The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
St Martin (medieval)
Parish church
The church, as most descriptions mention, is approached from the S through a tunnel of yew trees. 'The body of the church is Norman, as shown by the corners of the nave and a blocked S window visible from the aisle' (Pevsner & Neave 1995, 365). Morris 1919, 122, notes the blocked window, and corbels above the arcade.
There is a west tower, an aisled nave, and a chancel, which is not large. The arcades are similarly pointed throughout, giving unity to the interior. The lighting from clerestory windows is also good. Against this setting, the various items of the 18th-century woodwork also look well. In the E bay of the N aisle are notable tombs (under restoration in 2004). The church was not restored in one great Victorian sweep, but has been improved on by patrons in the 18th century, and the Rev. Robert Wilberforce, son of the reformer, in the mid 19th. Some of the stonework has been made good with a fine cement-like filler, although in places this is coming loose.
There is a font with arcading; much of what must have been a round-headed chancel arch remains (but how much is uncertain), and a few corbels are seen from the S aisle. Some of these features have been retooled or even more severely reworked.
Parish church
W tower of the 14th c., four-bay nave with N and S aisles, square-ended chancel is Norman with 13th c. interior; restored in 1859 by Kirk and Parry. Built of Ancaster stone. On the exterior there is a reset Romanesque corbel table in N and S walls of chancel and a Sheila-na-gig in W wall of W tower. N arcade of the nave is 12thc., but heavily restored in the 1859 renovation. Font is Romanesque.
Parish church
Sandford St Martin is a remote village in N Oxfordshire, 6 miles SE of Chipping Norton. It is in the area of the iron-rich Hornton limestone that extends NE from there. The church is thought to date from the late C12th, when it was a chapel of Steeple Barton nearby, and probably consisted of nave and chancel. The narrow N aisle of three bays was added to the nave c. 1200. Extensive alterations in the mid-C13th are believed to have prompted its dedication in 1273. The S aisle was added, the chancel was remodelled and the present chancel arch added, making decorative use of the varying colours of the Horton stone. There is a Decorated S doorway and porch, and a Perpendicular clerestory and W tower. The chancel arch was retained when the chancel was demolished and rebuilt in the C19th. Romanesque features include the Transitional N aisle with two short octagonal piers, the S chancel doorway and a decorated tub font.
Parish church
Welton is an extensive village in the W of the county, a mile N of
Daventry. It stands on rising ground in the angle between two branches of the
Grand Union canal, in hilly pasture land. The village is locally known as the
maze, from the labyrinthine street-plan based on a figure-of-eight. The church
stands in the centre of this, and the manor site at the southern edge. The nave
is Perpendicular, with tall, four-bay
arcades, no clerestorey and nave and
aisles sharing a single roof. A clerestorey would not
anyway be needed, as the big panelled aisle windows provide plenty of light.
The line of an earlier nave roof is visible on the tower. The S doorway has a
porch, the N does not. The chancel is also perpendicular, with a N vestry in the angle between nave and chancel. The W tower is earlier, dating from the beginning of
the 14thc. Inside the nave is a re-set human head corbel which may be
12thc.
Parish church
Dunton is a small village on a hill in the Vale of Aylesbury, in the Domesday hundred of Mursley, situated 6 miles N of Aylesbury in the heart of the county. The village consists of a few houses along a minor road in rolling mixed farmland. The church is in the village centre, with Dunton Manor, a timber-framed brick-faced house parts of which date from the 16thc, immediately to the N.
St Martin’s consists of nave, chancel and W tower. The chancel is 12thc in origin, but was rebuilt in the 13thc (see the plain pointed S lancet and similar low side windows on both sides). The triple lancet E window is a 19thc replacement. The chancel walls are rendered and painted yellow. The nave has a 12thc N doorway, now blocked, and the remains of a later medieval N window arch, but the S wall was rebuilt and the N windows replaced c.1790 with standard wide, round-headed brick windows. The N wall is of rubble painted yellow, and the NE angle of the nave has been rebuilt in brick. The S nave wall was rebuilt in large, roughly squared blocks, incorporating some Romanesque carved stones. It is not painted, and has a simple 18thc porch that is rendered and painted yellow. The plain 15thc tower is of large blocks like the S wall of the nave, with unusual thin clasping buttresses at the angles. It was given a brick parapet in the 18thc. Inside the nave has plain 18thc box pews and an 18thc W gallery. The chancel arch has 12thc responds but was given a new arch after 1300. The wall piscina in the S chancel wall is 12thc, as is the old font now relegated to the vestry under the W tower.
Parish church
St. Martin’s is hidden in a wood off the A16 between North Thorseby and Holten le Clay. The church is primarily Victorian and dates from James Fowler’s 1861 rebuilding. However, the central tower, connecting with the nave to the W and the chancel to the E, is of the late 11thc.
Parish church
North Stoke, Somerset (not to be confused with North Stoke, Sussex and Oxfordshire) is a small village in NE Somerset; in 2010 it had only 72 inhabitants. Relatively insignificant though it certainly is in respect of Romanesque sculpture, St Martin’s deserves close consideration for its strategic location. It is sited 4 mi NW of Bath at the top of a tiny nucleated settlement perched up on the NW flank of Lansdown Hill, thus enjoying an extensive and commanding view of the Avon valley and across to the Welsh hills.
The church of St Martin has a sturdy but squat W tower, nave, and a chancel which is of similar dimensions to the nave. A major restoration took place in 1888 which repaired or replaced much of the fabric. Much of the building is from the 13thc. to 16thc. although the W tower dates from the 12thc. The font is also Romanesque and there is reused sculptured masonry in the nave walls which may date from the 12thc.
Parish church
Present church is mostly Perpendicular, but one Early English window has been uncovered towards the W end of the S wall. The N door is Romanesque, as is potentially the font.
Parish church
Chipping Ongar is a small town in the Epping Forest district of SW Essex, 10 miles W of Chelmsford. The busy High Street runs S from the junction with the main A414 Harlow to Chelmsford road, and the church is tucked away on a side road on its E side. It is of coursed flint and pebble rubble with brick quoins, with a Norman nave and chancel with a 4-bay S aisle added to the nave in 1884, a vestry added on the N side of the chancel at the same time, a W gallery and a 19thc W porch. There is no tower but a weatherboarded W bell turret with a spirelet over the W bay of the nave. There are plain Norman lancets in the chancel N and S walls and the nave N and W walls, but the only features recorded here are the N and S chancel doorways.
Parish church, formerly chapel
Little Ness is a small village, 7 miles NW of Shrewsbury. The church, at the N end of the village centre, is a single-aisled building extensively restored in the 19thc, it retains some 12thc masonry, including a round-headed window on the interior of the N wall. The S doorway is 12thc, and a large head sculpture has been set above it. A 12thc font stands at the W end of the nave.