The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Chelmsford (now)
Parish church
Lindsell is a small village standing in the rolling arable farmland on the N side of the A120 between Bishop’s Stortford and Braintree. The church is reached through a farmyard in the centre of the village. It has a short but very wide nave with a 2 bay S aisle, the arcade dating from the mid-13thc., and a S doorway under a porch. The narrow chancel arch is 12thc, and alongside it to the S is a 13thc squint to allow a view of the eucharist from that side. On the S wall of the chancel is what at first sight appears to be a round-headed aumbry, but which on further investigation proves to be an anchorite’s cell in the thickness of the wall. The tower is at the W end of the S aisle.
Parish church
Copford is a village in the Colchester district of Essex, 2 miles W of Colchester. The modern village of Copford is along the road that runs through the villages of Marks Tey (to the W) and Stanway and Lexden (to the E) on the old London Road that runs 2-300 yards to the S of the present A12. Half a mile to the S is Copford Green, an older settlement that includes the church.
St Michael’s consists of an apse, chancel with vestry, nave with 3- bay S aisle, S porch, and timber belfry with spire. The walls are of rubble with substantial amounts of Roman and medieval brick. The apse, chancel and central vessel of the nave date from c.1120 and were apparently built in a single campaign. The responds of three vaulting arches, their imposts carrying a few courses of the transverse arches themselves, survive in the nave. The 12thc parts of the church are lavishly painted with an original scheme dating from the same time. They were rediscovered under whitewash in 1690-91 and re-covered with fresh whitewash. In 1871 the apse whitewash was removed, and in the following year the paintings uncovered there were restored by Daniel Bell, who ‘added and supplied what was necessary’. The nave paintings were restored in 1879, and all the paintings were restored again in 1931-32 by E. W. Tristram, in 1963-64 by Eve Baker, and in 1990-93 by Wolfgang Gärtner. This is not the place for a detailed account of them (for which see references given in the VCH entry in the bibliography), and the painting is not described in detail in the desciptions of the features given below, but can be examined in the photographs. Romanesque sculpture is found on two N doorways, on the windows of the nave and apse, on the apse arch and on the nave vaulting arch imposts, and on the 12thc Purbeck marble font.
Parish church
Little Baddow is a village in the Chelmsford district of the county, 5 miles E of Chelmsford, on the S side of the River Chelmer. The village centre clusters around a network of minor roads between Chemsford and Maldon, 4 miles to the E, but the church and Little Baddow Hall stand outside the village centre, a mile to the NW, St Mary's is constructed of the typical mixture of flint rubble, pebbles, puddingstone and Roman brick. It consists of a chancel, a nave with S porch, and a W tower with an embattled parapet. The nave is 11th-12thc, but the S wall has been rebuilt further S and reroofed, so that it is now asymmetrically placed with respect to the chancel, which, with its c.1350 chancel arch and 15thc windows has clearly been rebuilt in the later Middle Ages. On the exterior of the chancel are 19thc diagonal buttresses of brick. The tower dates from the 14thc and has a N stair turret. Romanesque features are the N nave doorway and a window head re-used as building material in the chancel N wall.
Parish church
Liston is a small village in the Braintree district of north Essex, on the Essex bank of the River Stour that forms the Suffolk border. The closest major town is Sudbury, 2½ miles to the SE. Liston village consist of little more than the church itself, a few dwellings on adjacent minor roads, and the site of Liston Hall, half a mile W of the church; originally an 18thc manor house, destroyed by fire in 1870 and rebuilt, largely demolished in 1952 and now used for holiday accommodation.
The church consists of a nave with a S porch and a knapped flint S chapel that straddles the nave and chancel; a chancel with a N vestry, and a brick W tower. Otherwise construction is of flint and pebbles, the nave and chancel once mortar rendered but most of this is now lost. The nave and chancel are 12thc in origin, the chancel was widened in the 13thc, the tower was added in the 16thc, and the chancel restored in 1867 by Woodyer, who also added the S chapel, S porch and N vestry. The only Romanesque feature is the bricked-up N doorway.
Parish church
Birchanger is a small village in the west of the county, immediately 2 miles NE of Bishops Stortford. The name relates to the ancient birch wood of Birchanger, which still survives in part to the west of the village. Immediately to the east is the M11, and on the other side of it is Stansted airport. St Mary’s church is on the west side of the village. It consists of a nave and chancel in one with a N aisle and porch by Arthur Blomfield (1898). The nave has 12thc S and W doorways, and a double bellcote above the W gable (by G. E. Pritchett, 1851). The chancel has three 13thc lancets, the remains of an arch to a former S chapel, and a N vestry also by Blomfield. Over the W end of the nave. Construction is of flint with limestone dressings.
Parish church
Belchamp Otten is a village in the Braintree district of N Essex, 4 miles W of Sudbury and 2.5 miles S of the Suffolk border. The three Belchamp villages occupy a network of minor roads in the rolling farmland on the S side of the River Stour. The church is in the centre of the village, and consists of a 12thc nave with a S porch of the late 14thc, and a bell turret over the W gable. The N doorway now serves as the entrance from the interior of the church to a modern brick vestry. At the W end of the nave interior is a 3-bay timber arcade that carries the bell turret, and on the N wall is a timber gallery reached by a ladder. The chancel is 13thc, and both it and the nave received replacement windows in the 14thc. Construction is flint rubble with the remains of a cement render, and limestone and clunch dressings. The S nave doorway is the only surviving Romanesque carved feature.
Parish church
Belchamp Walter is a village in the Braintree district of N Essex, 3 miles W of Sudbury and 3.5 miles S of the Suffolk border. The three Belchamp villages, of which this is the easternmost, occupy a network of minor roads in the rolling farmland on the S side of the River Stour. The village centre is at a crossroads, with the church and hall in a group 0.5 miles to the E. St Mary’s is a large church with a nave with a timber-framed S porch, a W tower and a chancel. Of these the chancel is the earliest, and may date from the 12thc to judge from the round-headed lancet in its N wall. At any event, the E wall has been replaced, a Y-tracery window installed, and the chancel lengthened c.1860. Around this time too, the chancel arch was rebuilt by John J Cole. The 14thc nave is much taller and wider than the chancel. The timber porch and the W tower are 15thc work. The nave contains well-preserved wall-paintings of the Passion and saints’ lives on the N wall, dating from the early 14thc, and the spectacular arched canopy of the 1324-25 tomb of Sir John de Boutetourt, which looks as if it had escaped from Westminster Abbey. The only Romanesque sculpture here is the font.
Parish church
Wakes Colne is a village in the Colne valley, midway between Halstead and Colchester. It is a substantial settlement now extending N and S from the intersection of the A1124 with the minor road to Great Tey and Bures. Since 1849 it has been served by the Stour Valley Railway.
The church and Wakes Hall are half a mile W of the village centre, and the church consists of a 12thc nave with a timber W bell turret with a short spire, and a 15thc N porch, and a chancel that was extended eastwards in the 19thc. There is a modern vestry on the S side of the chancel at the W end. The E chancel wall is of brick and the remainder of coursed flints. 12thc work is found in 5 nave windows – 3 in the N wall and 2 in the S, all plain round-headed lancets and not recorded here; the N and S nave doorways and the font.
Parish church
Little Waltham is a large village in S Essex, set in arable farmland 3½ miles N of Chelmsford. The village is on the E bank of the River Chelmer and the church stands to the S of the village centre. It is built of stone and flint rubble, and consists of a nave and chancel without a chancel arch between them. The nave has a 12thc S doorway under a 19thc porch, and a plain 12thc lancet in the S wall. A N aisle with a 3 bay arcade was added in the 19thc. The chancel was rebuilt in the 14thc and 15thc, but also restored in the 19thc. It has a 19thc organ chamber contiguous with the N aisle. The W tower is 15thc in origin, but its S.W. angle appears to have collapsed in the 16thc or early 17thc, when it was re-built and buttresses added. The 19thc work noted above is by the ubiquitous Chancellor (1883-84) who carried out a general restoration. The only Romanesque sculpture is on the S nave doorway
Parish church
Little Laver is a village in the Epping Forest district of W central Essex, 12 miles W of Chelmsford and 8 miles E of Harlow and the Hertfordshire border. The village is surrounded by arable farmland, and the church stands at its N edge. St Mary's consists of a nave and chancel in one with a S porch to the nave and a N vestry and organ room to the chancel. The church is 14thc in origin, but was restored in 1872 by J. Goldicutt Turner, who added the porch, vestry and an apsidal E end. Construction is of flint rubble with clunch and freestone dressings and a red tiled roof. The only Romanesque feature is the font.