The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Norfolk (medieval)
Parish church
The most striking aspect of this simple, unaisled two-cell church is its 14thc W tower. All of the ashlar details in the building's flint masonry are datable to c1300 and later, but the form and depth of the 14thc window embrasures suggest that they were secondary openings in much older walls. The elaborately carved font is the only identifiably Romanesque feature in the church. It is one of a small but distinctive and localised group that are closely related in terms of their ornament and style. Similarities in their design and repertory of motifs indicate their kinship, but there are notable differences in concept and execution between them.
Hospital, former
This remarkable buiilding, located at the corner of Sprowston Road and Gilman Road in Norwich, is now part of a modern care complex. The remains of the infirmary hall of a hospital founded by the first bishop, Herbert de Losinga (1096-1119) to the north of the city beyond the Magdalene Gate, its east end was demolished after the Dissolution. Its two carved doorways probably survive from the original structure. Badly weathered, apparently reinserted in their present location, restored and partly reassembled, they bear the only Romanesque sculpture at the site. Their significance resides in their dated context and their ornament, for they are decorated with distinctive geometric motifs also occurring on voussoir fragments found to have been re-used when the original 12thc cloister of Bishop Herbert's cathedral was rebuilt in the 14thc.