The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Ruined church
Ruined church
Calceby is a small village, now largely deserted, in the East Lidsey district of the county, 8 Miles S of Louth and 9 miles SW of Mablethorpe on the coast. The population was just 32 in 1961 and the parish was abolished in 1987 and incorporated into South Thoresby parish. The church, prominently situated on the crest of a hill, is a proud ruin consisting of the remains of the W tower and a portion of the N wall of the nave. It was abandoned in the 17thc, the last service taking place in 1692. The tower arch is partlly intact and is Romanesque and built of greenstone.
Ruined church
Lainston is an abandoned village half a mile E of Sparsholt in the City of Winchester district of the county. All that remains of the village is the ruined church of St Peter which stands in the grounds of Lainston House, an H-shaped late-17thc country house, altered in the 19thc and 20thc, and now functioning as a hotel. St Peter's stands to the SW of the house, on raised ground, and is a roofless rectangular building of which the N and S walls stand to a height of 3.8 m. while the E end is completely missing. The gabled W wall survives to its full height of 6 m. There are facing doorways in the N and S walls towards the W end, a moulded fragment set in the interior wall, and inscribed ledger stones set in the floor. At the W end in the centre is an octagonal font.
Ruined church
Thundridge is a village 2 miles N of Ware in the valley of the River Rib in the East Hertfordshire district of the county. The village was originally sited a mile to the E, and here may be seen the remains of the medieval church of St Mary and All Saints, including its graveyard, and a large medieval moated enclosure associated with Thundridgebury House which was alongside the church. The site is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and the church, of which only the W tower still stands, is listed Grade II*.
In 1853 the church was demolished except for the tower, and the stone used in the restoration of Sacombe church some 3 miles to the NW. A new parish church was built in Thundridge village in the same year. What stands on the site of the Old church today is the 15thc W tower, of flint rubble with stone dressings, locked up and with its tower arch blocked, with a 12thc doorway reset in the blocking of the tower arch.
Ruined church
The W tower is attached to the ruins of a gothic church. There is a transitional
Romanesque doorway on the W face of the tower. The upper parts of the tower are
modern.
Ruined church
Small ruined rectangular church with a reused Romanesque W doorway, a plain
Romanesque window at the W end of the S wall of the nave, and Gothic windows at the E
end of the S wall and in the E wall.
Ruined church
Ruined church of late medieval date, with reused Romanesque head set in E gable of nave, over the chancel arch. There is also a late medieval sheela-na-gig over the S window.
Ruined church
A long, narrow two cell church, which at some point has been reduced in length by the insertion of a cross wall. (nave 18.83 m x 9.06 m, chancel 18.03 m x 8.34 m). The W and N walls of the nave, and most of the N wall and E end of the S wall of the chancel have fallen. The ruins were heavily covered with ivy.
Ruined church
Wharram Percy is a deserted medieval village, about 1 mile S of Wharram-le-Street, laying on the W flank of a characteristic little Wolds valley, not in the valley bottom but on a higher shelf or plateau; the church and a few post-medieval dwellings were in the valley bottom. The whole area has been the subject of much archaeological investigation.
The church is a roofless structure consolidated by English Heritage and its preceding government departments. Archaeological excavations brought to light a small pre-Romanesque two-cell church was found; that is now outlined by plain slabs in the floor of the nave and chancel (Bell, Beresford 1987, figs. 1 and 7). According to the excavation report (Bell, Beresford, et al. 1987, 4) the building stone used was probably the Lower Calcareous Grit, which is obtainable within some 5 miles of the village.
The church is largely of this local stone, with occasional use of chalk in-filling and in the interior face of the walls (for example, the E wall of nave). The building consists of the chancel, nave, half the tower of a medieval building and a S porch; the 12thc structure also had an apse. The 12thc church had at least three phases (Stocker and Everson 2012, 240-41). There was an attempt to build a W tower in the usual position, but this may have found unconsolidated subsoil, and eventually it was built straddling the W wall of the nave. In the late 12thc the tower was finished for the time being and a S aisle was added, with a new doorway. There were many later medieval alterations. The W wall of the tower collapsed in 1959 shortly after the church entered public ownership. The Victorian vicarage (excavated) was N of the church; the medieval one was up-slope to the W. The S side of the burial ground has not been excavated. To the S also lies a reconstruction of the former mill-pond, later a village pond (map, Bell, Beresford et al. 1987, 3). Various factors led to depopulation, and the last church service was held in 1949.
A small amount of sculpture was found in excavations at one of the two manor houses, that material, along with some excavated pieces from the church, is kept in an English Heritage store at Helmsley; a little of this material may be relevant. During the excavations a small stone of to the church of the late 10th to 11thc was also found, and perhaps it would have belonged to a private manorial chapel.
Of interest to our corpus are the blocked late 12thc S arcade, the parts of the late 12thc S doorway reset from the S aisle wall, and the remnant of the tower. On the S wall of the nave is a window where chevron voussoirs and capitals have been re-used.
Ruined church
The ruined church known as St Feichin's church (Tempull Mór Feichin) is a single-cell structure incorporating some Romanesque features. It has an E window (obscured by ivy) and two tall, narrow, round-headed S windows of one recessed order, splayed on the interior. The church was once divided into an upper and lower level at the W end and has a small, low, square window in the N wall and a blocked doorway with inclined jambs in the upper W wall. There is also a rectangular window high up in the W end of the S wall, with a row of holes for joists below. A roll is carved on all the exterior angles of the building apart from the NE angle. There are other building remains on the site but these are very overgrown. Sculpture is found on the very weathered rebuilt S doorway.