Parish church

The church, which was heavily restored in the 19thC, consists of a nave with a N aisle and a chancel, all of ashlar. The W tower is brick in its upper parts. There is a Romanesque N doorway with elaborately carved but badly worn arch orders, and a partly remodelled 12thC font.

Parish church

Hardington Mandeville (as distinct from Hardington Bampfylde in the N of the county) is a small village in South Somerset District. The parish borders the Dorset parish of Halstock about 3kms S from Hardington church. Itself in moderately hilly terrain, the elongated parish stretches N-S for about 8kms between just short of the Coker Ridge to the N (over which runs the A30 London-Penzance road) and the much higher Dorset hills to the S (below which and through the parish runs the London Waterloo-Exeter railway). The parish is relatively narrow, typically about 2kms. The village itself lies in an elevated situation towards the N of the parish; the church, itself at the N end of the main settlement, is about 1km S of the N boundary, overlooking (at just over 80m OD) the shallow valley of the Chinnock Brook occupied by the subsidiary settlement of Hardington Moor immediately to the N. The church, alongside the manor farm, lies at the top of the village. It occupies a sub-oval enclosure (a possible indication of Saxon origin) with a fine command of the prospect, especially to the N.  Typically of some border areas, the roads in this area are unclassified. There are no obvious important historical N-S routes. To consider the nearest main roads: the A30 has already been mentioned; the A37 linking Bristol and the English Channel at Weymouth runs NW-SE about 5kms E of the village along the alignment of its Roman predecessor between Ilchester and Dorchester. Urban facilities are available at the important former market town and present commercial and industrial centre of Yeovil, about 5kms to the NE. About 7kms to the WSW is the smaller town of Crewkerne — like Yeovil, on the A30. Geologically, this is a Jurassic region, the main settlement of Hardington itself being on Forest Marble. The lower areas of Hardington Moor to the N and Hardington Marsh to the S are on Fuller’s Earth. The familiar and fine building stone known as hamstone is available from Ham Hill about 6kms to the NW.  Although there is some relatively recent building, the village does not seem to have grown much in the last 150 years, to judge from the earliest available Ordnance Survey editions (from a 1886 survey) of the 6-inch/25-inch maps (on the National Library of Scotland website). The author can certainly vouch for its peaceful stability during his lifetime. It is a pleasant, if unspectacular, place with two contrasting pubs surviving — one in the village and one at Hardington Moor.  If ever there was a mill within the parish (none being marked on the map) one assumes it must have been at Hardington Moor, powered by the Chinnock Brook which rises in the modest heights several kilometres to the E. The primary focus of parish industry must always have been agricultural. However, a cursory examination of the 1861 census (as representative sample) reveals, in addition to the expected occupations necessary to a self-sufficient community (for example, quarry work, blacksmith work, shopkeeping, dressmaking, shoemaking, laundry work), two cottage occupations typical of this area of South Somerset: gloving and canvas weaving. The church stands in the centre of the village, and is essentially a work by George Pearce of 1863-64, except for the W tower whose lower stage is Norman, with a 14thc tower arch and a Perpendicular upper stage. It consists of a chancel with a N chapel / organ chamber, a nave with a N aisle and a S porch, and the W tower mentioned above. Construction is of Hamstone cut and squared rubble with ashlar dressings. This is very much the local stone as Ham Hill is less than 4 miles away. The font and a monstrous bird’s head sculpture in the sanctuary are the only Romanesque features here.

Parish church

Brundish is towards the N of E Suffolk, in a hilly arable region of dispersed settlements. It is 4 miles N of Framlingham and 9 miles SW of Halesworth. The old centre was clustered around the church and Brundish Hall immediately to the NE, with a second nucleus at Brundish Street, a mile to the NW, centred on Brundish House. Brundish Hall was demolished in the 1920s, and reputedly shipped to the USA to be rebuilt there, so the church stands alone in its graveyard, and Brundish Street now represents the centre of the village. St Lawrence's has a 12thc. W tower of flint with ashlar quoins. It retains traces of round-headed windows, now blocked; one at a low level and a pair at a higher level on its N, S and W faces. On the E face, the more elaborate 12thc. double bell-opening remains higher still, but the other three faces have 15thc. bell-openings at the same level. There is an embattled parapet, also of flint. The tower arch is small, plain and partly blocked with a doorway set in it. The tall nave and chancel are of flint and entirely 15thc. There is a S porch decorated with flushwork and repaired with red brick, and the nave and chancel buttresses also have flushwork decoration. The church is famous for its brasses; a 14thc. brass of Sir Edmund de Burnedissh, a priest, and 16thc. ones to the Colby family. Several of the Brundish brasses were stolen in the 19thc. and that of Sir Francis Colby (c.1570) has since been rediscovered in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Attempts by the Parish Council to repatriate it have so far been unsuccessful, although the museum has supplied a replica to hang in the church (The Guardian). The church also contains 18thc. box-pews encasing medieval benches, and carved bench-ends. The chancel was restored in the 19thc., and repairs to the church were carried out by C. B. Smith of Woodbridge in 1962-63. Romanesque features recorded here are the tower arch and the east bell-opening.

Parish church

Small church isolated on the edge of the hamlet. Church consists of a stone west tower with a pyramidal roof probably done by C. H. Fowler during restoration of 1903-4. Nave and choir, reconstructed in brick in 1770, of a single, rectangular cell. There is a Romanesque pillar piscina in the sanctuary and a bowl from another pillar piscina reset into the SW corner of the nave.

Parish church

Dymock is in the wooded Vale of Leadon in the NW of the county, 12 miles NW of Gloucester and less than two miles from the Herefordshire border.  The village stands on the S bank of the river Leadon, on the Roman road that runs NW from Gloucester to Leominster, and the church is separated from the main road through the village by a large green (Wintours Green).  St Mary’s presents its long S elevation to Wintours Green, and is much larger than might be expected for a village of this size.  The church consists of a 15thc W tower with a short octagonal pyramid spire; a very long 12thc nave with a S porch, a S chapel immediately E of it, and a N chapel not facing the S but further to the W.  E of the nave is a 12thc bay that was originally the lower storey of a crossing tower, with signs of blocked arches on its N and S walls, and to the E of this is the 12thc chancel.  This originally terminated in a polygonal apse, but was extended c.1300 to form a straight-ended presbytery.  The N and S elevations of the church are articulated with narrow pilaster buttresses, but overall the exterior masonry of the church is much disturbed.  Romanesque sculpture remains in the jambs of the apse arch and those of the chancel arch (the latter given a new head c.1300), the S nave doorway, one S nave window, blind arcading on the S exterior wall of the chancel, and sections of stringcourse inside and out.  Among the loose stones on the S window sill of the chancel is a 12thc base.  All of this work (except perhaps the loose base) is the work of the famous Dymock School of sculptors, discussed in more detail in the Comments/Opinions section.

Parish church

Eye is a small village in the N of the county; 2½ miles N of Leominster and within 5 miles of the Shropshire border to the N and the Worcestershire border to the E. The village consists of the church, the 17thc Eye Manor alongside, and a few other dwellings. The core of the church is a building of the late 12thc and early 13thc in local sandstone.  It has a 13thc chancel with a 2-bay N chapel of the same date and a 19thc S vestry. The nave is 12thc with S aisle added at the end of that century and a N aisle at the beginning of the 13thc. The N porch dates from the 14thc, but the S doorway, facing away from the village, has no porch and is now blocked.  The W tower was rebuilt in 1874, when the church was restored and the S vestry addded. Features described here are the S nave arcade, the N and S nave doorways, and the N chancel doorway.

Parish church

Highley is a village about nine miles NW of Kidderminister, on the W bank of the River Severn. The church lies to the S of the village and consists of a single-aisled structure built in local stone; the nave and the W tower with buttresses were added in the 13thc to the original 12thc church. The 13thc S porch was extensively rebuilt in 1881, when the entire building was restored by Samuel Pountney Smith. Romanesque elements are found in one of the windows of the N nave wall and in the window on N chancel wall, both dated to the 12thc. Features of interest are the N doorway, carved in the late 12thc or the early 13thc, and the Priest's doorway in the S wall of chancel, dated to the 12thc.

Parish church

Brown cobblestone church of late 12thc. to early 13thc. date with chancel, nave with S aisle and S porch, and W tower. The 12thc. tower arch has a carved keystone but is otherwise plain.

Parish church

The fabric of the church is 12thc in origin, much rebuilt in the 17thc, when the porch may have been added, and restored in 1879. The present building consists of a chancel, nave and S porch. 

Parish church

The church is a large Gothic building, standing on a rise within the grid of the planned medieval streets (VCH V, 172). Pevsner & Neave (1995, 453) call it ‘one of the five largest and grandest parish churches of the East Riding.’ It was restored in 1868-77 by G. E. Street. The earliest sculpture in good condition is a cluster of stiff-leaf capitals inside, where the S transept turns into the S nave aisle. Some writers suggest the building was begun as early as 1180, but there is little more than a blocked window, the roundness of the arch of the S transept doorway and some shallow pilasters on the wall nearby to recall Romanesque work.