The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
St Mary the Blessed Virgin (now)
Parish church
Brabourne is a village sited 4.5 miles E of Ashford. The church of St Mary the Blessed Virgin has a wide and heavily-buttressed squat W tower, a nave and a chancel with a later S aisle. There are several items of interest, including both the W and the N doorways, the chancel arch and the tower arch.
Parish church
Crundale is a village sited in a steeply-sloping rural landscape about half-way between Ashford and Canterbury, about 9 miles SW of Canterbury. The church of St Mary the Blessed Virgin consists of a nave with N aisle only, a chancel and a non-axial W tower beside the N porch. The building was restored in 1894 by Edgar Philip Loftus Brock. Romanesque evidence survives in the nave N arcade.
Parish church
St Mary's has a clerestoreyed nave of three bays with 19thc. arcades. In fact, although both arcades appear the same, the N aisle dates from Buckeridge's 1873 restoration, while the S arcade was only restored at that date. The S aisle extends W halfway along the tower, while the N aisle stops at the tower junction. A vestry has recently been added alongside the tower on the N. At the E end of the nave, the aisles extend to form chapels alongside the chancel, the N deeper than the S. Both have arches from the chancel; the N arch 19thc., the S late medieval. The chancel arch and W tower arch are both Perpendicular; the latter badly distorted. In its three lower storeys the tower is 13thc., with attractive blind arcading on the 3rd storey. A 4th storey with bell-openings and battlements was added in the 15thc. Construction is of orange-brown ashlar blocks with courses of varying thicknesses. Romanesque work is found in the S doorway and the font.
Parish church
St Mary's is a church of nave, chancel and W tower. The nave is aisled with three-bay
arcades, the N late 12thc., the S 13thc. The roof has been heightened and there is a late medieval clerestorey. The chancel arch is 13thc. as is the chancel stylistically, but it was entirely rebuilt by Sir Henry Dryden in 1846. The tower is of three storeys, 13thc. except for the battlement. The N and S nave doorways are both under porches; the N doorway being contemporary with the N arcade and the N porch dated 1649. Construction is of stone rubble except for the clerestorey and the rebuilt chancel, both of ashlar. Romanesque features are the N doorway, N arcade and font.
Parish church
St Mary's has an aisled and clerestoreyed nave, the arcades of five bays and now on very
tall piers; octagonal on the N side and cylindrical on
the S. The piers and the pointed arches date from well
into the 13thc., but most of the capitals are reused 12thc. pieces. The
remodelling of the arcade is contemporary with the
aisle windows, which are also slightly earlier on the S. Both nave doorways are
13thc. and set under 13thc. vaulted porches, but the S is larger and more
elaborately carved. The chancel has a Perpendicular S
chapel, now used for the organ. The W tower is of three storeys with a broach
spire, and largely belongs to the second half of the13thc. Construction is of
coursed stone rubble, with ashlar for the top storey of the tower, the spire
and the S chapel. The church was restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott in
1875-76. 12thc. sculpture is found in the nave arcade
capitals and possibly also in reset corbels high on the
interior aisle
walls.