The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
St Albans (medieval)
Parish church
Fryerning is a village in the Brentwood district of mid-Essex. It is 6 miles SW of Chelmsford and 5 miles NE of Brentwood, at a junction of minor roads on the N side of the A12. The area is heavily wooded. especially to the N. The church of St Mary stands in the centre of the village, and consists of a chancel, an aisleless nave and a W tower. The nave has a S porch, timber framed on a flint pebble base, and a modern brick block was built over the N doorway in 2008, to provide a vestry, kitchen and lavatory. The W tower is of brick. The oldest parts are the nave and chancel, dating from the late-11thc or early-12thc, and constructed of puddingstone, flints and brick laid in rough courses. The nave and chancel quoins are of reused Roman tile. The N and S nave doorways are completely plain, and the nave windows; 3 on the S and 2 on the N are plain lancets, and all are modern replacements except for the westernmost on the N side, which is original but blocked. The brick W tower dates from the 15thc. Romanesque features described below are the nave doorways and the font. The church was restored in 1869 by Wykeham Chancellor, who also added the S porch.
Parish church
A flint rubble church with stone dressings comprising chancel, nave with N and S aisles and S porch, and W tower. The nave is 13thc, as is the N aisle. The S aisle is 14thc. The tower is late 14thc – early 15thc. The church was restored in 1872-3 by A. W. Blomfield who rebuilt the chancel, chancel arch, and S porch. The plain font is the only Romanesque feature.
Parish church
The originally pre-Conquest church comprises, chancel, nave with N and S aisles and S porch, and W tower. The thick-walled nave is 11thc and it has a two-bay 12thc S arcade. There are traces of a round-headed window at the W end of the S aisle wall. The chancel was rebuilt in the early 13thc and the three bay N arcade was added at this time. The W tower is 14thc and the S porch 15thc. A clerestory was added in the 16thc. and N and S chapels in the 19thc. The chancel was restored in 1898. What is thought to be the decorated impost from the original S doorway now forms the W impost of the pier of the S arcade. A pre-Conquest carving of a Crucifixion is set into the S side of the wall of the S arcade. This probably formed part of a Rood (RCHME, 1910, 224; Pevsner and Cherry 1977, 372). The carving is discussed in detail in the Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture (CASSS 1995, 240-41). Romanesque sculpture is found on the S doorway.
Parish church
The church, of coursed flint with stone dressings, has chancel, nave with S porch, and W tower. The nave has long and short quoins on all angles indicating a pre-Conquest date for the original structure. The chancel is 14thc with a 19thc E end. The tower is 13th or 14thc with 15thc additions. The chancel was restored by Slater in 1864 (Pevsner and Cherry 1977, 278). Late 11thc. or early 12thc sculpture is found on the blocked reset N doorway.