The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Parish church, formerly Augustinian house
Parish church, formerly Augustinian house
Bolton Abbey is a small village about six miles E of Skipton and the same distance NW of Ilkley; the parish church preserves the nave of an Augustinian priory church. The priory was situated at the edge of wild country, where the river Wharfe runs out of a gorge onto a plain open to the S: the aspect is bright and sheltered.
The parish church was formed from the mainly Gothic nave of the cruciform priory church, its E wall being the blocked W arch of the crossing. The remains of interest to the Corpus in the parish church comprise those capitals of the W crossing arch which remain visible; the lower parts of the S wall of the nave with two doorways into the cloister, and an altar slab. The ruins outside the parish church are maintained by the Bolton Abbey Estate and there is open access except to the interior of the E arm which is restricted by low fences. The Romanesque sculpture in the ruins is on the blank arcades in the E arm, the piers of the crossing, and the blank arcading on the N wall of the cloister; a few bases remain of other buildings.
Parish church, formerly Augustinian house
Blackmore is a village in the Brentwood district of Essex, 7 miles SW of Chelmsford and 5 miles N of Brentwood. The church is on the southern edge of the vilage. The present church is the remnant of a mid-12thc building that originally extended further to the E, and now consists of an aisled nave and chancel in one, with 4 main bays and shorter bays at E and W. In the present liturgical arrangement the chancel is of 1 main bay with a short bay to the E, and it is separated by steps from a nave consisting of 3 main bays and a shorter W bay. There is no chancel arch. The central vessel of the nave and the W bays of the aisles are 12thc. Both W aisle bays are screened off: the N as a kitchen and the S as a childrens' play area. The remainder of the N arcade is 14thc, while the S arcade was rebuilt with brick piers in the 16thc.
At the end of the 14thc the present timber tower and spire was begun, dated by dendrochronology which gives a felling date of 1397/98. The tower is of 3 storeys, capped with a slender broach spire. Construction of the remainder is of flint rubble with flint and red brick dressings. It was restored from 1895 by Frederichk Chancellor. Romanesque features described here are the W nave doorway, now under the tower, and the W bays of the nave aisles.
Parish church, formerly Augustinian house
An Augustinian Priory and Hospital dedicated to St Bartholomew were founded in Smithfield in 1123 by Rahere (d.1145), a courtier of Henry I (c.1068–1135). Nothing now survives of the hospital.
The priory church was cruciform and may have had a tower at the crossing. It had a four-bay, aisled, vaulted, apsidal chancel and a seven-bay apse with three radiating chapels. The transepts were aisleless, but the S had an eastern chapel added in the 13thc. (Webb 1921, II, 5; pls. XLIV and XLVa). The aisled nave was of ten bays. There were galleries above N and S chancel and nave aisles, and a clerestorey.
The first phase of construction, comprising much of the chancel, the galleries, and possibly the clerestorey was carried out under Rahere. A set-back (of c.6.5 cm) visible in the N wall of the chancel appears to mark a halt in construction, and a subsequent error in the alignment of continuing building work (Webb 1921, II, 8).
The crossing, tower, transepts and at least part of the nave were built in the priorship of Rahere's successor, Thomas (d. 1174), between 1144 and 1174. The chancel arcades may have been completed at this time. Additional small bays with carved capitals were inserted into the chancel gallery bays and a clerestorey was built (or rebuilt) above.
The nave was completed in the 13thc. This involved removing and adapting some of the easternmost 12thc. work so only the first bay of the 12thc. N and S arcades survives. 13thc. work intrudes into this. A tower, above what was the first bay of the S nave aisle, was built in 1628.
The base of a 13thc. shaft may be seen on the exterior NW corner of the church where the nave arcade stood. A small section of masonry from the 13thc. N nave wall survives in what is now the church yard, and at the site of the W end traces of 13thc. work may still be seen. These now lie below, and are obscured by, a galleried, half-timbered structure. When the church was completed in the 13thc. it would have been c. 310ft in length. The chancel E chapel, and the crypt beneath, was rebuilt in 1335, increasing the church length to c.349 ft. Webb proposes what he believes to be physical and documentary evidence for at least one W tower (Webb 1921, II, 67).
The S apsidal chapel (dedicated to St Stephen) survived until 1879, The N chapel (dedicated to St Bartholomew) was rebuilt at the end of the 14thc., but to the W of the original N chapel, although the N chapel entrance may still be seen. The E chapel (Lady Chapel) was rebuilt in 1335. Excavations carried out in 1913 revealed the original 12thc. apsidal E chapel (Lady Chapel) and showed that the S chapel originally had two apses. The N chapel would presumably have been the same (Webb 1921, II, 4; 5; 95).
In the early 15thc., the easternmost piers of the chancel apse were demolished and a straight E wall inserted in front of piers 2 and 7. The floor of the chancel was raised at this time. The clerestory was rebuilt, as was the cloister. Settlement of the NE pier of the crossing meant that the N and W arches also had to be rebuilt at this time. The arch capitals and corbels were replaced as was the base of the NE pier.
After 1505, the then prior (William Bolton) built a residence at the E end of the church, building a square E end in the S ambulatory and annexing the S gallery for his private use as a chapel, building an oriel window in the second bay.
The nave was dismantled after the priory was dissolved in 1539 and the chancel retained for parish use. The N gallery above the chancel was used as a schoolroom from the later 16thc. The N transept and chancel chapels were probably demolished at this time (RCHME, 123). The S transept survived, and was in use as a vestry in the second half of the 19thc.
The E chapel (Lady Chapel) became a house and later a lace factory and N and S galleries and many of the remaining priory buildings were also adapted into residences or workplaces. A smithy occupied the N transept until the late 19thc. and the S gallery, from the 17thc. to 1830 was a Non-Conformists' meeting house. A fire in 1830 severely damaged the S side of the church, and discoloured burnt stone is visible on the S face of the 12thc. stonework in the S gallery.
Two major restorations were carried out in the 19thc. The first in 1863 by Hayter Lewis and William Slater and the second, begun in 1884, by Aston Webb. The first restoration lowered the floor to its original level and reconstructed the two apse piers, removed in the early 15thc. According to a groundplan of the church drawn by Aston Webb, they also rebuilt much of the fabric of the piers in N and S aisles (Webb 1921, II, pl.XVI; 14). Aston Webb rebuilt the arcading at gallery and clerestorey level at the E end of the apse (using some original material) the Lady Chapel, and the sanctuary arch. The S end of the S transept was rebuilt in 1891 and the N transept in 1893 (Webb 1921, II, 14). The porch and facade are also by Aston Webb and date to1893.
Of the 12thc. features much of the original apsidal chancel survives, along with the crossing, part of the S transept, the first bay of N and S nave arcades and the S nave doorway to the cloister. Romanesque sculpture is found throughout the church and on a large number of loose fragments held in the S aisle gallery.
The earliest parts of the church are of ragstone, with ashlar dressings. Later additions are in brick and dressed flint rubble.
Parish church, formerly Augustinian house
Cartmel Priory was founded in 1189. Most of the surviving architecture is from the Gothic period, including its most unusual feature, the top stage of the tower rotated 45 degrees to make the corners face the cardinal points of the compass. A piece of ex-situ sculpture identified as originating from Bradenstoke Priory, Wiltshire, is preserved inside.