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St Peter, Southrop, Gloucestershire

Location
(51°43′41″N, 1°42′32″W)
Southrop
SP 202 033
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Gloucestershire
now Gloucestershire
medieval Worcester
now Gloucester
medieval St Peter
now St Peter
  • Jean and Garry Gardiner
  • John Wand
10 June 1998

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Description

The 12thc fabric includes an aisleless nave, N doorway with tympanum, chancel arch and font. There is considerable herringbone masonry in the N and S walls of the nave (GL13/30). The chancel was entirely rebuilt in the 13thc, and a S transept added in c.1300. The blocked S doorway (GL13/30) probably replaces an earlier doorway in the same position.

History

Domesday Book records a priest at Southrop. Later Southrop was granted to Knights Hospitallers and the advowson retained by them. Pevsner and church guide assign a date c.1100 for the main fabric of the church and the chancel arch. Pevsner, Zarnecki and Verey suggest c.1180 for the font and Lawrence Stone suggests c.1170.

Features

Exterior Features

Doorways

Interior Features

Arches

Chancel arch/Apse arches

Furnishings

Fonts

Comments/Opinions

A small portion of the stone of the font is beginning to flake. It is located in the beaded band above Ecclesia, and probably should receive early attention. Stone reports the drapery of the figures as "naturalistically conceived, and awakening the interest in realism is shown by the gesture of Ira (Anger) to protect her body from the whip."
The carving of the N doorway capitals and the E face of the s impost of the chancel arch exhibit workshop methods of the carver: drilling and scribing to define the borders of his design. There is considerable herringbone masonry in the N and S walls of the nave.

Bibliography

M. D. Anderson, The Medieval Carver, Cambridge 1935, 58, 87, 91.

Anon. Transactions in the Fairford District, August 9th to 11th 1899 Trans. Bristol and Glos. Archaeological Society 22; 54-55, 44.

F. Arnold-Forster, Studies in Church Dedications, London 1899, III, 260.

F. Bond, Fonts and Font Covers, London 1908, 176,181.

A.Clapham, English Romanesque Architecture, Vol II Oxford, 1934, reprint 1969, 143, 181.

J.C. Cox, Gloucestershire, 3rd edition, London 1920, 188.

A. C. Fryer, 'Gloucestershire Fonts, Part 6', Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, 37 (1914), 109.

A. Gardner, English medieval sculpture, Cambridge 1951, 65, 77.

Historic England Listing No. 1089198.

C. E. Keyser, 'An essay on the Norman doorways in the county of Gloucester', in Memorials of old Gloucestershire, ed. by P. H. Ditchfield, London 1911, 127, 156.

N. Pevsner and D. Verey, The Buildings of England: Gloucestershire I: the Cotswolds, Harmondsworth 1970, 410-11.

E. S. Prior and A. Gardner, An Account of Medieval Figure-Sculpture in England, Cambridge, 1912, 192.

M. Salter. The Old Parish Churches of Gloucestershire, Malvern 2008, 126.

L. Stone, Sculpture in Britain: The Middle Ages, 2nd edn. 1972, 90.

E. Tyrell-Green, Baptismal Fonts, London 1928, 18, 77.

Victoria County History: Gloucestershire, VII, 1981; 129, 134, 135.

D. Verey, The Cotswolds Churches, London 1976, 107.

D. Verey. Cotswold Churches, Gloucester 1982, 112.

D. Verey and A. Brooks, A. The Buildings of England, Gloucestershire I: the Cotswolds (3rd edition) London 1999, 620-622.

W.H.T. Wright, Some Notes on the Parishes and Churches of Eastleach Martin, Eastleach Turville and Southrop, Private Press 1923.

G. Zarnecki, Later english romanesque sculpture 1140-1210, Lodon 1953, 43, 47, 61, 62.