The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
St Thomas Becket (medieval)
Parish church
Digby is a small village in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, 6 miles N of Sleaford and 12 mile S of Lincoln city centre. The church is in the village centre and consists of a c. 1200 W tower with a late medieval top, a 13thc. nave with three-bay side aisles, and an additional W bay of similar date added to the N aisle. There is a 13thc. chancel, and a Perpendicular style clerestory. Restoration was carried out in 1881 by Charles Kirk included the rebuilding of the chancel. The S doorway is of the 12thc.
Parish church
Newton Valence is a village high in the westernmost chalk hills of the South Downs. It is in the East Hampshire district of the county, just over 4 miles S of Alton. St Mary's is a single cell church with no chancel arch, but a step to mark the beginning of the chancel. It has a W tower, a NW chapel and a S vestry, and was built of flint, mostly in the 13thc. It was restored in 1871. The tower is 13thc except for the parapet, which is of brick and was added in 1813. The NW chapel was added in the late-13thc, and the vestry belongs to the restoration of 1871. The only Romanesque features described here are a pillar piscina in the chancel and a font in the NW chapel.
Parish church
Horton-in-Ribblesdale is a village in the far west of North Yorkshire. It is famous today as a starting-point of the ‘three peaks’ walk, and for having a station on the Settle to Carlisle railway.
The church is at the southern end of the village, and has nave, chancel and aisles under a single roof, together with a buttressed western tower. The fabric is of roughly-coursed stone of various sources including the local Silurian slate and Carboniferous Limestone.
Major restoration of the church in 1823-25, when the N aisle was rebuilt. In 1879-80 the aisles were roofed in one span with the nave (Horton Group, 1981, 52-3). Raine (1873) gives the ‘modern ascription’ as ‘St Oswald or St Thomas’; Lawton says ‘St Oswald or St Thomas a Becket’. Borthwick Institute card index says ‘formerly St Thomas a Becket’, probably sourcing this in Parish Register transcripts.
The Romanesque material includes a doorway, nave arcades, and a font.
Deconsecrated chapel
The chapel, which is now used as a storage shed, consists of an aisleless nave and chancel. The chancel was replaced in c.1500. It is the same width as the 12thc. nave. 12thc. sculpture is found on the blocked N doorway. The chapel is constructed of Totternhoe stone, ironstone and brick.