The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
St Martin (now)
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
Tuddenham St Martin is 3 miles NE of the centre of Ipswich (and only a
mile from its outskirts), but the village occupies a spectacular site
straddling the steeply sloping banks of the river Fynn. Its main street runs
from E to W, falling to the bridge over the river and rising through the trees
towards Tuddenham Hall on the other side. The houses and church are on the W
bank; the church on a hill above the village on the S side of the High Street.
St Martin's has a 15thc. W tower of knapped flint with diagonal
buttresses decorated with flushwork, a polygonal S stair turret and a battlemented parapet, again with flushwork
decoration. Bequests for its construction occur between 1452 and 1460. The nave
and chancel are mortar rendered. The nave has a 12thc.
N doorway and a 15thc. S doorway with a timber-framed porch by John Corder, designer of the bizarre belfry at Swilland. The porch
entrance has been blocked to provide a vestry. The
nave windows are 15thc., the tower arch tall and contemporary with the tower,
and the chancel arch broad and probably 14thc., like
the angle piscina. In the chancel, the square-headed S window, and the geometrical E
window both date from 1861. There is a N vestry of
1920, also by Corder. The chancel
screen and altar were designed by Cautley in 1947. The church
was extensively restored by Henry Ringham of Ipswich in 1844-45. Romanesque
sculpture is found on the N doorway, probably always grander than the S since
it faces the village
street.
Parish church
The Trimleys, St Martin and St Mary, are adjoining parishes on the NW
outskirts of Felixstowe. Together they make an elongated settlement bounded on
the E and S by the A14, and on the W by Trimley Marshes and the Orwell estuary.
Plans for expansion to the W and between the two villages are driven by the
need for extra housing for Felixstowe, but they are meeting vigorous local
opposition. The churches of St Martin and St Mary stand at the edges of their
parishes, side-by-side on the high street that runs through the centre of both
villages. There was once a wall between the two churchyards, corresponding to
the parish boundary, but this has gone now. Although both churches are still
consecrated, St Martin's is maintained for liturgical use, while St Mary's is
largely given over to community activities. St Martin's has a nave with a
transeptal N chapel and a S porch, a chancel with a N vestry and a S organ
room, and a W tower. The mortar-rendered nave appears to date from the early
14thc., to judge from the N and S doorways (the S now under a 20thc. brick and
timber porch). The nave windows are 19thc.
replacements in an early-14thc. style. The N transept is separated from the
nave by a two-bay
arcade. It is
of brick with replacement windows in 15thc. style. The N gable has been rebuilt using modern brick. The
chancel is also of brick and is entirely 19thc.,
including the vestry with its mortar-rendered N
extension, and the rendered S organ room. The 15thc. tower is of brick,
rendered on all faces except the E. It has a battlemented parapet and diagonal
W buttresses, also of brick and unrendered. The only feature that may be
Romanesque is the font.
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
The church comprises a 12thc. nave with a 14thc. S aisle, and a
chancel with a S chapel. The font is 12thc.
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.
Parish church, formerly chapel
A simple church of nave and chancel in one. The church was largely rebuilt 1777-8. The earlier fabric is rag-stone, repairs in brick in the upper parts. The only Romanesque feature is a plain circular font, shallow and on a stem.