The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
St Barnabas (now)
Parish church
Great Tey is a village in the Colchester district of Essex, 6 miles W of Colchester. The village extends for approximately a mile along the minor road that runs across the Colne Valley from Bures and Wakes Colne south to Marks Tey. The church is alongside this road at the S end of the village, and a moated site immediately to the E suggests the presence of a manor house.
St Barnabas’s is an imposing sight and was once bigger still. What survives is the crossing of a cruciform church with a tower above it, a long 3-bay chancel, the remains of one nave bay, and N and S transepts. The 1st storey of the tower is now a gallery. Entry is through a porch added to the W side of the S transept, and the N transept now houses the organ. The crossing and the remains of the S nave arcade are 12thc, the chancel and the transepts were both rebuilt in the 14thc and the S tower arch was rebuilt in the 15thc. In 1829 most of the nave including the aisles were removed, and the nave closed off with a W wall. The porches on the W sides of both transepts are modern too. Construction is of flint rubble with some Roman bricks and freestone.
Parish church
Alphamstone is a village in the Braintreee district of north Essex, a mile W of the river Stour, which forms the boundary with Suffolk. The nearest town of any size is Sudbury (Suffolk), 4 miles to the N.
The church consists of a 12thc nave, altered c.1300 and in the 16thc and restoredby Sir Arthur Blomfield in the 19thc. It has a 3-bay S aisle of c.1300, and a timber bell-turret with a pyramid roof over the W gable. There are porches to the N and S doorways. The chancel, also of c.1300, is 3 bays long. The nave is rendered, the N and E chancel walls ore of knapped flint, and the S chancel wall of brick. The chancel was in the course of restoration in 1902, when the Essex Archaeological Society paid a visit, and at that time dedication of the church was unknown.
The only Romanesque feature is a Purbeck marble font.