The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
"Orsett, Essex. S nave doorway"
Parish church
Orsett is a village in the Thurrock district of Essex, on the N side of the A13 some 5 miles NE of Grays. The church, in the centre of the village, has a Norman nave with a 14thc chancel, with an organ chamber S of the chancel and a transeptal S chapel both added in 1865. On the N side of the chancel is the Whitmore Chapel of c.1500, and the nave has a N aisle added in the 13thc and modified in the 14thc. The tower is at the W end of the N aisle and dates from the 15thc. It is of flint, rebuilt in brick in the upper storeys, with a weatherboarded spire. Romanesque work is found in the elaborate S doorway, protected by a timber-framed porch, and a blocked round-headed lancet to the W of it. The N porch was converted to a vestry in the 19thc. Construction is of flint and ragstone rubble with Reigate stone dressings.
Parish church
High Ongar is a village in the Epping Forest district of Essex, 8 miles E of Harlow and 9 miles W of Chelmsford, on the S side of the A414 linking the two towns. The church stands on The Street, the main village street, and consists of a broad nave and chancel in one with no chancel arch, a tower porch on the S side of the nave, and a vestry on the N side accessed from the interior via the N nave doorway. The body of the church is of flint rubble with dressings of clunch. It dates from the 12thc (see the S doorway and two nave windows) although the chancel was rebuilt in the 13thc. The tower porch is of yellow brick, and dates from 1858 when it was built to replace a timber bell cote that stood at the W end of the nave. The vestry dates from 1885 and is also of flint rubble. Romanesque sculpture is found on the elaborate S doorway, now protected by the tower porch.
Parish church
Chadwell St Mary is a parish in the Unitary Authority of Thurrock, a mile to the N of Tilbury and 2 miles E of Grays. The church, in the centre of the old settlement, now stands at a busy crossroads where the roads to Tilbury, Grays and Orsett meet. It consists of a chancel, nave and W tower, with a 19thc addition on the S side, away from the road, that covers the S doorway. The nave, with S doorway and the remains of the N doorway above the present 13thc entrance is early 12thc. The chancel belongs to the 14thc and the tower was built c.1500. Construction is of flint rubble with some ragstone and Reigate dressings.
Parish church
South Weald is a village within the borough of Brentwood, 2 miles W of the town centre. It is surrounded by farmland and includes Weald Country Park to the N of the village. South Weald is built on a netwerk of minor roads in the vee between the A12 and the M25, with the church in the centre of the village. The present S aisle was the medieval nave and chancel: with no division between the two, and a tower at the W end and a S porch. This was a 12thc structure, as indicated by the S doorway. A N aisle was added in the 13thc, and the tower was built in the 15thc. In 1868 S. S. Teulon replaced the aisle with a new nave and a chancel with a N organ room, turning the original nave into a S aisle, refaced the medival walls and restored the tower. Then in 2010 a multi-purpose hall, the Belli Centre, was completed on the N side of the church, attached to the nave by the N dooway. The only Romanesque feature recorded here is the S doorway.