The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Chelmsford (now)
Parish church
Wrabness is a small dispersed village in the Tendring district of NE Essex, situated on the S side of the Stour estuary between Harwich, 5 miles to the E, and Manningtree, a similar distance to the W. The village occupies a loop of minor roads on the N side of the road joining these two towns, with the church at its northernmost extremity. All Saints’ is built of septaria rubble, mainly cement-rendered with some red brick and limestone dressings. It had a 12thc nave and chancel, but the chancel was rebuilt in the 14thc, and again after a partial collapse in 1697, and again in a restoration of 1893 by J. C. Bourne. The nave is taller with a 12thc N doorway, now inside a vestry added by Bourne as part of a restoration of 1907-08 in which the nave was extended westwards and the S porch replaced. The 12thc S doorway was rebuilt in the 15thc, but part of its arch and label remain above the present entrance. The church has no tower or bell-turret, but Morant reported in 1768 that there was 'formerly a stone tower, with 5 bells; now only 2, in a wooden turret'. Now the bells are housed in a free-standing bell cage in the churchyard, SW of the church.
Parish church
Writtle is a large village, 2 miles E of the centre of Chelmsford in central Essex. The village is centred on a green from which the church iis reached by a narrow lane on the S side. All Saints’ is a substantial building with a chancel with 2-bay N and S chapels and a vestry, now the parish office, at the E end of the N chapel. The nave has a clerestories and 5-bay aisles with N and S transeptal chapels in bay 1 of the nave aisles, and a W tower. There are N and S nave doorways under porches, and the S porch is now kept locked and used for storage. None of the fabric is Romanesque. The chancel with its chapels and vestries are largely of the 14thc. The nave arcades are 13thc work, but the aisles were remodelled in the 14thc. Both transeptal chapels are 16thc: the shallow N chapel of stone and the deeper S chapel of red brick with an embattled parapet. Both were presumably chantries. The tower was rebuilt after it collapsed in 1802. The only Romanesque feature here is the font.
Parish church
Little Canfield is a small village on either side of the B1256 (formerly A120) in west Essex, 6 miles E of Bishop’s Stortford. It is set in arable farmland on the E bank of the River Roding, with the church at the southern end of the settlement. The church consists of a nave with a 12thc S dorway under a Perpendicular porch, and a 14thc chancel. The vestry, on the N side of the chancel, was added in 1795. For the present appearance of the church we are indebted to the rector Rev. C. I. Smith (an amateur architect) whose improvements in 1847 and 1856 included the remodelling of the chancel and the addtion of the present NW tower and its spire. The only Romanesque feature is the S doorway.
Parish church
Little Clacton is on the northern outskirts of Clacton-on-Sea, 2½ miles N of the coast, just E of the main road to Colchester. The church stands in the centre of the village. It is constructed of flint rubble, rendered on the N side and the W end. The nave has a timber W bell turret and a S porch of brick and timber framing, and the chancel with a priest’s doorway on the S side. The nave is largely 13thc – indicated by a plain pointed lancet on the S side- but was remodelled in the early 14thc. The chancel was remodelled in the 13thc and again in the 14thc, although a round-headed lancet in the N wall indicates that it was originally 12thc. The N nave doorway now provides access to a modern red-brick hall with a gabled roof. The only Romanesque feature recorded here is the Purbeck font.
Parish church
Located at the southern edge of the village at a crossroads on what was once the A11, now the B1383. The road from here between Littlebury and Audley End to the south was new in 1811, the original link being further west. The church comprises chancel, nave with aisles of three bays each, north and south porches and a west tower. The oldest part of the church is the nave, which dates from the 11thc-12thc. Aisles were added in the 13thc and a W tower in the 14thc.The building was radically reworked in two phases during the nineteenth century (1847 & 1856-58). Previously there had been major reconstruction in the late C15 and early C16 (L. Sanders and G. Williamson, 36). Construction is of lint rubble with detailing in clunch. Romanesque features described here are the south nave doorway and the font.
Parish church
Little Maplestead is a village in the Braintree district of N Essex, 8 miles NE of Braintree itself. The village is clustered around a network of minor roads W of the main A131 Braintree to Sudbury road, with the church and the hall alongside it at the W end of the village. The present church is of flint and pebble rubble with limestone dressings, and is of c.1335. It consists of an aisleless chancel with a semicircular eastern apse and a S vestry, and at the W end a circular nave carried on 6 piers. Above the nave is a wooden belfry with a pyramid roof. There is a W porch of 1851. The church is of c.1335 with no earlier fabric surviving. It was the subject of a drastic restoration by the architect R. C. Carpenter in 1851-57. The only Romanesque feature is the font.
Parish church
Inworth is a village in the Colchester Borough Council area of the county, 8 miles SE of Braintree and 10 miles SW of Colchester. It has no obvious centre, consisting of scattered houses along the B1023 road from Kelvedon to Tiptree. The civil parish is Messing cum Inworth; Messing being a village a mile to the NE.
The church is alongside the B1023, and consists of a chancel with a nave, S porch and W tower. Nave and chancel are of flint, puddingstone and Roman brick. The brick tower dates from 1876-77 when it was constructed by Rev. A. H. Bridges. A watercolour of 1827 shows a bell turret with a short broach spire over the W gable of the nave. The chancel is late-11thc with windows deeply splayed inside and out, having exterior dressings of puddingstone blocks, roughly shaped. It was later extended. Inside are wallpaintings of c.1300 showing scenes from the life of St Nicholas. No dedication is known before 1515 and it has been suggested that the paintings are evidence of the earlier dedication. The chancel arch is the only feature recorded here.
Parish church
Heybridge and Maldon now form a single conurbation, with Heybridge to the N. It seems like a small town rather than a large village, and stands at the W end of the Blackwater estuary, 9 miles E of Chelmsford. The church is on the busy main street that runs through the town from E to W.
St Andrew’s consists of a 12thc nave and chancel in a single continuous vessel, with a 19thc S porch and a short 12thc W tower with a pyramid roof. It is built of mixed rubble with ashlar dressings and later brick repairs. Romanesque sculpture survives in the N and S nave doorways, the S chancel doorway, the arch of the W doorway above the present 14thc doorway, two loose capitals inside the nave and fragments of a font bowl built into the interior N wall. There are plain 12thc windows, not recorded here, in the W tower and the lateral walls.
Parish church
Little Totham is a small village in the Maldon district of Essex, 3 miles NE of Maldon. The modern village is concentrated on the northern edge of the parish, alongside the neighbouring village of Tolleshunt Major, while the church and hall are in the centre of the parish, a mile to the S. The church consists of a nave with a S porch and a kitchen on the N side, accessed through the N doorway; a slightly narrower chancel with no chancel arch but a beam between nave and chancel; and a weatherboarded W tower with a pyramid roof. The N and S nave doorways are Romanesque.
Parish church
Little Thurrock is now part of the Thurrock Unitary Authority, on the N bank of the Thames between Grays to the E and Tilbury to the W. The medieval church marks the site of the former village, but this has been completely absorbed by 20thc housing developments. St Mary's has a 12thc nave with a N porch, a chancel rebuilt in the 14thc with a N organ chamber added in 1909 and a 19thc S vestry. The church was restored by F. Franey in 1878-79, and he added the W tower in 1883-84. Construction is of flint and mixed rubble with limestone dressings. The S doorway is 12thc alng with parts of the chancel arch.