The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Chelmsford (now)
Chapel
Harlowbury is on the E edge of the former parish of Harlow, now Old Harlow, itself at the NE edge of the New Town conurbation. The chapel is alongside Harlowbury Manor, originally built by the Abbot of Bury using timbers felled in 1220-25. The present manor how encases the medieval one and dates from c.1860. The chapel is a single cell gabled building of flint rubble with clunch and brick dressings. It is dateable to the 12thc by plain lancet windows: 1 in the E gable, 3 in the W and 2 in the S wall, flanking a late-12thc doorway. Brick buttresses are a later addition; diagonal at the angles and regular on the side walls. The only Romanesque feature described here is the N doorway.
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
South Ockendon is an ancient parish and now a large village in the Unitary Authority of Thurrock, 4 miles N of the Dartford Crossing and a similar distance SE of Upminster, immediately outside the M25. The villlage extends for 2 miles along the B186 that runs N from West Thurrock towards Brentwood, and the church is at the northen end of the village along with South Ockendon Hall and the railway station. St Nicholas's has a chancel with a N chapel and a S vestry; an aisled nave; the 15thc N aisle with a porch, and the 19thc S aisle with a rood stair turret at its E end. The W tower is round and 13thc (the neo-Norman upper storey by Armstrong). The external appearance is mostly due to the restoration of 1865-66 by Richard Armstrong. It is of knapped flint with Reigate stone dressings. The only Romanesque feature is the reset S doorway.
Parish church
South Weald is a village within the borough of Brentwood, 2 miles W of the town centre. It is surrounded by farmland and includes Weald Country Park to the N of the village. South Weald is built on a netwerk of minor roads in the vee between the A12 and the M25, with the church in the centre of the village. The present S aisle was the medieval nave and chancel: with no division between the two, and a tower at the W end and a S porch. This was a 12thc structure, as indicated by the S doorway. A N aisle was added in the 13thc, and the tower was built in the 15thc. In 1868 S. S. Teulon replaced the aisle with a new nave and a chancel with a N organ room, turning the original nave into a S aisle, refaced the medival walls and restored the tower. Then in 2010 a multi-purpose hall, the Belli Centre, was completed on the N side of the church, attached to the nave by the N dooway. The only Romanesque feature recorded here is the S doorway.
Parish church
Broomfield is a village in the City of Chelmsford district of the county. less than a mile outside the main conurbation to the NW. The village is a mile from N to S, with the church just off its main road. St Mary's is a flint rubble church with much Roman brick re-used as quoins and as dressings for the tower windows. It is dominated by a handsome round W tower, probably 12thc, with a shingled spire, splayed at the foot. The nave and chancel are 11th -12thc, although the chancel was extended in the 15thc. There is a N aisle and a S porch, both rebuilt by Chancellor as part of a restoration of 1869-70 which also included the addition of a N vestry. A church hall (St Leonard's Hall) was added on the N side of the vestry by Tim Venn in 1996-97. The only Romanesque sculpture found here is a carved head reset in the exterior E wall of the chancel, and we are grateful to Richard Slaughter to drawing this to our attention.
Parish church
Orsett is a village in the Thurrock district of Essex, on the N side of the A13 some 5 miles NE of Grays. The church, in the centre of the village, has a Norman nave with a 14thc chancel, with an organ chamber S of the chancel and a transeptal S chapel both added in 1865. On the N side of the chancel is the Whitmore Chapel of c.1500, and the nave has a N aisle added in the 13thc and modified in the 14thc. The tower is at the W end of the N aisle and dates from the 15thc. It is of flint, rebuilt in brick in the upper storeys, with a weatherboarded spire. Romanesque work is found in the elaborate S doorway, protected by a timber-framed porch, and a blocked round-headed lancet to the W of it. The N porch was converted to a vestry in the 19thc. Construction is of flint and ragstone rubble with Reigate stone dressings.
Parish church
Shoeburyness is a town on the N bank of the Thames estuary, 3 miles E of the centre of Southend-on-Sea and forming the eastern end of the Southend conurbation. South Shoebury is the part of Shoeburyness nearer the coast, and borders the MOD Shoeburyness site to the E, which provides testing and evaluation of weapons systems. St Andrew's stands in an urban setting and consists of a chancel with a S vestry, nave with S porch and W tower. The nave and chancel are 12thc, the tower dates from the 14thc with later brick battlements, the timber porch is 15thc work and the plain rendered vestry was built by volunteer labour in 1902. Construction is of ragstone and flint rubble. The church was restored by W. Slater c.1857, and by Nicholson, c.1894-1902. The 12thc chancel arch is flanked by later medieval arches on the E and the N and S nave walls, perhaps indicating the presence of nave altars, and the remains of a rood stair survive on the N side. Romanesque features recorded here are the N and S nave doorways, chip-carved windows on the N and S walls of the chancel, a reset corbel on the S chancel wall and the chancel arch. The font is in a 12thc style but must date from Nicholson's restoration.
Parish church
Boxted is a village that extends over a network of minor roads between the River Stour and Colchester, 4 miles to the S. There are two main parts to the village. In the N, less than a mile from the Stour and the Suffolk border, is the church and the hall, while to the S of this and detached from it is the long straight road to Colchester that contains the newer part of the village. St Peter’s consists of a nave with N and S aisles and clerestories; the arcades (3 bays on the N side and 4 on the S) simply pierced through the 12thc nave walls. The interior walls are rendered and whitewashed but the outlines of 2 round-headed windows are faintly visible on the N arcade wall. There is a W gallery dated 1836, and N and S nave doorways, the former now leading to a modern kitchen built of timber. The chancel arch is 12thc and the 2-bay chancel has 15th windows. There is a W tower that might originally have been 12thc, with round-headed brick lancets on the lowest storey. Construction of the tower is of boulders and puddingstone conglomerate rubble in the lower parts, and brick above with bell openings indicating an early 14thc date for the top parts. The diagonal brick buttresses are presumably contemporary. The exterior of nave and chancel are of coursed mixed rubble, while the S porch and the dormers in the aisle and nave roofs present a markedly domestic appearance. The only Romanesque feature is the heavily modified chancel arch.
Parish church
Pentlow is a small village in the Braintree district of north Essex, on the S side of the River Stour that forms the Suffolk border. The closest major town is Sudbury, 4 miles to the SE. The modern village centre is a mile to the S of the hall and the church, which form a group close to the river and effectively hidden from the road.
The church is of flint and pebble rubble with ashlar dressings. It consists of a 12thc nave with a 19thc S porch of brick and knapped flint; an apsidal chancel, and a round W tower and a N chancel chapel that were added in the 14thc. The chapel was remodelled c.1600 when it became the Kempe chapel, housing three imposing effigies. Pentlow is one of only six round-towered churches in Essex. Romanesque features are the font, the nave W doorway, now inside the later tower and decorated with an animal head at the apex, and a base re-used as building material at the SW angle of the nave.
Parish church
Abbess Roding is one of a group of eight villages called Roding in the SW of the county, 8 miles E of Harlow and 9 miles W of Chelmsford. The group is spread over a wide area, so that they lie in three separate boroughs (Chelmsford, Uttlesford and Epping Forest). Abbess Roding is in the Epping Forest district, and stands on the line of the Roman road from London to Bury St Edmund’s. The village is set in flat, mostly arable farmland, and consists of a few dwellings along a minor road, with the church and hall in the centre. The church consists of a nave and chancel with a W tower carrying a Hertfordshire spike. There are N and S doorways to the nave, the S with a timber porch, and the N used as the entrance to a vestry built around it. The nave was rebuilt in the 14thc and the chancel in the 15thc. In the 19thc the church was restored and the tower and vestry added. The only Romanesque feature is the font.