The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Lincoln (Dorchester to 1085) (now)
Parish church
This large church may have had Anglo-Saxon origins, but the main build was early Norman. It was cruciform, with an impressive chancel that still remains. The S nave arcades, with tall octagonal piers, and the S aisle, were built later in the Decorated style. The S transept was rebuilt at the same time, and the chancel acquired a Decorated E window. The N transept was not rebuilt, but a N nave arcade of four bays, with short octagonal piers, was built c.1300, with a later fifth bay (Sherwood and Pevsner 1974). In the 15thc. the church acquired a Perpendicular clerestory, with a five-light window over a new chancel arch, and also a Perpendicular W tower. Romanesque features are concentrated in the chancel and N transept. Outside, the chancel has truncated pilaster buttresses, a string course and round-headed windows. There is an exterior blocked doorway in the N aisle, and interior blocked archways in the chancel and the N transept. The chancel has two decorated impost blocks from the original chancel arch, as well as a relic niche and a combined piscina-sedilia. The impost blocks are echoed in the plinth blocks at the entrance to the N transept. There is a highly original figurative font.