The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
"great thurlow"
Parish church
The villages of Great and Little Thurlow are in the Stour valley N of Haverhill; their churches only half a mile apart. All Saints, Great Thurlow is alongside the Hall. It has an aisled and clerestoried nave, a short chancel with a N vestry and a W tower. The 15thc. nave arcades are of four bays, carried on lozenge-shaped piers without capitals into which the arch mouldings die without any transition. The square-headed clerestory windows are Perpendicular too. The nave has north and south doorways, the north under a porch. The chancel is very short and 12thc in its fabric, with external shafts at its eastern angles, but it was heavily restored in the 19thc and given a new chancel arch, and it retains no original windows. The roofs of both nave and chancel have been raised, apparently for purely decorative purposes, since the tower shows the scar of a taller and steeper nave on its east face. Liturgically the presbytery has been given an extra bay by inserting a step opposite the first nave piers and by screening off the east aisle bays for use as an organ chamber (N) and a chapel (S). The west tower may be late 14thc, although its diagonal buttresses appear to be added. Its bell openings are no help; the north is 15thc, the south and east apparently 14thc and the west 19thc.. and an embattled parapet. On top of the tower is a neo-classical bell-cote of lead. The exterior nave and aisle walls are embattled too, and the church is faced with flint. The angle shafts of the chancel provide the only signs of Romanesque fabric, but there is a reset stone carved with a cable moulding reset in the west wall of the north aisle, and the font is 12thc too.
Parish church
Naughton is a village in the rolling arable farmland of S central Suffolk, 9 miles W of the centre of Ipswich. It consists of houses with the church and a moated site at a junction of two minor roads just off the B1078 Sudbury to Needham Market road. Naughton Hall, alongside the church, is now a 17thc. building. A second moated site is 0.3 miles SW of the church and there are farms outside the village. St Mary's has a nave, chancel and W tower. The flint W tower is two storeys high and has a blocked round-headed window on the S side in the lower storey. This may thus be 12thc, but the upper storey has Y-tracery bell-openings ofc.1300. There is an embattled parapet. The W window is a replacement in 15thc. style, and the tower arch is pointed with mouldings dying into the embrasures. Nave and chancel are mortar-rendered, and all their windows are stylistically ofc.1300 except for one late-13thc. plate-tracery window in the chancel S wall, one with a cusped head in the nave S wall, and a 15thc. window in the chancel S wall. The chancel arch is 14th-15thc. There is a 14thc. piscina with a cusped arch towards the E end of the nave on the S wall, indicating the presence of an altar. The chancel
piscina is ofc.1300. The S nave doorway is protected by a rendered porch, while the 13thc. N doorway has been blocked and fitted with a window. Set in the window splay is a 12thc. font that has been cut down, and this is the only Romanesque sculpture here.
Parish church
Withersdale is nearly 3 miles E of Harleston and a mile and a half from
the river Waveney, which marks the border with Norfolk. The church stands
alongside the B1123 and the moated hall site, with a medieval farmhouse, is 500
yards (457 metres) to the S. The rest of the village has migrated W along the
road towards Harleston, forming the settlement of Withersdale Street. The church is a two-cell building, largely of flint. The nave is tall
with a wooden belfry on the W gable. A blocked N doorway, converted into a window,
indicates a 12thc. date, but the S doorway, pointed and chamfered, and small pointed lancets in the lateral walls
suggest a major 13thc. remodelling. Lateral two-light windows were added at the
E end of the nave in the 15thc. Inside there is a N rood stair. There is no chancel arch
and the chancel, slightly lower than the nave, has a
13thc. S doorway and plain pointed lancets in the side walls at the W end.
Further E the lateral windows have Y-tracery, suggesting that it was lengthened
c.1300. The E wall is 18thc., of brick part-rendered with a window with
wooden glazing bars. An oblong W window, bargeboards at E and W and on the S
porch, and a mortar render on the S side combine to
give the church a domestic look. The highlight for the student of Romanesque
sculpture is a damaged but elaborately carved
font.
Parish church
The villages of Great and Little Thurlow are in the Stour valley N of Haverhill; their churches only half a mile apart. St Peter's has an aisled nave with four-bay arcades and clerestories with oculi. The chancel has a N chapel with a two-bay arcade to the main vessel, built in 1621 to house the spectacular wall-tomb of Sir Stephen Soame (d.1619). The W tower is of two storeys with angle buttresses and dates from the 14thc. in its lower parts. Its bell openings and embattled parapet with flint chequer-work are Perpendicular. The tower is flint faced, as is the entire church except for the mortar-rendered clerestorey, the battlemented Soame chapel (of brick with mortar rendering) and the N porch (of brick). None of the fabric postdates the later 13thc. The church boasts three 13thc. piscinae; one in the chancel and one in each nave aisle, indicating that the aisles were built as chapels. The nave arcades and chancel arch are of c.1300, the tower arch is Perpendicular, N clerestory is 17thc. and the S 19thc. The only Romanesque feature is the font, carved with stylised foliage.
Parish church
Great Kimble is a village in the Chiltern Hills, 4½ miles S of Aylesbury, on the A4010 road toHigh Wycombe. The village is on the western slopes of the wooded Beacon Hill. To the N of the village, between Great and Little Kimble, are earthworks typical of a motte and bailey castle, and to the SE is Pulpit Hill camp, an Iron Age hill fort. The church is in the centre of the village, alongside the main road. It has an aisled and clerestoried nave with 4-bay arcades dating from the late 13thc; a chancel rebuilt by J. P. Seddon in 1876-81, raised on four steps with N and S chapels (the N an organ room), each with a 2-bay arcade towards the chancel; and a 13thc W tower to which an embattled parapet has been added. Chequered flushwork-decorated parapets have also been added to the nave, aisle and chancel roofs, and this must be 15thc work (where it is nor Seddon’s). Construction is of flints with stone dressings. The only Romanesque work here is the font, one of the masterworks of the Aylesbury group.
Parish church
The villages of Great and Little Bradley are in the Stour valley N of Haverhill; their churches less than a mile apart. St Mary’s has a nave with N and S doorways and a S porch, a chancel and a W tower. The nave is Romanesque; both doorways are 12thc., as are the jambs of the chancel arch, but the arch itself is later and steeply pointed. The nave windows have all been replaced; one on the N is 16thc., the rest are 19thc. The S porch is an attractive brick construction with a crow-stepped gable and niches, dating from the 16thc.. The chancel, and the upper part of the chancel arch, are early 14thc. judging from the S chancel doorway and the form of the windows. The W tower is perhaps 14thc. too, and has angle buttresses and a spiral stair turret at its SE corner. It was heavily modified in the 16thc., however, and the W doorway, the flushwork on the plinth, the bell-openings and the battlements on the main parapet and the taller stair turret parapet must date from the later period. Externally the tower is mortar rendered, as is the entire church except for the S nave wall (of flint) and the E chancel wall (of flint with brick diagonal buttresses and decorative banding) and the S porch of red brick. Of the Romanesque work, the N doorway is plain in comparison with the S, which is modelled either on the Prior’s doorway at Ely, or on the copy at nearby Kirtling (Cambs).
Castle
Goodrich lies within the ancient district of Archenfield, a border area betweenWalesandEnglandin the 11thc (see Preface to Herefordshire). GoodrichCastlestands on a sandstone scarp overlooking the river Wye, some 3 miles SW of Ross-on-Wye and 6½ miles NE of Monmouth. Close by was an important strategic crossing point on the road fromEnglandintoWales. Earthworks around the castle indicate the presence of an Iron Age hillfort here, but the first notice of a castle, Godric’s Castle, dates from 1101-02. Nothing of this survives; the oldest building on the site being the mid-12thcGreatTower, probably the work of Richard “Strongbow” de Clare (Lord of Goodrich 1148-76), or his father Gilbert fitz Gilbert de Clare (1138-48). This Gilbert had been given Goodrich along with the title of Earl of Pembroke, by King Stephen, whom he supported in the Civil War, and the Clares continued to support the king even when most of their neighbours had transferred their allegiance to the Empress Matilda. TheGreatTowerwas retained when the castle was rebuilt around 1300 probably by William de Valence (d.1296) and his wife Joan (d.1307). Thenew castleconsisted of a courtyard with ranges against a curtain wall with towers at three of the angles. The fourth corner, the NE, was occupied by an asymmetrical twin-towered gatehouse with a chapel in the larger S tower and a guardroom above the entrance from which the portcullises and murder-holes were controlled. East of the gatehouse, on the other side of the surrounding ditch, was a fortified barbican, and a bridge with a drawbridge section linked this to the entrance. Within the courtyard, the Great Hall occupied the west range; the kitchen and the oldGreatTowerthe south; the solar block the north; and another hall, perhaps for lower members of the household, the east. Also in the east range is a later medieval garderobe tower, perhaps 15thc. There is an outer ward surrounded by a wall on the north and west, and in the western section of the outer ward are remains of 17thc stables. The medieval stables cannot have been in this position, as it is not accessible from the barbican, where visitors would have dismounted.
The approach to the castle was from the south, giving the 15thc visitor a view of the tall, ancientGreatTowerrising above the battlements of the curtain wall and flanked by the round SE and SW towers. The visitor would have turned to the right, following the outer wall along its south and east sections. On turning the SE corner he would have been visually and nasally alerted to the consumption of great quantities of food here by the effluent from the garderobe tower. He would also have seen the barbican ahead of him; a signal to dismount and continue on foot. Passing through the entrance, the portcullises poised ready to fall and the murder holes above his head emphasized the fact that he was putting himself in another man’s hands. Finally emerging into the brightness of the courtyard he would have seen the Great Hall ahead of him and theGreatTowerto his left.
Only the Great Tower falls within our period, and it is there fore worth describing in more detail. It is approximately square, and its lowest levels are of rubble masonry, suggesting that they were originally hidden under an earth mound. From approximately 2m (6 ft) above the present courtyard level the rubble gives way to fine ashlar facing of grey sandstone (unlike the red sandstone used for the later parts of the castle). There are shallow buttresses clasping the angles, and flat pilasters in the centre of each face except the west. The tower is of three storeys. The undercroft is now entered from the courtyard through a doorway in the north face, but this is a late-medieval addition, and Ashbee suggests that the undercroft was originally only accessible by stairs from the floor above. Certainly the main entrance was through the round-headed doorway, converted into a window in the 15thc, in the N wall. This must have been reached by a timber staircase, as at Chepstow nearby. This doorway leads to the main storey which is impressively tall at more than 6m (20 ft), though not large in floor area. An internal doorway with a tympanum in the west wall of this storey gives onto a vaulted passage and a spiral staircase leading to the top storey; a fine room marked externally by its elaborately-carved N and W windows and internally by window seats, which could have served as the lord’s chamber. Romanesque features described here are the main N doorway, the internal doorway noted above, the top-storey windows and a stringcourse running below them.
Parish church
The villages of Great and Little Bradley are in the Stour valley N of Haverhill; their churches less than a mile apart. All Saints has an aisleless nave, chancel and W tower. The nave is 12thc., with a plain Romanesque chancel arch and a 12thc. S doorway under a flint and timber porch. Its N doorway has been replaced by a 19thc. window. The eastern part of the chancel is early 12thc., with two plain lancets in the N wall (one blocked) and signs of two more in the E wall. The western section of the chancel has thicker walls and is presumably 11thc. The original eastern angles are visible on the present side walls, indicating that the original chancel was lower as well as shorter. Mortlock claims that there is long and short work here, but it is a later repair. At the W end of the nave, the tower arch is small enough to be called a doorway (and it was fitted with a door and a wooden tympanum to square off the opening in the 16thc.) This leads to a W tower, circular and presumably 11thc. in its lower stage, with flint course laid in herringbone patterns, and octagonal above, with a battlement with double stepped merlons. There are plain round-headed lancets in the lower walls to N, S and W, but they are all restored. Construction is of flint, with herringbone work on the lower part of the tower and the western part of the chancel. Romanesque work reported here is in the chancel arch, the tower arch and the S doorway.
Parish church
Great Missenden is a village towards the S of the county, 4 miles NW of Amersham in theChiltern hills. The village extends for 2 miles along the valley of the river Misbourne; the High Street with the station and most of the residential area being on the W bank, while the church stands on the steeply-rising opposite bank, beyond the A413 Aylesbury to Amersham road that bypasses the village on its E side. The church stands in wooded land with Rook Wood some 300 yards to the S, and in the wood is Rook Wood Castle, a medieval enclosure with a ditch and bank that may have been a timber castle, and was occupied in the 12thc (pottery finds). The site of Missenden Abbey is 0.3 mile S of the church.
The church has an aisled nave with 4-bay 14thc arcades and a 15thc clerestory. The S aisle is wider than the N, and both aisles have 15thc windows. The E nave aisle bays on either side is in fact a transept, which dates from the 14thc, with one flowing tracery window in the S transept, two windows of c.1300 in the N transept, and other windows dating from the 15thc. The chancel is 14thc, with an elaborate wall arcade on the S and life-sized figures of St Peter andSt Paulin niches on the E wall. To the N of the chancel is a 19thc vestry. The embattled W tower has been broadened to the S, giving it a markedly rectangular plan. Construction is of small flints, and the nave clerestory and chancel walls are mortar rendered. The only Romanesque feature is the font, of the Aylesbury type.
Parish church
St Andrew's is of considerable significance, both for its architecture and as an institution. The aisleless nave and axial eastern tower, both with long-and-short quoins, are of equal width and are part of the same late 11th-early 12thc. build. The present rectangular chancel is Perpendicular Gothic. The foundations of the former chancel, exposed in the 19thc., revealed this to have been apsidal in plan. There is Romanesque architectural sculpture on both the interior and exterior of the nave, the blocked W doorway and the tower arches. A small group of Romanesque carved fragments is stored in the porch and inside the church.