The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
Parish church
The church is one of the smallest in west Cornwall, and is in an exposed position close to the tip of the Lizard. The church was mostly constructed in the 14thc. and 15thc, but it originated as small chapel with a chancel and nave.
The only Romanesque features are the font, and possibly the piscina.
Parish church
Ruardean is a village close to the Herefordshire border in the Forest of Dean district of Gloucestershire. The nearest large town is Ross-on-Wye (Herefordshire) 5 miles to the N. The village itself is bult on a hill, with the church near the top. St John’s has a wide nave with a 4-bay S aisle, the arcade of the mid-13thc with moulded capitals. VCH suggests that the aisle was the nave of the 12thc church, and if this is so, the 12thc S doorway remains in its original location, now protected by a 13thc porch. There is an organ chamber on the N side of the nave. The 15thc chancel is wide and light, and has a S chapel that communicates with the nave aisle. At the W end of the nave is a 14thc tower with a spire. The church is best known for the Romanesque S doorway with a tympanum showing St George and the dragon by sculptors from the Herefordshire School, and a relief panel depicting two fishes discovered in a house in the village in 1956 and reset in the S aisle of the church in the 1980s.