The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Peterborough (now)
Parish church
St Andrew's has a four-bay aisled and clerestoreyed nave with arcades ofc.1300, the N stylistically later than the S. At the W end the tower is entered by a small 13thc. doorway rather than an arch. The chancel and its arch are 14thc. Construction is of irregular grey stone blocks. The W tower is of three storeys, containing features of the 12thc. but rebuilt. Signs of the rebuilding are most obvious on the W face, which has a central flat buttress extending halfway up the first storey. The wall to the S of this is built in three steps divided by string courses above a plinth course; to the N the wall is not articulated. The tower has 12thc. windows and bell-openings, described below, a string course, and a row of corbels well below the present upper parapet.
Parish church
St Mary's has a clerestoreyed nave of three bays with 19thc. arcades. In fact, although both arcades appear the same, the N aisle dates from Buckeridge's 1873 restoration, while the S arcade was only restored at that date. The S aisle extends W halfway along the tower, while the N aisle stops at the tower junction. A vestry has recently been added alongside the tower on the N. At the E end of the nave, the aisles extend to form chapels alongside the chancel, the N deeper than the S. Both have arches from the chancel; the N arch 19thc., the S late medieval. The chancel arch and W tower arch are both Perpendicular; the latter badly distorted. In its three lower storeys the tower is 13thc., with attractive blind arcading on the 3rd storey. A 4th storey with bell-openings and battlements was added in the 15thc. Construction is of orange-brown ashlar blocks with courses of varying thicknesses. Romanesque work is found in the S doorway and the font.
Parish church
St John's has a clerestoreyed nave with three-bay aisles, the N arcade with a short 12thc. W bay separated from the eastern part of the arcade by a short length of wall. The two E bays are also round-headed, with stiff-leaf capitals of c.1200. The S nave arcade is round-headed too, but the capitals and the aisle date from the restoration of 1842. The chancel has N and S chapels; the N, of two bays has an arcade of c.1300, and is now used for a crèche and vestry. The S of one bay, housing the organ, is 19thc. Both nave doorways are under porches, but the N porch has been extended eastwards and converted for use as a kitchen and lavatories. The W tower is 13thc. in its lower parts, with 14thc. bell-openings and added diagonal buttresses, and a quatrefoil frieze and embattled parapet added at the top. The only feature described below is the N nave arcade.
Parish church
St Mary's is a spacious church with a four-bay aisled and clerestoreyed nave, probably 14thc., and a broad aisleless chancel, also 14thc., with a N vestry. The W tower is Decorated too, and of three storeys. The nave doorways are both under porches. Construction is of ashlar. The only Romanesque feature is the Sussex marble font.
Parish church
The well-known Anglo-Saxon W tower, which is profusely decorated with
raised flat bands (lesenes), may originally have formed the nave of the church.
The present nave is essentially Norman, but has added aisles with late-13thc.
or early-14thc. arcades and Dec. windows. The
chancel is also Norman, but was lengthened in the
13thc. Romanesque features described here are the blind arcading and sedilia within the
chancel, with their associated stringcourses and some
re-set chevron
voussoirs or
jamb-stones; the south nave doorway and the tower and
chancel
arches.
Parish church
St Mary's is an ashlar church with a nave with a S aisle and S clerestorey, a low W tower and a long chancel with a N organ chamber of 1878. The S arcade of the nave dates from c.1300, and the clerestorey from the same period or later. The S aisle was rebuilt in 1839. The N doorway is blocked and the south, of 1839, has a porch. The chancel arch has 12thc. responds and a 14thc. arch, and the chancel dates from the 14thc. too. The tower is Perpendicular with a battlemented top storey of 1673, to which period also belong the bell-openings and Wdoorway. The church contains an elaborately carved font, which could be 12thc. or 13thc., and this and the chancel arch are the only features considered here.
Parish church
St Luke's was originally a cruciform church and retains its central
tower. The form of the original nave is visible on the W facade, and apparently
had no aisles. The nave has N and S aisles, extended eastwards to subsume the
former transepts, providing N and S chapels. The N chapel now houses lavatories
and a kitchen, and the S is used as a vestry. The
crossing has narrow arches to N and S, and broader,
taller ones to E and W. All four are apparently 14thc., as is the upper part of
the tower, although the lower storey may be 12thc. The nave has a
clerestorey on the S side only, and there are N and S
doorways in the aisles, the S early 13thc. under a porch, and the W windows are also 13thc. work. The
three-bay nave arcades and the
aisle windows date from c.1300, but the W respond of the S arcade is 12thc. An
altar has been installed at the W end of the nave in addition to that at the E
end of the chancel, to make St Luke's a double-ended
church with the two liturgical spaces separated by the crossing.
The font is 12thc.
Parish church
St Nicholas's has an aisled nave with no clerestorey. The S arcade is taller than the N and is entirely the work of R. C. Hussey (1864-65). Hussey's work dominates the N arcade too, but pier 3 of the four-bay
arcade is original work of c.1200. The N aisle has been extended eastwards to form a chapel alongside the chancel, with a two-bay
arcade between it and the chancel itself. This work is 14thc., as are the chancel and its arch and piscina. The west tower is early 14thc., to judge from the doorway and tower arch. The N nave doorway has been blocked and the S has a porch. Construction is of ashlar. Romanesque interest centres on the font; a spectacularly ugly piece, elaborately, if inaccurately carved, with similarities to the Buckinghamshire group.
Parish church
St Mary's is a magnificent mid-14thc. church with an aisled and
clerestoreyed nave of four bays, the E bay of each arcade giving onto
transepts. A strainer arch of c.1400 crosses the nave a bay to the E of
the chancel arch. The chancel has a N vestry, and to the S the easternmost side
window has been blocked, apparently to strengthen the wall when the Dolben
vault was built beneath the E end c.1710. The W tower is contemporary
with the rest, although the parapet must be 15thc. It is topped by an ashlar
spire with two rows of lucarnes. The spire was struck by lightning in 1897 and
the top 30 feet of it rebuilt. The nave has N and S doorways, the S under a
two-storey porch. The upper chamber is accessible through a turret added in
1794, and is known as the Monk's Cell. The only Romanesque work here is the
font.
Parish church
Romanesque interest at St Michael's centres on the W tower; constructed of bands of ironstone and grey stone in its lower parts, and originally unbuttressed but with diagonal buttresses and a plinth course added. The top storey is of rubble and has 14thc. windows and a battlement. Inscriptions supply the names of two churchwardens and the date 1654, which must correspond to a restoration. 12thc. work surviving here comprises the W doorway and the tower arch, both extremely plain. For the rest, the nave is aisled with 13thc. arcades of three bays and a later clerestorey. The chancel is narrow with S chapel (now a vestry) as wide as the nave aisle and almost as long, and there are signs of a rood loft inside, and a stair turret for it in the angle between nave and chancel on the N side.