The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Canterbury (medieval)
Parish church
Eastling is a small village 4.5 miles SW of Faversham. The church of St Mary has an aisled nave, a chancel, and a W tower with a spire. The S door is Romanesque.
Parish church
Burmarsh is a village in the Romney marsh area of Kent, 3 miles W of Hythe. The church of All Saints is a twin-cell building with a 13thc W tower, short nave, S porch, and a small chancel. For the most part it presents a later medieval appearance, and the interior owes much to the last century or so. The sole surviving Romanesque sculpture is on the S doorway, although the chancel clearly has early origins.
Parish church
Harrietsham is a rural and industrial village about 8 miles SE of Maidstone. The church of St John the Baptist, described by Glynne in 1877 as a rather interesting church, is a large Perpendicular style building with W tower, aisled nave, 13thc. chancel with chapels, and S porch. There is a font relevant to the Corpus.
Parish church
Chislet is today a small village in NE Kent sited between Canterbury and Thanet. The church of St Mary the Virgin has an aisled nave, a blunt Norman central tower and a long aisless chancel. The church owes more to the 13thc than any other period, but there is a Romanesque tympanum to the staircase doorway, chancel arch, and some fragments of unknown date.
Parish church
Stisted is a village in the Braintree district of Essex, on the N bank of the river Blackwater and 1½ miles outside Braintree to the NE. The village is a substantial one with a well-defined centre at a junction of minor roads. The church is in the centre, alongside Stisted Hall.
All Saints has a chancel with a N vestry, an aisled nave with N and S porches, and a tower sited at the E end of the S aisle, in the angle with the chancel. The nave and its aisles belong to the late-12thc and early-13thc, and the chancel is 13thc too. The tower was rebuilt on older foundations in 1844 as part of a major restoration in the 1840s that also included the construction of the two porches and the rebuilding of the W wall of the nave. This work was undertaken by the squire, Onley Savill-Onley, and the rector, Charles Foster. If an architect was employed, no name is known. Construction is of flint and pebble rubble with some puddingstone conglomerate. The nave arcades are described here although they are not entirely of the 12thc.
Parish church
The church of St Mary is in a rural location about 1 mile SSE of Wye, 4.5 miles ENE of Ashford in Kent. The church is a Romanesque gem built at the end of the 11thc: it is essentially a twin-cell building with nave and chancel, dominated by a massive W tower. The interior is renowned for its series of medieval wall-paintings, and there is also a wall-painting in the first-floor tower room. There are various sculptural elements throughout the building including the W tower arch, the chancel arch and the tower chamber.
Parish church
Brookland is a settlement in the Romney marsh area of Kent, some 5 miles W of New Romney. The large, light, aisled church of St Augustine was built on a mound to raise it above the flood water. It has a famous detached hexagonal timber belfry. The chancel is undifferentiated architecturally from the rest of the building, which contains traces of medieval glass and wall-paintings. Apart from the lead font, the building contains no material pre-dating the 13thc.
Parish church
Elmstone is a village in East Kent, between Canterbury and Sandwich. This small parish church, in an isolated setting, has a Norman nave and slightly lower chancel, and a 14th-century north aisle and NW tower. The principal item of interest is a single, ex-situ sculptured block in the west door. There is also a font with a large clasped bowl, but the base appears to be Early English.
Parish church
Fordwich is a town on the Great Stour River about 2.5 miles NE of Canterbury. The parish church of St Mary has Romanesque origins with a W tower, a nave and a chancel with a N aisle and an E chapel. The building features extensive samples medieval stained glass. It became redundant in the 1970s and is now owned by the Churches Conservation Trust. Romanesque sculpture include a tombstone and a font.
Parish church
A roadside parish church to the south of Ashford, with Romanesque sculpture in two exterior doorways. The church has a massive Norman W tower, its W face containing a Romanesque doorway with a smaller 15th-century portal inserted within it. The chancel dates to the 14th century, as do the aisles to the nave. The south aisle contains a reset Romanesque doorway.