The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
St Peter and St Paul (now)
Parish church
The village of Kilmersdon lies at the head of a valley leading N through the Mendip Hills to Radstock. It straddles the secondary road between Norton St Philip and Chilcompton, which road climbs to the W of the village up to the ridge along which runs N-S the Fosse Way and, to the NE, around Ammerdown Park up to the ridge along which runs the Frome-Radstock main A362 road.
The church is of Norman origin, although much of the existing fabric dates between the 15th and the 16thc; the church was restored in the 19thc. It consists of a W tower, a nave, a chancel, a N aisle with a chapel, a S organ loft and a vestry. The Romanesque elements comprise the window in the nave S wall (reopened in 1898), the plain narrow S doorway (now into the vestry) visible from the nave, remains of a chancel N window (again visible only from inside), many stretches of a fish-scale frieze outside, part of a corbel table on the nave walls and built-in fragments of carving inside (chancel N wall) as well as outside.
Parish church
North Curry is a village 5 miles E of Taunton. The village straddles and straggles along a low Mercia Mudstone ridge extending over the low moors NE of Taunton terminated by the River Parrett at Stathe. It lies just S of the River Tone at about 25m OD, and 8km E of Taunton. North Curry, like Stoke St Gregory, is one of the two largest villages, both of which are blessed with parish churches. Although a road runs along the ridge, it is not now more than locally important.
The church of St Peter and Paul, sometimes known as 'Cathedral of the Moors' stands to the N of the village centre on the crest of the scarp, and commands a fine prospect across the low moors. The striking edifice can be very clearly seen from afar to the north, and its builders through the ages may well have been conscious of it making a strong statement on the landscape. Its building development suggests that there was no shortage of resources, particularly around 1300 and 1500 by which time the church had been largely rebuilt. The N doorway is Romanesque.
Parish church
Borden is a village 2 miles SW of Sittingbourne. The church of St Peter and Paul has aisled nave and chancel, a solid W tower and a S porch. Features of interest include the W doorway and the tower arch.
Parish church
Worth is a village about 1.5 miles S of Sandwich. The church of St Peter and Paul consists of a nave with a S aisle, a chancel with adjoining chapels, a W tower with a spire, and a N porch. It was subject to a restoration in 1888, which may be the explanation for the large amount of modern replacement material present. Romanesque sculpture includes the N doorway, the S nave aisle, and a re-set fragment in the S aisle.
Parish church
Dymchurch is a seaside village 5 miles SW of Hythe on the Channel coast. The church of St Peter and Paul is situated by the main coast road and is much-restored; the building consists of a nave with a N aisle, a chancel, a S porch, and a slim W tower. Although relatively unassuming from the outside, and presenting a late medieval appearance, there are Romanesque W and S doorways, and also a Romanesque chancel arch. A further dooway in the chancel is mentioned by Glynne who visited in 1868, but it went lost.
Parish church
Broadwell is a village about nine miles W of Witney. The church lies to the N of the village and was built around 1190 of coursed rubble limestone (Sherwood and Pevsner (1974), 488-9). The church originally consisted of a chancel, a presbytery bay, a nave and a W tower. In the 13thc the whole building was remodelled: the chancel and the presbytery were united to form an enlarged chancel, new windows and buttresses were added to the chancel and tower, and the N and S chapels were built. The church was extensively restored in 1873 by Edward George Bruton. The surviving Romanesque features are the nave N and S doorways, the E tower arch and the Transitional, or possibly later, font located at the W end of the nave.
Parish church
Bromley is a large town formerly in Kent, but now in Greater London. The medieval church was almost totally destroyed by wartime bombing in 1941 leaving only the tower, the earliest parts of which probably date from the 14thc. A new church, incorporating the tower, was built between 1948 and 1957 on a site adjacent to that of the old church. The only Romanesque sculpture remaining is the font bowl.
Parish church
Longbridge Deverill is a village on the river Wylye in SW Wiltshire, 2.5 miles S of Warminster. The church lies to the N of the village and has Saxon origins. The building originally consisted of a chancel and nave; it was dedicated by Archbishop Thomas Becket after 1162, by which time it must have been substantially complete. The aisles, W tower and S porch were added in the 14thc and 16thc. In 1852 the chancel, Bath chapel and vestry were extended eastwards.
Although the present building predominantly dates from the 14th and 15thc, the N nave arcade dates from the first half of the 12thc. The font also dates from the same period.
Parish church
Of the previous building on the site, the nave alone had survived by 1848, at which time it was considered very ancient (Lewis, 1848). The present church was built in 1898 at the expense of King Edward VII. Substantially a late-19thc structure incorporating 13thc elements, it has a single S nave aisle and contains no Romanesque carving apart from the font, one of four in north-west Norfolk long seen as forming a stylistically related group. Arguably among the finest in the country as a whole, and certainly in the county, the Shernborne font is, in Pevsner's memorable phrase, 'a barbaric but mighty Norman piece.'
Parish church
Bleadon Hill is the most westerly remnant of the Mendip Hills, except for coastal Brean Down and the island of Steepholm in the Bristol Channel: an attenuated fragment, at that. A moment’s thought about the place-name brings the realisation that it is tautological, the ‘don’ element meaning ‘hill’; the first element tells us that the hill was thus named for its varied colour, perhaps the effect of Black Rock Limestone protruding above the grass, according to Ekwall. The settlement, sheltered under the S slope of the hill after which it is named, probably owes its existence and importance to being at the point where the W-E route under the S scarp of the Mendips from Wells through Cheddar and Axbridge meets a major coastal S-N route (the former still a narrow twisting lane; the latter represented today by the main A370 connecting the vast conurbation of Weston-super-Mare 2 miles to the NNW with the main trunk A38 road, precursor to the M5, between the Midlands and the South-West, 2 miles to the SSE). Bleadon is also on the major river Axe, navigable at least up to this point. Bleadon just escapes that more tangible disturbance of the Somerset landscape, the M5, which runs 2 miles away to the west. Geologically, most of the village around the church (which is only 15 m above sea-level) lies on Keuper Marl above the alluvium of the Somerset Levels and below the Black Rock Limestone of Bleadon Hill; there are also outcrops nearby of dolomite and a little oolitic Limestone. The village is an extensive one, running a mile from E to W and a similar distance from N to S along the roads of a staggered crossroads, with the church standing in the centre.
The present building dates from the 14thc (dedicated in 1317), but is mainly 15thc. It was restored and its chancel shortened in the mid 19thc. It consists of a chancel with a N organ chamber, a nave with S porch and a W tower. Construction is of coursed rubble with freestone dressings. The font is 12thc as is one reused carved head, set in the exterior S chancel wall. An angel, now set on the internal nave wall, may be pre-Conquest in date.