
The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland

Middlesex (pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales))
Parish church, former
Friern Barnet was once a small, rural parish 7 miles N of London. It's original name of Little Barnet distinguished it from the larger part of Barnet which was in Hertfordshire. The name of Freren Barnet did not appear before 1294 and reflected the lordship of the Brotherhood of Knights Hospitaller.
The former parish church of St James stands on the main N-S road through the village, now surrounded by 20thc housing but retaining a large wooded churchyard. It consists of a chancel with a N vestry, nave with S aisle and porch and a tower with a shingled spire at the SW. This arrangement is the result of a major restoration and enlargement in by W. G and E. Habershon in 1853, which increased the number of pews from 200 to 500. The original Norman church was a simple one consisting of nave and chancel with a S porch and a wooden W tower. The Habershons kept the 12thc S doorway but it is heavily restored. The 1853 tower collapsed in 1930 and was rebuilt on the same plan. In 1977 an octagonal parish room was added on the N side of the nave, accessed from the church via the N nave doorway. The restored and reset S doorway is the only Romanesque feature.
Parish church
Harmondsworth is on the W edge of the traditional county, under a mile from the Buckinghamshire border. It is now in the S of the London Borough of Hillingdon. It retains some of its village character despite being squeezed between Heathrow airport to the S, the M25 to the W and the M4 to the N.
St Mary’s stands at the N end of the village, E of the celebrated late-medieval tithe barn. The church consists of a chancel with N aisle, nave with N and S aisles and a S porch, and a tower at the W end of the S aisle, alongside the porch. A 19thc vestry towards the W end of the N aisle now contains lavatories and is linked to a later 20thc flat-roofed parish room; extremely unprepossessing from the exterior but providing a large and surprisingly airy space for functions.
In detail, the three-bay S arcade of the nave, and the reset S doorway are the oldest parts, dating from the 12thc. The S aisle is shorter than the N, owing to the presence of the tower at its west end. The ground storey of the tower was formerly a baptistery and still contains an octagonal Purbeck font; originally 13thc but with a shiny new bowl. The 13thc N arcade is of three bays too, but the E bay has been partly replaced (see below). The chancel was rebuilt in 1396-98, after the church passed to Winchester College, and has a small S doorway and a three-bay N aisle with a four-centred arcade of c.1500 of which the two E bays form a Lady Chapel, and the third bay houses the organ. The chancel aisle is contiguous with the N nave aisle, and there was clearly an intention to extend the four-centred arcade of the chancel westwards to replace the older nave arcade, but this only reached the apex of nave bay 1. The upper storeys of the tower are of brick and date from c.1500; the tower is capped by a small cast-iron cupola. The S porch is 19thc. Construction is of flint with a good deal of ashlar rubble incorporated. Romanesque sculpture is found on the S doorway and the S nave arcade.