The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Hereford (medieval)
Parish church
Clun is a small town in the Shropshire Hills, in SW Shropshire, 13 miles W of Ludlow and 12 miles SW of Church Stretton. It stands on the River Clun, a tributary of the Teme. It was an important crossing on the ancient drove road from Wales to the markets of the Midlands, and a stronghold of the de Says, important Norman landowners.
The church is on the S side of the river and consists of an aisled 12thc nave with a 14thc N porch, a 12thc W tower remodelled in the 17thc. and a 19thc chancel. The medieval work is of coursed limestone and sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings. As well as renewing the chancel, G. E. Street virtually rebuilt the entire church in 1876-77, although he used medieval material when possible. The features reported here are the N and W doorways, the nave arcades and a corbel reset above the 13thc NE nave doorway.
Parish church
Milson is a village in the south of the county, close to the borders with Herefordshire and Worcestershire. The nearest good-sized town is Kidderminster (Worcestershire) 11 miles to the E. The church stands at a junction of minor roads, where a cluster of farm buildings could be said to constitute the village centre.
It is constructed of stone rubble with ashlar dressings and consists of a 12thc nave and chancel with a S porch and a low W tower, probably early 13thc, with a low, shingled bell stage and a pyramid roof. Inside the tower arch is 13thc and the chancel arch has been replaced by a timber proscenium. The nave has 3 12thc lancets and the chancel one on each side. Romanesque work recorded here is a S nave doorway and a font.
Parish church
Bredenbury is a village in the N of the county, on the E side of the A44 between Leominster and Bromyard. The church stands alongside the main road, and was built by T. H. Wyatt in 1876-77, on a new site, to replace medieval chuches both here (in the grounds of Bredenbury Court) and at Wacton, a mile to the NE. Wyatt's church consists of a chancel with a gabled S vestry, a nave with a S porch and a W tower with a pyramid roof and a SW stair turret. Construction is rusticated, or rock-faced, with ashlar dressings and a fishscale slate roof. When Wacton church was pulled down in 1881, the font bowl was brought here and is now in the churchyard W of the S porch, where it does duty as a planter. A second smaller bowl from a font or stoup stands in a matching location to the E of the porch. These are the only features described here.
Parish church
The name Bredwardine (DS - Brocheurdie, DBH - Brodewordin) means the place on the slope of a steep ridge and in fact, the village stands on the western bank of the Wye, on the ground that rises to the top of Bredwardine Hill, over 291 m (700 feet) above sea level. Of the 12thc. church, only the aisleless nave survives, with two carved doorways (N and S), the traces of one plain doorway, now blocked, in the W wall and a font. There is some herring-bone masonry in the N wall and tufa was used for quoins and for doorways. The sculptured features are of red sandstone, except for the huge font, of breccia. For the rest, there is a tower of 1790, built on the north side of the nave, at its east end. The nave was lengthened and the chancel, which doglegs to the north, was rebuilt in the 15thc.
Parish church
The villages of Upper and Lower Breinton are loosely scattered along minor roads two to three miles W of the centre of Hereford on the rising land on the N bank of the river Wye. The land here is hilly and wooded and used for rough pasture and orchards. Lower Breinton, where the church is situated, is the eastern of the two settlements and lies along the river bank. In the orchard immediately to the W of the church are earthwork remains of Deserted Medieval Village (DMV), or manorial type.
St Michael’s has a nave with a N aisle and S porch, and a chancel with a N vestry. There is no tower, but a slate-hung belfry over the W gable of the nave, with a slate broach spire. The church was rebuilt by F. R. Kempson in 1866-70, when the N aisle was added. He reused the 12thc W doorway and the window above it, and reset a pair of plain 12thc window heads in the gable above. Little is known of the old church, but a W gallery was added to the nave in 1833-34 by L. Johnson, a builder of Hereford. Only the W doorway can be considered sculpture, and it is described below.
Parish church
Clunbury is a small village in the SW of the county, on the edge of the Black Mountains., just 5 miles from the Welsh border. The village consists of a few houses and the church clustered around a crossroads at the foot of Clunbury Hill. The church is single-aisled, with a 12th. nave containing a 12thc. S doorway with carved capitals. There are remains of a second doorway further E: L jamb survives. There are two round-headed narrow windows on N and S sides of nave. A plain W doorway links nave and tower, with a plain, round-headed window above. The tower base is late 12thc., the upper levels later. The chancel has a round-headed 12thc. window on N side, now largely 19thc. A 12thc. font is situated at W end of nave L of the S doorway.
Parish church
Bridge Sollers is a village on the River Wye 6 miles W of Hereford. The village consists of a few dwellings and the church clustered around a crossing of the river. The church is on the N bank, alongside the main A438 road from Hereford to Brecon. It consists of 12thc nave with a later 12thc W tower and N aisle and a 13thc chancel. The Romanesque features here are the S doorway, under a 19thc timber porch, and the later 12thc N arcade.
Parish church
Sellack is a village in the Wye Valley, 3 miles NW of Ross-on-Wye. The village is a small settlement on the S bank of the river, consisting of a few houses and the church. St Tysilio’s has a narrow nave and chancel in one; the nave with a S porch and a 3-bay N aisle. The W bay of the nave arcade is 12thc, while the other two bays open onto a broad transept. This was added in the 14thc and rebuilt in a restoration by George Pearson of 1841-42. There is a 13thc N chapel, entered from the chancel and the nave aisle through a broad 13thc arches, and a modern vestry to the E of the chapel. The only Romanesque feature is the W bay of the N arcade.
Parish church
Single-aisled church, largely 19thc in Neo-Romanesque style. There are two 12thc S doorways and a 12thc font.
Parish church
Nave with a plain S doorway (not recorded but possibly 12thc.), 13thc. chancel with a 14thc. arch, early 13thc. W tower with a shingled bell-storey and pyramid roof. Only the nave is probably of a 12thc. date but, as the RCHME (3:15) stated, 'there is little evidence of this'. The font is the only certain evidence of the existence of a Romanesque church here.