The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
St Leonard (now)
Parish church
Rodney Stoke is one of many small settlements strung out along the main A371 from Wells to Axbridge via Cheddar running along the SW scarp of the Mendip Hills in Somerset. As The parish extends on to the high ground to the NE and SW across the moors of the valley of the Axe, which river now runs less than 2 miles SW of the church. This is an area steeped in history: the diocesan centre of Wells is only 5 miles SE, the once-royal centre of Cheddar only 2.5 miles NW, and the once-thriving lead mines on Mendip only 4 miles N. The church, which is built of coursed and squared rubble with freestone dressings, consists of a W tower, nave, N porch, chancel and N chapel. The Romanesque elements comprise a sculptured head on the W face of the tower and a possible font.
Parish church
The church of St Leonard is the oldest of several churches in the Kent coastal town of Deal, 8 miles NE of Dover. The building, which lies on the outskirts of the town, is complex and is the result of many centuries of modifications, not least in the Jacobean, Georgian and Victorian eras (collectively described by Glynne in 1877 as 'injudicious and tasteless alterations'). At the core of the church is a Romanesque nave and chancel. However, the nave is heavily cut back in the centre where a pillar has been removed on both N and S sides of the arcade and the entire church now liturgically re-orientated across the resulting axis N-S. Aisles were added in the 13thc, now much altered. The 17thc. tower, which is crowned by a distinctive white cupola, is believed to have replaced a 12thc original. The main Romanesque sculpture consists of the nave capitals and responds, together with a pillar piscina in the chancel.
Chapel
St Leonard's has a four-bay clerestoreyed nave, the arcades divided into two two-bay sections by a short stretch of wall. In the N arcade all the arches are pointed and the capitals moulded; in the S the E bays are similar, but the W bays have round arches. Nevertheless both arcades are 13thc., but for two features. The base of N pier 3 is a reused, inverted multi-scallop pier capital (or, as Pevsner suggests, a pair of respond capitals), and chevron voussoirs have been cut down for reuse in the E arches of the S arcade. For the rest, the chancel is 13thc. and there is a low W tower, late 13thc. in its lower parts and Perpendicular above.
Parish church
Burseldon almost appears an entirely Victorian church by Sedding in 1888, but conserving all of the medieval features that had survived alterations of 1828. This is essentially the W part of the nave walling, and probably part of the chancel also. The 13thc carved responds of the chancel arch also survive, but probably moved. The only Romanesque feature is the font.
Parish church
St Leonard's is built of cobbles, and has a square-ended, late-13thc. chancel and a three-bay aisled nave with a clerestorey. The S arcade dates from the late 13thc., and the N is Perpendicular as is the brick clerestorey. The W bay of the N aisle houses the tower - Perpendicular and of brick with a low tiled roof. The chancel arch indicates that the nave itself is 12thc., and also from this period comes the reset S doorway and a section of string course reset in the W wall of the S aisle.
Parish church
Within the district of Bolsover, this church is substantially 13thc with later alterations and some 19thc restoration. Romanesque features are the S doorway to the nave and the priest's doorway to the chancel; both have sculpture. The responds of the chancel arch are Romanesque, with scalloped capitals. The Transitional N arcade has nailhead on the abaci.
Parish church
Speeton is a village in North Yorkshire which lies mid-way between Filey and Bridlington. Formerly in the East Riding, it is now North Yorkshire's most easterly settlement. Pevsner & Neave describe the church as ‘The simplest of buildings…' and largely early C12 (Pevsner and Neave 1995, 708.) It has a small W tower, nave and chancel; the roof is continuous over nave and chancel. The church is about 110m above sea level and within a mile of the coast. It is no doubt sited in a hollow for protection from storms: there are no windows to the N or E, and there were none on the W wall until two were created in 1910. The nave is approx. 4.5m x 6.8m, the chancel about half that area.
No burials are apparent in the field and it seems there never have been any, corpses being carried to Bridlington priory (Sykes, n.d.). The church was never restored agressively, but there have been repairs and rebuildings on the old plan. In this way, two carved stones have been recovered from the W and the S walls. The VCH notes use of chalk along with the stone - there is a little in the W wall, but it is not visible as a major component as it is in some farm buildings in the village; chalk in this region is hard, but better kept for interior use in a church. In parts of the discontinuous double plinth the lower course includes cobbles from the beach.
Of our period are the round-headed bell openings in the unbuttressed tower; plain Norman chancel arch; font; two reset carved stones in N wall of nave.
Parish church
Scorborough is a hamlet in the East Riding of Yorkshire, about 4 miles N of Beverley. The church is by J. L. Pearson, built 1857-1859 to replace what Pevsner described as ‘a mean brick building’ (Pevsner and Neave, 1995, 671). Quiney considered it ‘among the great monuments of Victorian church building, not just in the East Riding, but in England as a whole.’ (Quiney, 1984, 29) It has a nave and chancel, and a large W tower. Outside is a font standing on what was once a pier base.
Parish church
Built of lias rubble with dressings of Broadway stone ashlar. 15thc. W tower, ashlar-faced, with pinnacles. Nave, N and S aisles, N and S transepts. It stands on a low mound in the centre of the old part of the village. Sculpture ofc.1200 is found in the nave arcade capitals, and there is a plain font and a chip-carved stone set into a windowsill in the S transept.
Parish church
The church comprises an apsidal chancel, nave with W bellcote, and N porch. It is
substantially 12thc., the timber bellcote is 19thc. and the brick N porch 18thc. The
walls are coursed rubble.The plain, round-headed N (blocked) and S nave doorways are
12thc. The S doorway has chamfered imposts. Remains of three
round-headed, splayed windows are found on the E, S and N walls of the chancel, and
in the N wall of the nave. Romanesque sculpture is found on the chancel arch.