The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Chelmsford (now)
Parish church
Boreham is a village in central Essex, 4 miles NE of Chelmsford, on the S side of the A12. The village is set in mainly arable farmland, and has expanded since the 1970s to a significant size. The church, of flint rubble with some ironstone and dreesings of clunch and Roman brick, is on the southern edge of the village and consists of a nave with a central tower and chancel. It was built in the late-11thc or 12thc, and the upper part of the tower was added c.1200. In the early 13thc the nave was rebuilt and aisles added. Towards the end of the 13thc the 2 E bays of the S aisle were widened to form a chapel, and in the 15thc the N aisle was widened. The chancel was rebuilt in the 14thc, and the Sussex Chapel added on the S side in 1585 by Thomas Radcliffe, the then Earl. A spectacular 5-stage timber framed porch that provides a covered way from the main road to the S nave doorway, W of the aisle, was added in the 15thc., and partlt rebuilt in white brick in the mid-19thc. A modern annexe has been added on the N side of the chancel and a vestry on the S side of the nave at the W end. The church was restored by Chancellor between 1868 and 1912. The only surviving Romanesque sculpture is in the windows of the 3-storey central tower. Many of them are modern replacements, but the four bell-openings of the third storey are all medieval, together with the 1st and 2nd storey windows on the N side and the 1st storey window on the S side. Both 1st storey windows are plain lancets, and are therefore not described in detail here.
Parish church
Little Tey is a small village in the Colchester district of Essex, situated on the former Roman road of Stane Street (now the A120), some 6 miles W of Colchester. It is dwarfed by its neighbours, Marks Tey to the E and Great Tey to the N, and consists of little more than a few dwellings on a minor road that runs northwards from the A120 and peters out when it reaches the church.
St James’s is a small single-cell building of flint rubble with ashlar dressings and puddingstone quoiss. It has an apsidal E end; originally Norman but refenestrated in the early 14thc. Nave and chancel are decorated with an extensive series of 13thc wallpaintings of the Passion. There is a timber bell turret over the W end of the nave, and a S porch protecting a 12thc doorway – the only feature described here. The N doorway is now covered by a vestry.
Parish church
Elsenham is a village in W Essex, 4 miles NE of Bishops Stortford. The village is alongside the M11 and the commuter line from Liverpool Street to King's Lynn, but is essentially rural, with woodland and pasture dominant. The church is SE of the village centre, alongside the hall. It is essentially a complete Norman church, two-celled with a square chancel. Nave and chancel are early 12thc with walls of flint rubble covered with plaster and cement. Plain 12thc windows are found in the N and S nave walls and the N chancel wall. The West tower is early 15thc., of mixed flint and brick with some large stone blocks and covered with plaster. The S doorway is 12thc with a porch of c1500, of flint rubble with lacing-courses and dressings in brick. The 19thc N porch covers a 13thc doorway, but is now used as a vestry. Some tiles, probably Roman, are used in the tower and S porch. Roofs of tiles and slate. Romanesque features described here are the S doorway, with a 12thc graveslab used as in internal tympanum; the chancel arch, and a section of stringcourse alongside it.
Parish church
Eastwood is a suburbe of Southend on the N side, dominated by Southend Airport. St Laurence's is in an unpromising position at the SW corner of the airfield, at the end of the longer runway, alongside an industrial estate, but it is a large and active parish and the church has a very large graveyard on the N side. It consists of a chancel and a nave with a wide S aisle roofed with a double gable and a S porch. The aisle occupies only the E end of the nave, and at its W end is a tower with a weatherboarded upper stage topped by a needle spire. On the N side of the nave is a narrow aisle with a N vestry at its W end. The nave is Norman (see the remains of round-headed windows above the arcade). This arcade consists of two widely separated bays with much blank wall remaining, and dates from the 14thc. Lancets in the chancel and the lower part of the tower indicate a 13thc date for these features, and the A nave arcade must date from c.1300. The 2 gables of the S aisle suggest a widening in the 16th - 17thc, and the brick S porch must be contemporary. The church was restored by William Wite in 1873, and the N vestry was added in 1966. The only Romanesque feature recorded here is the font, although as Bettley (2007) points out, the ironwork nave doors of 1170-80 are what the church will be chiefly visited for.
Parish church
East Tilbury is on the N bank of the Thames, alongside a reach of the river known as the Lower Hope. Alongside the river at this point is the Coalhouse Fort, a coastal defence dating from 1861-74 in its present form, and from this a road runs inland to East Tilbury, with the church less than half a mile from the coast. It is a fascinating if not a beautiful building, consisting of a 13thc chancel with stepped E lancets, a nave with a N aisle containing a N porch, and the remains of an arcade visible on the S wall. On the N arcade wall a blocked round-headed window above pier 1 confirms that the aisle is a later addition. At the W end of the former S aisle an arch leads to the lower storey of the former tower, destroyed by the Dutch fleet in 1667. The arcade was blocked and the S aisle removed after this. The ground storey of the tower is now a vestry, but in 1917 another tower was begun by men of the London Electrical Engineers using heavy blocks of Kentish Rag taken from the Coalhouse Fort. In 2015 a timber kitchen extension was built on the W front, and in the course of this work the remains of a 13thc W doorway with dogtooth ornament were discovered and conserved. From the exterior the building is dominated by the enormous tiled roof that covers the nave and N aisle.
Parish church
East Ham, in the London Borough of Newham, is 2 miles N of the Thames and the Royal Albert Dock. Its High Street runs parallel to the A13, and immediately N of it, and the rubble-built church, surrounded by a large cemetery that is now designated as a nature reserve stands on the N side of the High Street. It is an imposing building with a tall, spacious nave, a chancel with the remains of intersecting arcading on the side walls, no chancel arch but a 12thc apse arch and a semicircular apse. On the S wall of the chancel are 2 low side windows, the westernmost equipped with a wooden shutter. There is a W tower, variously dated between the 13thc and the 16thc, and the 12thc W doorway to the nave is inside the tower. On the S side of the nave is a 12thc doorway protected by a porch. The church was dilapidated by the end of the 19thc, but was restored in 1891-96. Further restoration work took place in 1930 and more recently after in was damaged in the 2nd World War. Romanesque features described here are the W and S nave doorways, the chancel blind arcading, the apse arch and a corbel reset above the piscina on the S wall of the apse.
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
Finchingfield is a village in the Braintree district of NW Essex, 10 miles SE of Saffron Walden and 7 miles NW of Braintree. The village is clustered around a crossing of the B1053, Saffron Walden to Braintree road with the church in the centre. The walls are of flint rubble with dressings of limestone and clunch; the roofs are covered with lead, except those of the N and S chapels, which are tiled. The church consists of a chancel with two-bay N and S chapels, a nave with a clerestory and 5-bay aisles, a 12thc tower and a S porch. The earliest part is the W tower, of c.1170. The chancel was rebuilt in the mid-13thc , and the N chapel arcade and S nave arcade date from this period too. The N nave arcade, with clustered piers, is slightly later. The S chapel arcade is 15thc, as is the W bay of the N arcade. In the 15thc the bell-chamber of the tower was altered or rebuilt; a spire was built possibly at the same time, but it fell in the 17thc and a cupola with an open bell stage was added in the 18thc. The church was restored in the 1865-66 by Henry Stock, and the S porch rebuilt. The only Romanesque features are in the tower, and include the W doorway, the tower arch, with rich but badly eroded and enigmatic decoration on the jambs, and deep 3-bay arcading at the two interior E angles.
Parish church
Great Bentley is a village in the Tendring district of NE Essex, 7 miles E of Colchester and 5 miles NW of Clacton-on-Sea. The village is grouped around a large green, said to be the largest in Essex, covering 45 acres with the church at the SW end. St Mary’s has a chancel, a nave with Romanesque windows and N and S doorways recorded below, and a W tower. The nave has a W gallery and a N rood stair. The N doorway faces the village and is protected by a porch. On the S side the nave doorway gives access from the church to a modern brick and glass passage linked to a hall; a structure built in 1987 and only accessible by arrangement. The church is of puddingstone, septaria and flint rubble with much herringbone masonry in nave and chancel. It was restored in 1871-74; a restoration that included the replacement of the chancel arch.
Parish church
Fyfield is a large village in SW Essex on the Roman road from London to Bury St Edmund’s and midway between Harlow and Chelmsford. The village is in the arable farmland N of the A414, and the church and Fyfield Hall stand at its eastern edge. St Nicholas’s church has an aisled nave, chancel and a central tower between them. The nave has N and S doorways, the N under a porch. The oldest part of the building is the plain 12thc tower, which has a blocked, plain 12thc window in the S wall and another in the W. The tower was strengthened and its upper parts rebuilt in by J. B. Papworth in 1817, and he might have added the weatherboarded spire. The nave is also 12thc, but aisles were added in two 13thc phases. The chancel is of the early 14thc. Further restorations were carried out in 1852-53 (Stephen Webb) and 1892-93 (C. H. M. Mileham). The only Romanesque feature is the Purbeck font.