The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
St Mary and St Thomas the Martyr (medieval)
Premonstratensian house, former
The ruins of the Premonstratensian abbey of Beauchief date from the late 12thc to the 15thc. The church had an aisleless nave, transepts with chapels, and a straight-ended chancel. In the 1660s Edward Pegge of Beauchief Hall made alterations to the ruins of the monastic church in order to form a private chapel which extended from the tower eastwards. The W wall of the abbey church, and much of its tower, were thus treated as a W tower for a chapel-like nave (Harman and Pevsner 2017, 601-2).
Surviving work of c. 1200 relates to three arches. A round-headed doorway of c.1200 is attached to the NW angle of the tower and leads to the churchyard. Elements of an arch now over a window in the S wall may once have belonged to a doorway and also be c. 1200. The larger central portal in the W wall shares some features, including the mouldings, with these smaller arches. However, the larger arch is pointed and may date to the early 13thc.
The interior is arranged as it was in Pegge's time, and is still in use as a church. The site of the abbey was given to Sheffield City Council in 1931 and a golf course now occupies the west side of the valley.
Ruined church, formerly Augustinian abbey
The ruins of Lesnes Abbey lie between Abbey Road and Lesnes Abbey Woods at Belvedere, formerly part of Kent but now in the London borough of Bexley in SE London. In the Middle Ages the river Thames and its marshland were much closer to the abbey.
The ruins include the restored foundations of the abbey church. The church was set out during the founder's lifetime (d. 1179), and consisted of an aisled nave, transepts with three eastern chapels on each side, and an aisleless presbytery. The total internal length of the church was 234 ft. and 66 ft. across the transepts; this makes it one of the largest Augustinian naves in Britain. The abbey was built of Kentish ragstone, flint and chalk.
The ruins were excavated by the Woolwich Antiquarian Society in 1909, up to 1930 by Sir Alfred Clapham, and between 1939 and 1951 by E C Elliston Erwood for the London County Council who owned them at that time.