The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Parish church
Parish church
The manorial hamlet of Laverton lies in rich farmland 8.5 miles S of Bath, about halfway between Frome and Norton St Philip. It is in a dip: the N-facing side is a valley of the Hennambridge Brook, a tributary of the river Frome. The manor house (now belonging to the Duchy of Cornwall) and church of St Mary are adjacent. The church, which is built of rubble, consists of an unusual W end, which Pevsner finds to be reminiscent of a westwerk (described as a tower in the HE listing), nave, N porch, chancel and vestry. It is mostly of the 11thc, with 15thc alterations. There was a restoration in 1859. The Romanesque elements consist of N (and possibly S) nave doorways and two windows in the western section.
Parish church
Walmer is a coastal town 6 miles SE of Sandwich and just over 7 miles NE of Dover. The church of St Mary has a twin-cell form with a tall nave and chancel, and a later porch. A N aisle was added in the 17thc and demolished in 1898, returning the building - the 'unsightly object' seen by Glynne in the mid-19thc - back to its original size. A new church dedicated to St Mary was built nearby in the late 19thc, after which the original church became known a 'Old St Mary's' or St Mary the Blessed Virgin. Features of interest include the chancel arch and the S doorway.
Parish church
The small settlement of Staple Fitzpaine is sited near where a road (unclassified but well-used) running roughly NNW/SSE between Taunton to Chard crosses a stream running WSW/ENE down from the Blackdown Hills. The former mill using that watercourse is sited a very short distance NW of the crossroads at the village centre. Crossing the Taunton-Chard road at that crossroads, a lane runs roughly SW-NE, parallel to the stream, along the S side of the shallow valley from Staple Hill towards lower ground to the NE and major communication lines of road and rail.
Emphasising the political standing of the Count of Mortain, the parish still includes (at its SE corner) his castle, Castle Neroche. By area, the parish is the second largest in the county, but by demography it is diminutive, probably having changed very little over time. Staple Fitzpaine has its own manor-house, adjacent on the N side of St Peter’s church. Resting on the large block of Blue Lias which stretches from here NE far into the central area of the county, the village has a good source of favoured building-stone. Inevitably, the area is almost entirely agricultural in character.
The church, which consists of a W tower, a nave with N and S aisles, a S porch, avestry and a chancel is Norman in origin but has been largely rebuilt. The Romanesque S doorway has been reset in the S aisle.
Parish church
Mersham is a large village about 3 miles E of Willesborough near Ashford, Kent. The church of St John the Baptist was described by Stephen Glynne in 1877 as 'rather a handsome church, with some singularities, and portions of various styles'. It has nave with S aisle, chancel with S chapel, tower and porch. There is a Romanesque S doorway.
Parish church
Lympne is a village situated about 0.5 mile N of West Hythe, less than 2 miles distant from the Channel coast. The church of St Stephen is a substantial building perched at the edge of a long downwards escarpment looking towards the coast. It comprises a nave, a central tower, a N aisle and a porch. There are two known 19thc restorations. Romanesque work includes the tower arches, tower windows, and font, together with some reset chip carving in the early Gothic N aisle window.
Parish church
Throwley is a small and fairly isolated village near Faversham. The church of St Michael has an aisled nave and a chancel, and a S tower. Romanesque sculpture include the W doorway and some reset fragments in the S tower transept.
Parish church
The church consists of chancel, nave, aisles, S porch and W tower. The Romanesque elements recorded here are the S doorway, portions of the tower and possibly the font. The Southwell and Nottingham Church History Project notes an interesting fragment of a tomb effigy in the vestry, which we hope to record later.
Parish church
Inside the church of St Modan is a section of Romanesque cross, carved on two sides with one of the original cross arms missing. Repaired in 1632-3, the church was rebuilt in 1810-11, with only the lower part of the central tower (likely to be 15th century) and the upper section of about 1740 preserved from the previous church. This destroyed, earlier church appears to have been cruciform in shape and was likely a later-medieval building. No other part of the early church fabric was retained, though a few carved medieval stones survive.
Parish church
Standing at the W end of the nave, the (imported) 12thc font has a square basin carried on four corner colonnettes and one central cylindrical support. On each face of the basin is a three-bay arcade on columns with square-section imposts topped by cushion capitals above a necking. Arcade profiles have a fat half-roll surmounted by a chamfered label. Within each arcade arch is a figural relief. Figures are front-facing and have drilled eyes, finely incised hair, beards and patterned clothing.
Parish church
Ashbourne is a market town in the Derbyshire Dales district, on the southern edge of the Peak District National Park. It is 14 miles W of Derby and 21 miles SE of Buxton. The town in in the valley of the Henmore Brook, a tributary of the Dove, and the church is to the W of the town centre. It is one of Derbyshire's grandest churches with a 212 ft spire and a nave and chancel totalling 176 ft in length. It has a nave with a S aisle, transepts with E chapels and a long narrow chancel. Access is thorugh doors on the end walls of the transept. Excavations in 1913 revealed the existence of a Norman crypt, but none of the above-ground fabric is this early. The oldest part is the chancel, which was ready for the dedication in 1241. The nave dates from the later 13thc, and the transept from the early 14thc. The S aisle was added c.1300, and the crossing tower and spire were begun in the early 13thc. Clerestoreys were added, along with other Perp features, c.1520. The church was restored by Cottingham in 1837-40, by George Gilbert Scott in 1873 and 1876-78, and by G. L. Abbot in 1881-82.
There are a few remains of earlier churches on the site. In the N transept is a section of an Anglo-saxon cross-shaft with interlace and a beast carved on its faces, dated to the 10thc by the Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture. Pevsner (1953) reported a 'stone with Norman zigzag' in the Boothby chapel, but this was no longer described by Hartwell (2016) and was not found by our fieldworker in 2021. Outside the E side of the S transept is a pile of loose fragments, among which is a scallop capital.