The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
St Peter and St Paul (now)
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
St Peter and Paul’s church adjoins the green at the centre of the small village of Mottistone and is on the opposite side of the road from Mottistone Manor. The village is a short distance inland from the island’s SW coast and is situated to the south of the lateral chalk ridge. The church consists of a W tower, a short nave with N and S aisles, a S porch and a double-gabled east end comprising the chancel and N chapel. There is now no fabric which is dateable to the 12thc or earlier. Much of the church dates from the 15thc or later, and was restored in 1863 by Willoughby Mullins. He is reputed to have replaced a round headed Romanesque archway between the tower and the nave with the present Gothic arch (Lloyd and Pevsner 2006, 163-4). The late medieval Cheke N chapel, which has a Tudor rose on the S external label stop of the E window (Lloyd and Pevsner 2006, 164), incorporates a Romanesque linear moulding low down on the external east wall featuring two creatures and a head of human form.
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.
Parish church
Eye is a small village in the N of the county; 2½ miles N of Leominster and within 5 miles of the Shropshire border to the N and the Worcestershire border to the E. The village consists of the church, the 17thc Eye Manor alongside, and a few other dwellings. The core of the church is a building of the late 12thc and early 13thc in local sandstone. It has a 13thc chancel with a 2-bay N chapel of the same date and a 19thc S vestry. The nave is 12thc with S aisle added at the end of that century and a N aisle at the beginning of the 13thc. The N porch dates from the 14thc, but the S doorway, facing away from the village, has no porch and is now blocked. The W tower was rebuilt in 1874, when the church was restored and the S vestry addded. Features described here are the S nave arcade, the N and S nave doorways, and the N chancel doorway.
Parish church
A cruciform building of Wealden sandstone with aisleless nave, transepts, square central tower with belfry, and chancel. This church is complex to date, as although it is early Romanesque in origin with 13c.work and 15c./ 16c. additions, extensive repairs and drastic rebuilding in 1838-39 altered many of its parts, and covered up original features. The building styles fall into six periods, including modern times. (1). There are remains of 12c. masonry within the nave walls, but they are inaccessible behind a heavy plaster layer of c.1838 (V.C.H.III, 100). The exterior S nave doorway with twin columns and cushion capitals, is a fine example of early Romanesque style. (2).The tower arches were apparently altered during the rebuilding (Short Church Guide), but the rough and heavy stonework with double chamfered edges is basically 13c., also some fabric in the S.transept with its 3 single lancet windows (3). The nave has late-15c. alterations and additions: timber porch, the W. doorway made of chalk, W. 3-light window and a 2-light Perp. window in the S. wall. Perp. window in S. transept. (4). Late 16c. work includes the nave roof with king-posts and moulded tie-beams. (5). The tower fell in 1838, and together with most of the chancel and the N. transept, was rebuilt by Robert Ebbels in Romanesque style. (6). Spire, chancel roof and part of the N. transept roof are modern. There was a restoration programme carried out in 1954. The Romanesque features described here are the S doorway and the font.
Parish church
Steeple Aston is situated in north Oxfordshire, 10 miles E of Chipping Norton. The church is built of both limestone and the local ironstone, situated on high ground at the NE end of the village. A church was known to be in existence before 1180, probably consisting of nave and chancel. The present church comprises a chancel with a N chapel, a nave with N and S aisles, a S porch and a W tower. It is now basically C13th, with additions in the C14th and C15th. It acquired the tower by 1220, when 'Steeple' was added to its name. The only remaining Romanesque feature is the font, decorated with a diamond and chevron pattern.
Parish church
Warsop is a town about 4.5 miles N of Mansfield and the church of St Peter and St Paul lies on the N bank of the River Meden about 1 mile N of the centre of Warsop. The building has 11thc origins but its layout was subsequently altered until the 16thc, and consists of (chronologically ordered) a W tower, a nave, a porch, a N and a S aisle, a chancel and a clerestory; the small castellated vestry to the S of the chancel contains fragments of late medieval glass dating to the 16thc. Extensive restoration work were carried out in 1872 and 1877. The Romanesque features of this site are two exterior doorways, the tower arch, and a reset slab.
Parish church
Todwick is a small village part of the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham. The church lies to the W of the village and consists of a 11thc rectangular nave partially altered by the addition of 18thc windows, a Decorated-style chancel, a Perpendicular tower of three stages, and a S porch added in the late 18thc.
Romanesque sculpture is found on the blocked round-headed N doorway, the late 12thc S doorway and the chancel arch.