The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Norfolk (pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales))
Parish church
One of the seven parish churches in the Burnhams, the series of villages lying in close proximity to each other in a once prosperous coastal region of north-west Norfolk. The medieval building at Burnham Ulph had a chancel and an aisleless nave. By the early 19thc. the chancel was partly ruinous, as recorded in J. S. Cotman’s engraving, published in 1838. The church was substantially rebuilt in 1879. The chancel arch, pointed and with a keeled soffit moulding, is supported on crocket capitals and is datable to c.1190. There are reused fragments of an earlier 12thc date in the SE chancel buttress.
Parish church
The most striking aspect of this simple, unaisled two-cell church is its 14thc W tower. All of the ashlar details in the building's flint masonry are datable to c1300 and later, but the form and depth of the 14thc window embrasures suggest that they were secondary openings in much older walls. The elaborately carved font is the only identifiably Romanesque feature in the church. It is one of a small but distinctive and localised group that are closely related in terms of their ornament and style. Similarities in their design and repertory of motifs indicate their kinship, but there are notable differences in concept and execution between them.
Parish church
The church has a continuous nave and chancel—all of one height—under a single thatched roof. The chancel dates to c.1300. An aisle was added on the south side of the nave in the 14thc and a square tower at the W end in the 15th. A programme of refurbishment took place in 1865. Two circular double-splay windows high up in the N wall indicate that the nave dates partly to the 11thc, although the font at the W end of the building is now the only Romanesque sculpture in the building.
Parish church
The medieval church was rebuilt in neo-Norman style by G. E. Street in 1857 incorporating two doorways, the only Romanesque sculpture in the building.
Parish church
St Ethelbert’s comprises a square W tower, chancel, nave and S aisle. The N nave wall of the Norman church survives, although restored. The chancel and S aisle date from about 1300 and the W tower is of the late 15thc. The church, including the porch sheltering the elaborately decorated Romanesque S door, underwent restoration in the 19thc. Within the building there is a Romanesque font and also a colonnette, reused as a support for the Gothic piscina in the chancel.
Parish church
St Mary's was a grand aisleless cruciform church in the 12thc. Much of the surviving building dates from the 14thc and 15thc, including the present aisled nave and both transepts, but the lower stage of the central tower is Romanesque, as are the four arches of the crossing, complete with their carved capitals and supports. Above the W crossing arch, on the W face of the central tower - which is also the internal E wall of the nave - there are two decorated Romanesque round-headed openings, one above the other, on slightly different axes. They light the two-storeyed wall passage running around the tower, and also look down into the nave. The openings now serve the bell chamber above the crossing.
The unaisled Romanesque chancel had been replaced by 1405 by an aisled structure, which was itself demolished in 1541. The massive timber Rood Screen of c. 1480s extends across the full width of the nave and aisles. Important wall-painting associated with the screen partly survives in the nave, above the W arch of the tower.
The only Romanesque sculpture at St Mary’s is found on the capitals of the crossing, the W crossing arch, the bell openings and the interior of the tower.
Parish church
The church has a continuous nave and chancel which are Romanesque, or perhaps earlier. A N aisle was added c. 1300 and a square W tower in the late 14thc. The font situated at the W end of the nave constitutes the only Romanesque carving in the building.
Parish church
The present church, consisting of chancel, nave, S aisle and W tower, is built of flint. Details such as window tracery date to the 14th and 15thc, with some Victorian restoration. The font is the is the only feature with Romanesque sculpture in the church and presumably survives from the building's earlier history, as perhaps represented by the N nave wall, pierced in the 14thc to receive windows with reticulated tracery and deep, undressed embrasures.
Parish church
The church has a continuous nave and chancel and a 15thc W tower with a tall opening to the nave. The fenestration is mainly 14thc, but the two round-headed, double-splayed windows in the nave denote a substantially earlier building. The only Romanesque sculpture is the fragmentary pillar piscina perched within a small arched recess in the S chancel wall, just west of the sedilia.
Parish church
The church consists of an early 14thc chancel, a nave with just a S aisle and, at the western end, a Romanesque round tower which rises to terminate in a late 14thc octagon. The S aisle was added in the 13thc. The Romanesque N doorway is simple and elegant, almost without ornament and relatively tall and narrow. The ironwork of the present wooden door dates from the 12thc. Three Romanesque colonnette fragments are reset in the N wall of the 14thc chancel.