, a chancel and a S chapel in flint rubble with limestone ashlar quoins, dressings and bands. The limestone ashlar tower at the W end dates to the 15thc. Much of the rest of the church was rebuilt by H. J. Tollit and E. Dolby in 1877 in the Decorated style. The N aisle (added in 1877) is of coursed and dressed limestone rubble. The tile roof was restored in the 19thc and features decorative ridge tiles. The NW extension for a kitchen and toilets in knapped flintwork with ashlar quoins has been done in recent years.
Fragments of Romanesque sculpture are reset in the S aisle, in the chancel, in the organ chamber and in the vestry: they consist of two capitals, a colonette, a sculpted block, two carved heads and a tympanum.
Parish church
Upton St Leonard is part of the Gloucester conurbation, but lies to the S-E of the M5 motorway. The church is on the edge of the settlement. It has a chancel with a N vestry and a S chapel, a nave with N and S aisles and a N porch, and a W tower. It was restored in 1889.
When the S aisle was added in 1835, a Norman doorway, presumably the former S nave doorway, was reset at the W end of the S aisle. The N arcade was rebuilt in the 1850s, and one pier may be of Transitional date. The ground plan of the early nave can be detected in the ICBS plan.
As well as the reset doorway and pier, there is also a plain tub font.