The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
West Berkshire (now)
Parish church
Hamstead Marshall is a village in the SW of the county, 4 miles W of Newbury and a mile N of the Hampshire border. The village is on the south bank of the River Kennett, and within its parish boundaries are Hamstead Park and various copses and areas of woodland. The present centre is at the south of the parish, while the church is in the north, near the river, Morewood and Craven houses, and a cluster of moated sites. St Mary's has a nave with a 14thc. N aisle, chancel, 18thc. brick W tower. A plain 12thc. S doorway is the only Romanesque feature.
Parish church
Hampstead Norreys is a village in West Berkshire, 11 miles west of Reading in a hilly wooded landscape. The church is at the south end of the village. It is substantially 12thc., with a single nave and a 13thc. square chancel almost as wide as the nave. The nave was extended W, and a W tower added (perhaps replacing an earlier one further E) in the 15thc. The N porch also dates from this period. A vestry was added on the N side of the chancel in the 19thc. There was a major restoration in 1879-80, mainly involving the replacement of a screen dividing nave from chancel with the present chancel arch. Remains of an early rood screen were unfortunately destroyed at that time. Romanesque sculpture is found on the N and S nave doorways, but its most spectacular Romanesque carving is to be found on the font now in St John's at Stone in Buckinghamshire.
Parish church
Bucklebury is a village on the river Pang in West Berkshire, between between Reading (12 miles) and Newbury (8 miles). The church is in the centre of the village, and is built of flint and rubble with stone dressings and tile roofs. It consists of a west tower, nave with S porch and N aisles, chancel and a 19thc vestry on the N side of the tower. The ornate S doorway is all that remains of the 12thc. work.
Parish church
Stanford Dingley is an attractive village on the river Pang, 9 miles west of Reading, consisting of a few houses and a pub on a junction of minor roads. The church is at the north end of the village. It is built of flint with a weatherboarded bell-turret topped by a pyramidal roof. A N aisle with an arcade of two unequal bays was added to the original aisleless church in the late 12thc. The same was done on the S side early in the 13thc., and at the same time or shortly afterwards the N aisle was extended W by one bay and a new chancel built, to be replaced c.1768 by the present one of brick. 12thc. sculpture is found on the piers of the N nave arcade.
Parish church
Combe is in the far west of the county, in a spur of Berkshire that has borders with Wiltshire, half a mile to the west, and Hampshire, a mile to the south. The village is merely a few houses flanking a single track road that curves around the southern edge of Walbury Hill with its hillfort. The nearest town of any size is Hungerford, six miles to the north. The church consists of an aisleless nave, chancel and shingled W tower. The church is of flint, with chancel arch and S nave doorway of early 13thc., the latter with a brick porch dated 1652. The plain font is the only feature included here, although it probably dates from the early 13thc.
Parish church
Kintbury is in the west of West Berkshire, 3 miles E of Hungerford on the S bank of the Kennet. It is a substantial village with the church in the old centre, near the river. Unaisled 12thc. nave and chancel with W tower and transepts added later. The S doorway is 12thc. but heavily restored, as was the entire building, in 1859. The S porch is 19thc.The W doorway is a Victorian copy of the S doorway almost exactly the same size but differing slightly in detail.
Parish church
Leckhampstead is a village in West Berkshire, 6 miles NW of Newbury. The present church is by S. S. Teulon, 1858-60, but contains an elaborately carved 12thc. font. This church replaced an 11thc one, known as Leckhampstead Chapel or Old Church, situated 0.6 miles to the E, which was demolished in 1859 leaving only foundations, since overgrown.
Parish church
Lambourn is a large village (with a population of around 3,000) in west Berkshire, two miles from the Wiltshire border. The river Lambourn rises here, and runs SE through the village. Lambourn is in the heart of the chalk downs of Berkshire and is famous for its association with horse racing. There are more than 50 racing yards in the Lambourn valley, with more than 2,000 horses in training. The church, surrounded by its spacious churchyard, stands in the centre of the village. It is a cruciform building with an aisled and clerestoried nave, crossing tower, transepts and a chancel with one N and two S chapels. Of this the nave, aisles and crossing arches are all late-12thc, the N transept (now housing the organ) is 13thc and the S transept 14thc. The inner chapels are both 14thc in origin, and the outer S chapel, with its battlements and elaborate pinnacles, is 15thc. The chancel, with its spectacular E window, is largely Perpendicular in style. The tower is largely 15thc, while the W front was originally a fine 12thc composition divided into four storeys by stringcourses, with large round-headed windows above the central doorway, an oculus in the gable, and plain round headed windows in the W aisle walls, but a three-light reticulated window introduced in the 14thc has rather disrupted the design. The church was repaired and reseated by T. L. Donaldson in 1849-50, and repairs were carried out by L.E. King of London in 1949-51. Features recorded here are the W doorway and oculus, the nave arcades, the crossing arches and a pillar piscina used as a stoup in the N aisle.
St Michael, Lambourn, groundplan by T. L. Domaldson, 1850. Image courtesy of Church Plans Online <http://www.churchplansonline.org> (Published by the NOF Digitise Architecture England Consortium)
Parish church
Tidmarsh is a village 5 miles west of the centre of Reading, in the valley of the river Pang. It is built around a crossroads on the A340 road from Pangbourne to Theale, and the church stands on the main road. It consists of a single nave with 13thc. polygonal apse and timber W bell turret with shingled pyramidal roof. Opposed N and S nave doorways, the S richly carved and described below, the N later, not included and now enclosed in a vestry. The arcaded font is also included.
Parish church
Welford is a village on the river Lambourn in west Berkshire, 5 miles NW of Newbury. To the W of the village is Welford Park, formerly a grange of Abingdon abbey, and the church stands on the eastern edge of the park. The church by T Talbot Bury dates from 1852-55, and consists of a chancel, an aisled nave with a south porch and a round west tower. None of these features are medieval although the round tower copies the original 12thc one. Only the font is Romanesque.