The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Lincoln (Dorchester to 1085) (medieval)
Cathedral, formerly Benedictine monastery
The church begun by Abbot Paul of Caen (1077-93) in 1077 had an aisled eastern arm of 4 bays; the central vessel with an apse and the aisles perhaps apsed too (see Fernie 2000, 112), although nothing has been found to clarify the arrangement.The cruciform church had 3-bay transepts; the inner bays corresponding to the nave and chancel aisles, with a pair of stepped chapels on the E side of each. The exterior view from the east would thus have shown an echelon of 7 apses. The nave was originally of 10 bays. The nave elevation is of 3 storeys with a tribune gallery and clerestorey above the arcade. As a whole the articulation is very plain with practically no shafts, probably a result of the building materials used in the construction. The church is largely of flint with re-used Roman brick taken from the Roman site of Verulamium used for strengthening and as dressing where right angles were needed.
The new church was consecrated in 1115, in the abbacy of Abbot Paul's successor Richard d'Aubeney (1097-19), then from the end of the 12thc, Abbot John de Cella lengthened the nave by 3 bays, rebuilding the westernmost bay in the process. He also commissioned a new W front from Hugh of Goldclif, described by Matthew Paris as 'an untrustworthy and deceitful man, but a consummate craftsman'. True to form, Goldclif used up all the money and kept demanding more until the abbot could stand it now longer. Goldclif was dismissed and the incomplete facade left to crumble for want of funding to complete it. After more several delays the W end was eventually completed c.1230 under Abbot William of Trumpington (1214-35). The eastern arm was rebuilt and extended eastwards in the 13th; the work beginning with a rebuilding of the choir aisles from 1235, and including a new presbytery, a feretory for the shrine of St Alban, a retrochoir and a Lady Chapel at the E end. The last of these was completed early in the 14thc. In 1323 bays 5 to 9 of the S nave arcade were rebuilt (to match the Early English work further west) following a collapse.
After the Dissolution of the abbey in 1539 the monastic buildings were sold to Sir Richard Lee for building materials, and the church passed to the town. The east end was converted into a Grammar School, and the remainder became a parish church, apparently ill-maintained. Part of the S nave wall fell through the aisle roof in 1832, and repairs were carried out by L. N. Cottingham. A campaign of restoration was carried out by Sir Gilbert Scott from 1856 to 1877, and he restrored the S nave clerestorey, reroofed the S aisle restored the Lady Chapel and stabilised the crossing tower. He also reunited the E end with the rest of the church. Restoration was continued by Lord Grimthorpe after Scott's death, and his approach was much more intrusive. In the 1880s and '90s he completely rebuilt the west front and the transept facades as well as restoring the Lady Chapel, eastern arm and nave, all at his own expense, and he was heavily criticized for his approach. Meanwhile in 1877 the diocese of St Albans had been consituted, with the abbey as its cathedral. The see initially covered Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Essex, although the last of these gained its own see at Chelmsford in 1914.
Parish church
Since 1877 Lenton has been a part of the City of Nottingham, but in the 11thc it was a village to the W, between Nottingham and Wollaton. New Lenton was built on farmland to the W of Lenton to accommodate the expansion of both the village and the city, especially of the lacemaking industry. The church of the Holy Trinity was built in 1842 by Henry Isaac Stevens, and consists of a nave with aisles, chancel and W tower. It houses the font from Lenton Priory; one of the finest pieces of Romanesque sculpture in the county.
Parish church
Lockington is a village in the extreme NW of the county,. The Derbyshire border is a mile to the N, and Derby, 8 miles to the NW, is the nearest major town. The village is small and attractive with the church close to its centre. It consists of a 13thc nave and chancel with arcades of the same period, widened in the 14thc. The S porch was rebuilt in 1946. The W tower belongs to the later 14thc or early 15thc, and a clerestorey was added to the nave c.1500. The earliest part of the fabric is the N aisle doorway of the early 13thc, but there are Norman remains in the form of part of a 12thc doorway rebuilt inside the N aisle, a font and a fragment of a billet label reset on the exterior, in the angle between the chancel and the S aisle.
Parish church, formerly chapel
Little Stretton is a small village in the Harborough district of Leicestershire, 6 miles SE of Leicester. The church stands to the N of the road through the village, and is a small ironstone building with a low nave and chancel in one, a S porch and a W tower. The S doorway and a plain blocked N doorway are 12thc. The Purbeck font is 13thc.
Chapel
St Mary's is a cruciform church to which a three-bay south nave aisle, with an arch to the transept, was added
in the early 13thc. The nave has a 15thc.-16thc. clerestorey on the S wall only. The N transept now houses the
organ, and its arch is 13thc. and pointed, but the transept itself is a modern
rebuild. The S transept arch is late 12thc. and round-headed. The
chancel belongs to the early 13thc. too, but its S
doorway is, stylistically at least, late 12thc., and is included here. The W
tower was rebuilt in the 16thc., and its arch is of reused material. The south
nave doorway is 13thc., under a porch bearing a date
stone of 1662. There is no N doorway. Construction is of stone rubble, much
disturbed. Features described here are the S transept arch and the S
chancel doorway.
Chapel
St Mary's has an aisled and clerestoreyed nave with three-bay
arcades. Of these bay 1 of the S arcade is 13thc. and may, according to Pevsner, have been a
transept arch originally. The rest of the S arcade and the
entire N arcade are either 19thc. in their entirety or heavily
restored work of the years around 1300. The clerestorey windows
are 14thc. The S aisle has been extended E alongside the chancel
to form a chapel, now in use as an organ loft and vestry. The
chancel also belongs to c.1300. At the E end the
lowest part of a tower remains, including a 14thc. window. The spire had fallen in 1703,
and most of the remainder was demolished in 1967. In its place a bellcote was built on top of the west gable. A
date stone of 1601 over the S doorway presumably records a restoration. The church is of
ironstone and grey stone in roughly-coursed blocks. The only Romanesque feature is the
elaborate late 12thc. S doorway.
Chapel
Heington is a village located 4 miles SE of Lincoln. Of the medieval chapel almost nothing remains. The present building dates to 1865 when renovations by Michael Drury were made for the chapel to become a school. This replaced an earlier chapel which had been renovated by the patron Thomas Garratt in 1619. The massively broad W tower arch has Romanesque responds.
Chapel
St Michael's has a rectangular nave with a W bellcote and a rectangular chancel with a N vestry. It is constructed of brown cobbles except for the N nave wall, which is brick. The church fell into disrepair and by the middle of the 19thc. it had lost its chancel and consisted simply of a nave with a hipped roof surmounted by a central bell-turret. The N wall of the nave appears to have been replaced in the 18thc. In 1873, the church was thoroughly rebuilt by Arthur Blomfield of London at a cost of £933, raised by subscription. The N wall and the part of the S wall, including the 12thc. doorway and window, were retained, and the remainder rebuilt on the old foundations using cobbles and Bath stone facings. The chancel, of course, was entirely rebuilt. The vestry was added in 1897. Despite having the general appearance of a neo-Norman building, much of the fabric of the nave is genuinely Romanesque. The chancel arch includes important early-12thc. capitals, while the later S doorway is very elaborate. A 12thc. S nave window survives, and the head of a similar window is reset in the N nave wall.
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.
Chapel
St Mary's has a nave with a two-bay N aisle without any windows and a S doorway under a porch. The square-ended chancel has a N vestry and organ chamber, and there is a W tower with a broach spire with two tiers of lucarnes. An 11thc. window in the W wall of the nave indicates an early date for the core building. The S doorway dates from the early 13thc., and the N arcade and tower are slightly later. The S porch is dated 1663, and at that date too the S nave wall was rebuilt. The clerestoreys to N and S were presumably added at that time too. At some point, probably in the 15thc., the chancel fell down, and the E nave wall was rebuilt without a chancel. Until the new chancel was built in 1902 on the old foundations, St Mary's was claimed to be the smallest parish church in England. Construction is of stone rubble and ashlar. The church boasts an exceptional font of the 1120s, which is the only feature described here.