The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Essex (now)
Parish church
Liston is a small village in the Braintree district of north Essex, on the Essex bank of the River Stour that forms the Suffolk border. The closest major town is Sudbury, 2½ miles to the SE. Liston village consist of little more than the church itself, a few dwellings on adjacent minor roads, and the site of Liston Hall, half a mile W of the church; originally an 18thc manor house, destroyed by fire in 1870 and rebuilt, largely demolished in 1952 and now used for holiday accommodation.
The church consists of a nave with a S porch and a knapped flint S chapel that straddles the nave and chancel; a chancel with a N vestry, and a brick W tower. Otherwise construction is of flint and pebbles, the nave and chancel once mortar rendered but most of this is now lost. The nave and chancel are 12thc in origin, the chancel was widened in the 13thc, the tower was added in the 16thc, and the chancel restored in 1867 by Woodyer, who also added the S chapel, S porch and N vestry. The only Romanesque feature is the bricked-up N doorway.
Parish church
Birchanger is a small village in the west of the county, immediately 2 miles NE of Bishops Stortford. The name relates to the ancient birch wood of Birchanger, which still survives in part to the west of the village. Immediately to the east is the M11, and on the other side of it is Stansted airport. St Mary’s church is on the west side of the village. It consists of a nave and chancel in one with a N aisle and porch by Arthur Blomfield (1898). The nave has 12thc S and W doorways, and a double bellcote above the W gable (by G. E. Pritchett, 1851). The chancel has three 13thc lancets, the remains of an arch to a former S chapel, and a N vestry also by Blomfield. Over the W end of the nave. Construction is of flint with limestone dressings.
Parish church
Belchamp Otten is a village in the Braintree district of N Essex, 4 miles W of Sudbury and 2.5 miles S of the Suffolk border. The three Belchamp villages occupy a network of minor roads in the rolling farmland on the S side of the River Stour. The church is in the centre of the village, and consists of a 12thc nave with a S porch of the late 14thc, and a bell turret over the W gable. The N doorway now serves as the entrance from the interior of the church to a modern brick vestry. At the W end of the nave interior is a 3-bay timber arcade that carries the bell turret, and on the N wall is a timber gallery reached by a ladder. The chancel is 13thc, and both it and the nave received replacement windows in the 14thc. Construction is flint rubble with the remains of a cement render, and limestone and clunch dressings. The S nave doorway is the only surviving Romanesque carved feature.
Parish church
Belchamp Walter is a village in the Braintree district of N Essex, 3 miles W of Sudbury and 3.5 miles S of the Suffolk border. The three Belchamp villages, of which this is the easternmost, occupy a network of minor roads in the rolling farmland on the S side of the River Stour. The village centre is at a crossroads, with the church and hall in a group 0.5 miles to the E. St Mary’s is a large church with a nave with a timber-framed S porch, a W tower and a chancel. Of these the chancel is the earliest, and may date from the 12thc to judge from the round-headed lancet in its N wall. At any event, the E wall has been replaced, a Y-tracery window installed, and the chancel lengthened c.1860. Around this time too, the chancel arch was rebuilt by John J Cole. The 14thc nave is much taller and wider than the chancel. The timber porch and the W tower are 15thc work. The nave contains well-preserved wall-paintings of the Passion and saints’ lives on the N wall, dating from the early 14thc, and the spectacular arched canopy of the 1324-25 tomb of Sir John de Boutetourt, which looks as if it had escaped from Westminster Abbey. The only Romanesque sculpture here is the font.
Parish church
Wakes Colne is a village in the Colne valley, midway between Halstead and Colchester. It is a substantial settlement now extending N and S from the intersection of the A1124 with the minor road to Great Tey and Bures. Since 1849 it has been served by the Stour Valley Railway.
The church and Wakes Hall are half a mile W of the village centre, and the church consists of a 12thc nave with a timber W bell turret with a short spire, and a 15thc N porch, and a chancel that was extended eastwards in the 19thc. There is a modern vestry on the S side of the chancel at the W end. The E chancel wall is of brick and the remainder of coursed flints. 12thc work is found in 5 nave windows – 3 in the N wall and 2 in the S, all plain round-headed lancets and not recorded here; the N and S nave doorways and the font.
Parish church
Little Waltham is a large village in S Essex, set in arable farmland 3½ miles N of Chelmsford. The village is on the E bank of the River Chelmer and the church stands to the S of the village centre. It is built of stone and flint rubble, and consists of a nave and chancel without a chancel arch between them. The nave has a 12thc S doorway under a 19thc porch, and a plain 12thc lancet in the S wall. A N aisle with a 3 bay arcade was added in the 19thc. The chancel was rebuilt in the 14thc and 15thc, but also restored in the 19thc. It has a 19thc organ chamber contiguous with the N aisle. The W tower is 15thc in origin, but its S.W. angle appears to have collapsed in the 16thc or early 17thc, when it was re-built and buttresses added. The 19thc work noted above is by the ubiquitous Chancellor (1883-84) who carried out a general restoration. The only Romanesque sculpture is on the S nave doorway
Parish church
Little Laver is a village in the Epping Forest district of W central Essex, 12 miles W of Chelmsford and 8 miles E of Harlow and the Hertfordshire border. The village is surrounded by arable farmland, and the church stands at its N edge. St Mary's consists of a nave and chancel in one with a S porch to the nave and a N vestry and organ room to the chancel. The church is 14thc in origin, but was restored in 1872 by J. Goldicutt Turner, who added the porch, vestry and an apsidal E end. Construction is of flint rubble with clunch and freestone dressings and a red tiled roof. The only Romanesque feature is the font.
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.