The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Wells (medieval)
Parish church
Norton-sub-Hamdon is a village in South Somerset, located 5 miles W of Yeovil. Its name refers to the subordinate situation of the village over 100m below and to the SW of Ham Hill. The site of Norton was probably chosen because it almost nestles into a side valley from the river Parrett 1/2 mile W of the church. Being on Yeovil Sands (at an altitude of about 32m OD), it is blest with exceptionally fertile land and has a supply of excellent and very handsome building stone available only about 1/2 mile distant on Ham Hill. The present church of St Mary has 13thc origins but was rebuilt around 1500-1510. Some fragments of Romanesque sculpture were however incorporated in the inner face of the later medieval tower. This was damaged by lightning in 1894 and restored.
Parish church
The parish of Otterhampton lies on the Parrett estuary 5 miles NW of Bridgwater, in the Sedgemoor district of Somerset. The church of All Saints (formerly Sts. Peter and Paul), is now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. It is built of rubble and comprises a W tower, nave, chancel with N vestry, and a S porch. The church is mostly of the 14th-15thc with 19thc modifications. The nave probably has 12thc origins although no original features survive except perhaps the rear arch of the S doorway (plain chamfered - not included here). The font is Romanesque.
Parish church
Pilton, Somerset (not to be confused with a village of the same name in Northamptonshire) lies 2.5 miles SW of Shepton Mallet, perched atop the historic route between Glastonbury and Shepton Mallet (now the A361) which leaves the Somerset Levels for the relative heights of Mendip. The church of St John the Baptist (at about 50m above sea level) dates from the 11thc and later; it was restored in 1870. It has Romanesque material in the S doorway and N arcade.
Parish church
The village of Pitcombe lies 1.5 miles SW of Bruton. The ancient parish of Pitcombe, originally part of the minster parish of Bruton, occupied a crescent-shaped area to its S and SW. It included the village of Pitcombe in a valley at the centre of the crescent and the hamlets of Cole to the N, Honeywick and Hadspen to the W, and Hadspen House towards the S. The church (with the exception of the tower) was rebuilt in 1857-8 to designs by G. E. Street and has a chancel with N vestry, a nave with N aisle and S porch, and a W tower. The font is believed to be 12thc.
Parish church
Rodney Stoke is one of many small settlements strung out along the main A371 from Wells to Axbridge via Cheddar running along the SW scarp of the Mendip Hills in Somerset. As The parish extends on to the high ground to the NE and SW across the moors of the valley of the Axe, which river now runs less than 2 miles SW of the church. This is an area steeped in history: the diocesan centre of Wells is only 5 miles SE, the once-royal centre of Cheddar only 2.5 miles NW, and the once-thriving lead mines on Mendip only 4 miles N. The church, which is built of coursed and squared rubble with freestone dressings, consists of a W tower, nave, N porch, chancel and N chapel. The Romanesque elements comprise a sculptured head on the W face of the tower and a possible font.
Parish church
Selworthy lies 3 miles from Minehead, on the northern fringes of Exmoor, Somerset. It was rebuilt as a model village in 1828 by Sir Thomas Acland. The village and the surrounding Holnicote estate was given to the National Trust in 1944 by Sir Richard Acland. The church of All Saints, which is built of whitewashed roughcast-rendered rubble with Hamstone dressings, is described by the official Historic England listing text as 'one of the finest churches in the county'. It consists of a W tower, nave with N and S aisles, chancel and S porch. The Romanesque elements consist of a font and a piece of loose sculpture.
Parish church
The village of South Brewham lies on the river Brue only about 2 miles from its source and about 2.5 miles upstream of the larger settlement of Bruton, 7 miles SE of Shepton Mallett. This is frontier country: hills rise gently eastwards up to the ridge of Gault along which runs the border with Wiltshire. South Brewham itself lies partly on the S side of the Brue and partly straddling it. The church St John the Baptist, on the S side, is at an altitude of about 100m OD on the N-facing slope of a hill which rises to just over 130m OD. The church has 13thc origins but has much late 19thc rebuilding. It consists of a SW tower, nave with N and S aisles and chancel. The S doorway may incorporate fragments of Romanesque sculpture, and there is a piece of loose sculpture at the E wall of the S aisle.
Parish church
Only 3 km as the raven flies from the relatively large and accessible village of Porlock, Stoke Pero church — at just over 300 m above OD, perched on scant pasture on the very edge of Exmoor, with only one farm nearby — is remote and not easily accessible. As a notice in the porch claims: ‘The most isolated and highest church of Exmoor, 1013 feet above sea level.’ This altitude gives superb views in good weather across the Bristol Channel to Wales and up it to the rest of the Somerset coast as far as Portishead and even to Gloucestershire on the W side of the Severn. This is very rough terrain, the N flank of Exmoor on which Stoke Pero church stands is many-folded into deep combes with their hanging oakwoods and rushing streams: picturesque to the ‘romantic’ degree.
The church consists of a W tower, an undivided nave, a chancel and a N porch. The Romanesque sculptural elements consist of the font and the tower arch.
Parish church
The tiny settlement of Rimpton occupies a last block of relatively low-lying Somerset countryside nestling in a right angle of rather forbidding hills occupied by the frontier with Dorset. The church with attendant former manor house, at an altitude of about 40m OD, lies at the eastern extremity of the village, 300m from the Dorset border. The church of St Mary, which is built of local stone, has a cruciform plan with a W tower, nave, S porch, N and S transepts and chancel. Although it mostly dates from the the 13thc or later, the church may perhaps preserve some earlier features.
Parish church
The ancient parts of Langport [probably the etymology of its name is ‘long (market) town’] surround All Saints church on an originally fortified hilltop, stretch W below the hill along a causeway leading to the crossing of the major Somerset river, the Parrett. From late Saxon times the river was a major communication link enabling Langport to be a very important trading hub. It is still noticeably commercial although no longer holding the importance it had before the growth of other Somerset towns based on road and rail developments. Nowadays the principal communications are along the road more or less keeping to the high ground afforded by the Blue Lias ridge and running from Taunton in the W to Somerton and that road’s offshoot E of Langport running along the foot of the S scarp of the Blue Lias ridge and leading to the A303 London road.
To simplify geology and topography, at Langport the River Parrett cuts through the well-known WSW/ENE outcrop of the Limestone variety known as Blue Lias. The current geological description of the surface geology of the hill on which All Saints church perches categorises the stone as belonging to the Triassic type: ‘Westbury Formation & Cotham Member Mudstone & Limestone’. The church itself rests on ‘Langport Member, Blue Lias Formation & Charmouth Mudstone’.
Although the church mainly dates from the 15thc and 16thc, it houses a resited Romanesque lintel.