Tickenham is a village near the edge of NE Somerset, close to Clevedon. The present-day settlement straddles the modern B road which connects Clevedon 3mi to the W and Bristol. From the principal limestone ridge an offshoot tends in a more south-westerly direction. Just before it finishes, there is an eminence (Clifton Down Limestone) occupied by Tickenham manor house and church. Thus isolated from the main line of settlement on one side and above the moors on the other, the church and manor-house still enjoy much of the setting which they must originally have had. Running close to the knoll (approximately 10m above OD) is the Middle Yeo river; its near neighbour, the Land Yeo, runs round the northern side. (See Comments for further landscape reflections).

The church of St. Quiricus and St. Julietta has 11thc. origins, with the nave and chancel being extended by the addition of aisles and S chapel in the early 13thc. It has a Romanesque chancel arch. The church's dedication is extremely unusual – there are only three similar dedications in the UK, two in Cornwall (Luxulyan and St Veep) and one at Swaffham Prior in Cambridgeshire. These two early Christians, mother and son, were venerated as having been martyred on the orders of the ruler of Tarsus.

One of the earliest references to ecclesiastical acquisition, control and development of the area (presumably contemporary with the early history of church and court) is the establishment of a mill on the Land Yeo river north-west of the church by the Bristol Augustinian monks (the present-day Cathedral). The church was enlarged and refurbished in the early thirteenth century but fortunately this has served to enhance the beautiful simplicity of the Romanesque nave arcades and chancel arch, rather than destroy it. The refurbishment is testimony to the availability of finances and, presumably, the stature of the patrons.

Romanesque features include the chancel arch and arcade, together with some other material which may be relevant but is undated.

DB has two entries for Tickenham, the first manor was held by Saewulf and Teolf in 1066 and by William de Eu in 1086. The second manor was held by Eadric in 1066 and by Ernulf de Hesdin in 1086. Robert Fitzharding endowed St Augustine's Abbey, Bristol, with the advowson of Tickenham as part of his foundation of the Abbey in 1148 (VCH).

Tickenham shows us that not all Romanesque fabric was elaborately sculptured, even where there was a monastic patron.

S aisle

The sculpture here was re-visited to ascertain whether it merited inclusion on the Corpus. The detailing with stiff-leaf capitals, keeled nook-shafts and water-holding bases here suggests a date in the early 13thc, though one wonders how far this post-dated the chancel arch, and why this bay alone has sculptural decoration. A set of images can be viewed under the main site images.

Landscape setting

Driving north along The Causeway, one’s view is of Tickenham church and the adjacent court. Importantly, they are on ground slightly higher than the moor over which one is travelling. This higher ground, terminating about 100m W of the court farm, is a sliver of limestone projecting away from Failand Ridge at a shallow angle. The lane aims straight for the court farm so has to deviate to the right, round to the other side of the limestone promontory before more or less resuming its original course. By the time the B3182 and modern dwellings are reached one is not much less than 500m distant from the church. Its isolation and distance from the houses of ordinary parishioners may thus seem inconvenient, wholly contrary to the notion of church as village centre. Of course, this line of commentary assumes that medieval parishioners occupied the land of the present village. If the medieval settlement was back along the sliver of limestone then the church was not so distant.

Church, court and farm were established by the landowners (a branch of the Berkeley family) on the sliver of limestone safely above seasonally flooding moorland but in such a position with regard to the moor that the area’s economic resources could be managed. Wildfowl and fish may have been important and, after medieval draining, pasture for cattle and sheep. (Sheep are the predominant grazers today.) Intriguingly, the place-name ‘Tickenham’ might imply that goats were an important part of the agricultural economy. (The name means ‘Tica’s dry ground’ or ‘kid-enclosure’.) It is conceivable that traces may be found of quarries close to the church, but these are certainly marked on old maps along the line of the present Tickenham village. Supply of first-class stone was easily available for building the church but nevertheless some areas of masonry are distinctly miscellaneous (particularly in the tower).