The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Bedfordshire (pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales))
Parish church
The church has chancel with N vestry, nave with clerestorey and N and S aisles, and W
tower. It is substantially 13thc., apart from the chancel and
vestry which are 14thc. There is some modern work in the
chancel. Some 12thc. masonry survives in the nave and 12thc.
sculpture is found on the reset N doorway and on a carved panel set into the exterior S
wall.
Parish church
The church has chancel (with modern vestry on N), nave, N and S aisles and W tower. The 13thc. chancel (extended in the 14thc.), has a late 12thc. chancel arch with keeled respond shafts and stiff-leaf capitals. The nave was originally aisleless, and the quoins surviving in its outer W wall may date from the 11thc. The N and S aisles are 15thc., as is the W tower. The church was extensively restored in 1875 by Ewan Christian. The late 12thc. S doorway, reset when the aisles were built, has also been restored.
Parish church
The church has nave, chancel, N and S aisles and W tower. Of the original 12thc. church traces survive in the masonry of the E end of the nave. The chancel arch, N and S aisles, chancel and chancel arch are 13thc. and the clerestorey and W tower are 15thc. Romanesque sculpture is found on the retooled font.
Parish church
The church has a chancel with S chapel, nave with N aisle and S porch, and W tower. 11thc. and 12thc. evidence is found in the S aisle and S chapel. The arcade is late 12thc.- early 13thc., the chancel is 14thc. and the nave, W tower and S porch 15thc. A footnote in Pevsner mentions a fragment of 'Saxo-Norman' arch in the E wall of the S chapel.
Parish church
The parish of St Hugh, Lewsey was created in 1965 from parts of the parishes of Houghton Regis, All Saints Luton, and St Luke Leagrave (Bedfordshire Archive). Before the creation of the parish, St Hugh's was a mission in the parish of Houghton Regis. The church was a dual-purpose building, dedicated in 1960, and this is now the church hall and office. The foundation stone of the present church, on Leagrave High Street, was laid in 1966, and the church was built by Black, Bayes, Gibson and Partners, and was completed the following year. It is a broad rectangular brick hall with a monopitch roof at the E end with an abstract stained glass window in primary colours extending the full width of the clerestory. Inside a stage has been erected at the E ed with an altar on the N side of it, in the NE corner. In the SE corner is a raised platform. The are two doorways in the N wall; that at the W end linking the church to the church hall. The font came to St Hugh's from St Mary's Maulden, and is sited at the SE of the hall. This is the only Romanesque feature recorded here.
Parish church
The church consists of chancel and nave separated by a tower, N and S aisles and N transept. There are substantial remains of the original Anglo-Saxon church which consisted of chancel, nave and a square W porch (which formed the lower stage of the tower). The chancel of the original church no longer exists, and the W part of the nave became the chancel of the present structure. The tower has long-and-short quoins visible on its lower W face, and rubble quoins on the upper stages. The NW and SW angles of the chancel also have long-and-short quoins. Both structures have blocked round-headed, double-splayed windows. The windows on the tower, two to each face, lie in the stage below heavily restored, but originally 12thc., bell openings. On the E face of the tower is a triangular-headed opening, containing a reused fragment of Anglo-Saxon carved stone in its N jamb. The nave and aisles, originally medieval were completely replaced in 19thc. 12thc. sculpture is found on the reset S doorway, brought to this site from the church of St Peter de Dunstable (VCH, 25) which was pulled down in 1545 (Lyson, 53). St Peter de Dunstable was sited near St Mary, Bedford.
Parish church
The church, originally cruciform with an aisleless nave, now has chancel (with N chapel or vestry), crossing tower, N and S transepts, and nave with N and S aisles. The earliest surviving feature of the church is the S transept which has late 11th to early 12thc. splayed, round-headed windows in the E and W walls. Masonry of this date also apparently survives in the N transept. The E window of the S transept (unblocked in 1959) cuts into an even earlier, blocked, round-headed window. The crossing tower may also be of early date. The twin bell-openings of the first stage of the tower are late 11thc. or early 12thc. The top stage of the tower has Perpendicular openings, and traces of earlier, round-headed openings (two on each face) flank these. One of these openings, on the W face of the tower, has an arcuated lintel. The chancel is late 13th to early 14thc., the N aisle is 16thc. and the S aisle is modern. The tower arches and S aisle were restored in the 19thc. A carved head corbel, now in Bedford Museum, was found in 1959 when workmen were engaged on repairs to the S transept (see Bedford Museum).
Late 11th to early 12thc. sculpture is found on the bell-openings.
Parish church
The church consists of chancel, nave, N aisle and W tower. The building is mainly 15thc. apart from parts of the nave arcade and N aisle which are 14thc. as is the N arcade. The S wall of the nave, which VCH suggests is earlier than the 14thc. (VCH, 217), was rebuilt when the 15thc. tower was constructed. The font is the only feature with 12thc. sculpture.
Parish church
The church has a 12thc. chancel, with blocked round-headed windows in N and S walls. The quions of the 12thc. aisleless nave are visible on the exterior. The S arcade is late 12thc. or early 13thc., of three bays with one square, early stiff-leaf capital, and one square, plain capital. The N arcade is 13thc., as are the heavily moulded round capitals. The W tower is 13thc. with a Perpendicular top level. Romanesque sculpture is found only on the font.
Parish church
All Saints' has a five-bay nave with a wide N aisle; a chancel with a N chapel continuous with the nave aisle, and a N vestry; and a five-storey W tower with a spire. The building history is a complex one. The three W bays of the nave arcade date from c.1180. In the 13thc., nave and aisle were extended E by two bays, then in the 14thc. the chancel was extended E, the aisle widened, and the N vestry built. At the same time the S nave wall was rebuilt and the porch added. In the 15thc. a W tower was added, built partly inside the W bay of the nave. The chancel arch was rebuilt c.1500, and a clerestorey added to the nave. There was a restoration in the 19thc. involving the rebuilding of the S wall and nave clerestorey. The chancel is of ashlar, the nave and aisle of roughly-shaped blocks of stone decorated with rows of pebbles, and the five-storey tower of rough ashlar blocks. Apart from the N arcade, Tilbrook is notable for a 12thc. relief set in the S porch gable, and a loose window head and sections of an important cross-shaft, at present inside the S porch.