The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (now)
Parish church
Twyford is in the W ofN Buckinghamshire, 5 miles S of Buckingham and a mile from the Oxfordshire border. The village is on gently rising land on the S side of Padbury Brook. The church is at the N end of the village, alongside the brook, and consists of an aisled nave with a S porch, chancel with a N organ room and vestry, and a W tower. The nave is 12thc, and of this phase is the S doorway (reset in the aisle wall) and chancel arch (later remodelled). In the mid-13thc, a S chapel was added in a transept-like position at the E end of the nave, and the S aisle was also added. The N aisle was added a few years later, and the W tower was begun, and at that point the decision was taken to extend both aisles westwards alongside the tower, so that they were of the present 4 bays. At some time in the 13thc too the chancel was rebuilt and the chancel arch was remodelled. The nave clerestory was added in the 15thc, and the S aisle widened to the same width as the S chapel, absorbing it. This aisle is thus much wider than the N (15ft 7in as opposed to 6ft). The tower was not completed until the late-15thc, the S porch was added then or later (it has a datestone of 1619), and an embattled parapet was added to the chancel. The nave, chancel and tower were restored in 1887, and the S aisle and porch in 1897. Romanesque sculpture is found on the S doorway and the chancel arch. A loose corbel in the form of a head is also described here but is considered doubtful.
Parish church
Tysoe lies under the Edge Hill escarpment, 14 miles S of Warwick and 7 miles W of Banbury. The Assumption is a large parish church with N and S aisles, chancel, tower, S porch and vestry. There is a plain splayed round-headed 12thc. window on the W face of the tower and the remains of two plain, round-headed windows on the wall above the S arcade, the interiors deeply splayed. The tower also has a plain round-headed S doorway. 12thc. sculpture is found on the S doorway, and in the S arcade.
Parish church
Beckley is situated in countryside five miles NE of Oxford. The present church dates from the 14thc. and 15thc., but was built on the site of a previous late Romanesque church. It now comprises a chancel, a clerestoried nave, N and S aisles, a S porch and a central tower. The rebuilt 14thc. tower stands on the 12thc. foundations of the previous crossing arches (Sherwood and Pevsner). The only Romanesque parts remaining are most of the N wall of the chancel, possibly including the NE pepperpot stair turret. The plain tub font and a reset corbel may also be late Romanesque.