The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Southampton (now)
Parish church
The church is a simple two-cell plan, altered by two large 19thc transepts, the N of which has some medieval precedent. There is the usual late medieval W tower which now acts as a porch. The church has a Romanesque font and a fine late Romanesque/Early Gothic chancel arch.
Parish church
St Michael's church is the only medieval church in the city centre. It stands in St Michael's Square in the Old Town which lies to the S of the main centre. It consists of a shallow aisled chancel, a central crossing with a tower, and a nave with aisles, so that the plan is effectively a rectangle half as wide as it is long. The crossing is the oldest part of the building, dating from the end of the 11thc. The original church was thus cruciform, but apart from the lower part of the tower it has all been rebuilt. In the later 13thc. chapels were added to the chancel on the N and S and their arches still remain, and at the same time the E window was replaced with a larger one whose jambs survive. In the later 14thc the E section of the N aisle was rebuilt, and the S transept was opened up to the nave aisle. The S aisle was rebuilt in the 15thc., and the tower was also rebuilt on its original lower storey in this period. The spire was added in 1732. A chantry chapel was added to the S of the S chapel in the 16thc. It is now gone but the arch to the chapel remains. In 1828-29 the nave arcade was replaced, the aisle walls raised and the N aisle lengthened westwards. VCH describes the new pillars and arches as flimsy; Pevsner prefers slender and elegant, but the aim was to allow galleries to be inserted. These were removed in 1872. As for surviving Romanesque work, we have the 11thc crossing arches, a short blind arcade on the W face of the tower, above the W crossing arch, and an important Tournai marble font of c.1170.
Parish church
Chilworth is a village in the Test Valley district of Hampshire, 4 miles N of the centre of Southampton. The church is in the Old Village to the NW of the settlement, on the road to Romsey. It was built in 1812 of stuccoed brick and consists of a narrow nave with a W tower, short transepts, the N housing the organ, and a 1-bay chancel, in an attractive Gothick style. Entry is through the W tower doorway, the tower serving as a porch. When built the church had a spire, shown in a photograph displayed in the church and reproduced here, but it developed a twist and had to be taken down in 1894 (Southern Daily Echo). The only 12thc. feature is a Purbeck font.