The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
St Alkmund (now)
Parish church
Duffield is a village in the Amber Valley district of Derbyshire, on the W bank of the River Derwent and 4 miles N of the centre of Derby. The church stands on the bank of the Derwent, on the E side of the village. St Alkmund's is a large church with a W tower with a recessed spire, an aisled nave, a transeptal N chapel, a chancel with N and S chapels and a vestry to the S of the S chapel. To the S of the nave, and connected to the S doorway, is a Parish Centre of 1990 by Anthony Rossi. The origins of the church are Norman, but there is no external evidence of this. Most of what can be seen is 14thc work, heavily restored in 1846-47 by J P Dt Aubyn, and in 1896-97 by John Oldrid Scott. Surviving Romanesque work includes the corbel table in the S wall of the N chancel chapel, now used as a playroom for young children during services, but originally part of the exterior decoration, and indicating that the N wall of the chancel is substantially 12thc. In the W wall of the S nave aisle are set two relief panels that are also 12thc.
Parish church
The 12thc. church consisted of a chancel and an aisleless nave. The present chancel includes two original plain windows of tufa; that in the S wall is blocked but the window in the N wall is still open. The nave has N and S arcades of three bays, supported on square piers with shafted angles. According to RCHM (3:9) the piers are of late 12thc. material, reused. Romanesque sculpture is found on a corbel set into the interior chancel wall; the plain font also contains some 12thc. work.