The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
St Editha (now)
Parish church
Tamworth stands on the river Tame in the extreme SE of the county. The Warwickshire border is just 2 miles to the E, but until 1888 it ran through the centre of Tamworth. The historic centre is on the N bank with Tamworth Castle overlooking the river and St Editha's church just to the N, occupying the N side of St Editha's Square, which is now a market place.The oldest parts of the church show that it was once a 12thc. cruciform building, and of this there remain the N and S crossing arches; the W crossing arch embrasures and the S chancel wall containing a doorway and a window above, and now enclosed by a later aisle. For the rest, the church is largely that built by Dean Baldwin de Witney after a fire in 1345. It was then that the decision was taken to replace the crossing tower with one at the W end, and to remove the E and W crossing arches, so that there is an unbroken vista from W to E. The aisled nave is of four bays with a clerestory; the arcades and clerestory dating from the 14thc., but the N aisle wall and its doorway of the 13thc., indicating that a N aisle had been added before the fire. The transepts do not project beyond the aisles. The chancel E wall is 19thc. The N chancel chapel (St George's Chapel) is separated from the main vessel by a row of three open tomb canopies dating from the post-fire rebuilding. They contain the effigies of (from W to E), a couple, probably Sir Baldwin Freville (d.1400) and his wife, a lady, possibly Lady Joan de Freville (d.1339), and Sir Thomas Ferrers (d.1512) and his wife Ann. St George's chapel extends as far as the E wall of the chancel. On the S side of the chancel the Romanesque wall extends to the E end (with two levels of 14thc. windows added at the E). The E end of the S aisle is all 19thc. work, containing the organ and a vestry. Photography of the exterior of the 12thc. S chancel wall is thus seriously impeded. At the W end of the nave, the tower dates from the 14thc.-15thc., and boasts a double spiral stair at its SW angle. It has heavy pinnacles at the angles and an embattled parapet, behind which an octagonal stump of masonry suggests that a spire was intended.The church was restored three times in the 19thc.; by Ferrey and later Scott in the 1850s, and by Butterfield in the 1870s. Prints and drawings in the William Salt library are: NE view 1792 (SV X 91), E view undated (SV X 95a), NE view Buckler 1838 (SV X 92), SW view Buckler 1838 (SV X 94), SE view Buckler 1838 (SV X 93).
Parish church
The church was originally part of a Benedictine nunnery founded in the 10thc. The present church consists of nave, N aisle, chancel and N tower. The first two bays E and the Westernmost, of the eight-bay N nave arcade are 12thc. Some of the original 12thc. round-headed clerestorey windows survive (the first three from E and first from W).
Parish church
Church Eaton is an attractive village in the W of the county, 6 miles SW of Stafford and 4 miles from the Shropshire border. The village lies between the Church Eaton Brook, to the E, and the Shropshire Union Canal, to the W, in an undulating landscape mostly devoted to dairy farming. The church stands at the E end of the High Street, and is of local sandstone. It consists of nave, chancel and W tower with spire. N aisle has been added to the nave, and extended eastwards alongside the chancel to form a chapel. Beyond this, at the E end of the N chancel wall, is an unusual 17thc. vestry. On the S of the chancel is a 19thc. organ room. The two-storey tower is 12thc., with clasping buttresses to the lower storey, which also has two small round-headed lancets in the W wall. The upper storey has plain round-headed lancets on its N, S and W walls, and on the E wall a larger round-headed window into the nave. All the external lancets are chamfered, suggesting a late-12thc. date, and this is confirmed by the pointed tower arch and its capitals, and by the bell-openings, with twin pointed openings under a barely-pointed enclosing arch. The broach-spire, recessed behind a plain parapet with gargoyles at the angles, is dated by Pevsner to the 15thc. It has lucarnes at two levels. The nave has a S doorway ofc.1300, and tall 15thc. windows. On the N, the four-bay arcade is mid-13thc., with pointed, chamfered arches and nailhead decoration on the moulded capitals. The square-headed aisle windows are 14thc, however. The N chapel is 15thc., with tall, three-light square-headed windows, and a two-bay arcade with arches taller than the nave arcade and crudely cut octagonal capitals. In the present liturgical arrangement the chancel has been shortened, so that its screen and step are alongside the central pier of the chapel arcade. The seven-light E chancel window is a beautifully skeletal work of the 15thc. The 19thc. additions include the S porch and the organ room and vestry on the S side of the chancel. Romanesque work recorded here comprises the tower bell-openings and tower arch, a cushion capital set in the S porch, and the broken and repaired remains of an elaborate early-12thc. font, closely related to the font at Bradley.