The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Leicester (now)
Parish church
The former village of Belgrave is now a suburb of Leicester, and the church lies on the E bank of the River Soar. The building consists of chancel, extended in the 14thc, a nave, S and N aisles added in the 13thc, and a W tower, which lower stages date to the 12thc, while the upper one was added in the 15thc. The S porch built in 1826 and a N porch was erected in 1911; the N vestry date to 1877. The church was restored in 1860 by Ewan Christian, in 1861-67 by William Gillett, and again in 1877 by George Gilbert Scott. The surviving Romanesque sculptures is found on the reset S doorway and in the tower arch.
Cathedral church, formerly parish church
The cathedral of St Martin was the parish church of St Martin until 1927. It is situated within the medieval centre, defined by the River Soar to the W and the town walls on the other sides, and consists of an aisled nave with an outer aisle on the S; N and S porches, a chancel with chapels and a crossing tower with a tall spire. The oldest, and the only Norman feature is a fragment of billet moulding in the S wall at the E end of the N aisle, i.e. in the N exterior wall of the original aisleless 12thc nave. VCH states that the only Norman work left in the church is a short piece of billet work on the N side of the NW crossing pier, and this is the same piece. The tower was Norman originally, but was rebuilt by Raphael Brandon in 1861-62. The N and S arcades are mid-13thc, although the N was rebuilt by Brandon in 1846-48, and there is a Perpendicular clerestorey, also rebuilt by Brandon. the outer S arcade is slightly later in the 13thc. The nave was extended westwards by one bay in the 15thc. The chancel chapels were rebuilt by Brandon in 1865. The cathedral is now best known as the burial site of Richard III, whose tomb was installed in 2015. It consists of a massive block of Swaledale fossil marble on a Kilkenny marble plinth and was carved by James Elliot, Gary Breeze, Stuart Buckle and Thomas Greenaway.
Parish church, former
The former parish church of All Saints, Highcross Street ihas been in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust since 1986. It is situated near the medival North Gate into the city, and built of local rubble stone with a brick chancel. It consists of an aisled 6-bay nave with a tower oddly sited alongside the E end of the N aisle, and a brick chancel. The tower is 12thc in its lower parts, and was thus freestanding before the aisles were added c.1300. There are lateral doorways in the W bays of the nave, and a 12thc W doorway which may be reset. The brick chancel was added in 1829, and a thorough restoration was carried out by Joseph Goddard and Albert Paget in 1874-76. The chancel arch was blocked in 1960.