The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
St Peter and St Paul (medieval)
Parish church
Of the previous building on the site, the nave alone had survived by 1848, at which time it was considered very ancient (Lewis, 1848). The present church was built in 1898 at the expense of King Edward VII. Substantially a late-19thc structure incorporating 13thc elements, it has a single S nave aisle and contains no Romanesque carving apart from the font, one of four in north-west Norfolk long seen as forming a stylistically related group. Arguably among the finest in the country as a whole, and certainly in the county, the Shernborne font is, in Pevsner's memorable phrase, 'a barbaric but mighty Norman piece.'
Parish church
Eye is a small village in the N of the county; 2½ miles N of Leominster and within 5 miles of the Shropshire border to the N and the Worcestershire border to the E. The village consists of the church, the 17thc Eye Manor alongside, and a few other dwellings. The core of the church is a building of the late 12thc and early 13thc in local sandstone. It has a 13thc chancel with a 2-bay N chapel of the same date and a 19thc S vestry. The nave is 12thc with S aisle added at the end of that century and a N aisle at the beginning of the 13thc. The N porch dates from the 14thc, but the S doorway, facing away from the village, has no porch and is now blocked. The W tower was rebuilt in 1874, when the church was restored and the S vestry addded. Features described here are the S nave arcade, the N and S nave doorways, and the N chancel doorway.
Parish church
A cruciform building of Wealden sandstone with aisleless nave, transepts, square central tower with belfry, and chancel. This church is complex to date, as although it is early Romanesque in origin with 13c.work and 15c./ 16c. additions, extensive repairs and drastic rebuilding in 1838-39 altered many of its parts, and covered up original features. The building styles fall into six periods, including modern times. (1). There are remains of 12c. masonry within the nave walls, but they are inaccessible behind a heavy plaster layer of c.1838 (V.C.H.III, 100). The exterior S nave doorway with twin columns and cushion capitals, is a fine example of early Romanesque style. (2).The tower arches were apparently altered during the rebuilding (Short Church Guide), but the rough and heavy stonework with double chamfered edges is basically 13c., also some fabric in the S.transept with its 3 single lancet windows (3). The nave has late-15c. alterations and additions: timber porch, the W. doorway made of chalk, W. 3-light window and a 2-light Perp. window in the S. wall. Perp. window in S. transept. (4). Late 16c. work includes the nave roof with king-posts and moulded tie-beams. (5). The tower fell in 1838, and together with most of the chancel and the N. transept, was rebuilt by Robert Ebbels in Romanesque style. (6). Spire, chancel roof and part of the N. transept roof are modern. There was a restoration programme carried out in 1954. The Romanesque features described here are the S doorway and the font.
Parish church
Finchingfield is a village in the Braintree district of NW Essex, 10 miles SE of Saffron Walden and 7 miles NW of Braintree. The village is clustered around a crossing of the B1053, Saffron Walden to Braintree road with the church in the centre. The walls are of flint rubble with dressings of limestone and clunch; the roofs are covered with lead, except those of the N and S chapels, which are tiled. The church consists of a chancel with two-bay N and S chapels, a nave with a clerestory and 5-bay aisles, a 12thc tower and a S porch. The earliest part is the W tower, of c.1170. The chancel was rebuilt in the mid-13thc , and the N chapel arcade and S nave arcade date from this period too. The N nave arcade, with clustered piers, is slightly later. The S chapel arcade is 15thc, as is the W bay of the N arcade. In the 15thc the bell-chamber of the tower was altered or rebuilt; a spire was built possibly at the same time, but it fell in the 17thc and a cupola with an open bell stage was added in the 18thc. The church was restored in the 1865-66 by Henry Stock, and the S porch rebuilt. The only Romanesque features are in the tower, and include the W doorway, the tower arch, with rich but badly eroded and enigmatic decoration on the jambs, and deep 3-bay arcading at the two interior E angles.
Parish church
Steeple Aston is situated in north Oxfordshire, 10 miles E of Chipping Norton. The church is built of both limestone and the local ironstone, situated on high ground at the NE end of the village. A church was known to be in existence before 1180, probably consisting of nave and chancel. The present church comprises a chancel with a N chapel, a nave with N and S aisles, a S porch and a W tower. It is now basically C13th, with additions in the C14th and C15th. It acquired the tower by 1220, when 'Steeple' was added to its name. The only remaining Romanesque feature is the font, decorated with a diamond and chevron pattern.
Parish church
Warsop is a town about 4.5 miles N of Mansfield and the church of St Peter and St Paul lies on the N bank of the River Meden about 1 mile N of the centre of Warsop. The building has 11thc origins but its layout was subsequently altered until the 16thc, and consists of (chronologically ordered) a W tower, a nave, a porch, a N and a S aisle, a chancel and a clerestory; the small castellated vestry to the S of the chancel contains fragments of late medieval glass dating to the 16thc. Extensive restoration work were carried out in 1872 and 1877. The Romanesque features of this site are two exterior doorways, the tower arch, and a reset slab.
Parish church
Todwick is a small village part of the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham. The church lies to the W of the village and consists of a 11thc rectangular nave partially altered by the addition of 18thc windows, a Decorated-style chancel, a Perpendicular tower of three stages, and a S porch added in the late 18thc.
Romanesque sculpture is found on the blocked round-headed N doorway, the late 12thc S doorway and the chancel arch.
Parish church
Whitney-on-Wye is a village in the W of the county, 15 miles W of Hereford and under 2 miles from the Welsh border. It stands on the N bank of the River Wye; its dwellings clustering around a road junction on the main A438 Hereford to Brecon road. The church stands outside the village on its W side, and consists of a chancel with a N organ room and vestry, a nave with a W gallery, and a W tower. The medieval church was largely destroyed by the Wye in 1720, and what remained was rebuilt in 1740. There are traces of medieval walling on the N and E sides, but the only Romanesque feature is the font.
Parish church
Weobley is a village in W Herefordshire, 9 miles NW of Hereford. The village boasts a high proportion of timber-framed houses and is now a tourist centre. The church is appropriate to Weobley’s former status as a market town, and stands at the N edge of the village. It consists of a long, broad 13thc chancel with a N vestry, an aisled nave with 5-bay arcades, a 14thc S porch, and a tower with an octagonal spire at the NW angle of the nave. The S aisle is 13thc, and its E bay is gabled. The tower dates from the 14thc and was originally detached. The N aisle was added in the 15thc, and incorporated a 14thc N transept. The only Romanesque feature is the reset S doorway.
Parish church
Swalcliffe is in North Oxfordshire, 5 miles SW of Banbury. The large stone church of St Peter and St Paul now comprises a chancel, nave, and N and S aisles which extend to the W end of the tower. It was originally a Saxon church, built as a rectangle whose chancel occupied the E bay of the present nave. The nave still carries two small partially blocked round-headed Saxon windows, now only visible in the interior above the S and N nave arcades. The N aisle was built in the late C12th, piercing the N wall with an arcade of three round-headed arches and round piers with scalloped and waterleaf capitals. The wider S aisle is of the early C13th with octagonal piers. In the C14th the nave was lengthened by one bay eastwards over the site of the former chancel, and a new chancel and aisles were built. The S arcade and door of the S aisle are clearly well into the C13th and are not described here, even though the S arcade contains one trumpet-scalloped capital. The Romanesque features are the early round-headed windows and the three W arches of the N arcade, with circular piers and square capitals.