Sempringham, Lincolnshire - St.
Andrew's Church
12th Century
Click on photos to enlarge.
Notes in italics from Lincolnshire by Nikolaus Pevsner
with John Harris (1964) Yale University Press, New Haven and London.
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A proud Norman church, unfortunately
shorn of its chancel and transept (pulled down in 1788) and unfortunately
provided with an apsed chancel of 1868-9 (by Browning). At the same time
the N aisle wall was rebuilt and extended to the E to cover the area of
the former N transept. .... |
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... So what remains is the Norman nave and the
N arcade and the crossing tower. The latter has nothing Norman left. The
arches to all four sides are C14 (round capitals, polygonal abaci), |
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and the ashlar-faced superstructure
is Perp. Battlements and eight pinnacles. |
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That leaves the Norman work, thrilling
throughout. The N arcade is of four bays, in an alternating rhythm. The
responds are tripled and keeled. The middle pier repeats the same pattern
l. and r. of a flat piece, i.e. appears as two responds grown together.
The intermediate piers are circular and sturdy with square abaci but
nicked corners. The arches have a single step. |
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In the S wall two beautifully tall Norman
windows , round-headed lancets really. Also one three-light Dec window.
The Norman corbel table is completely preserved. It does not run through
but is divided into four separate lengths by lesenes which form panels in
which the windows are set - a motif reminiscent of the lesenes and
so-called Lombard friezes in C11 and C12 North Italian and German work. |
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The S doorway is in situ, the priest's doorway
has been reassembled in the S porch. The S doorway has three orders of
shafts. The capitals have ribbed leaves, but also waterleaf. In the arches
zigzag, also at r. angles to the wall, and incised scalloping. Arch with
many mouldings. |
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Now what is the date
of all this? Is it really the church in which St Gilbert's order started
and which was the church of his conventual house before it moved into the
valley 350 yds to the SW? As this move took place in 1139, one can say No
to the question, unless building was slow. Neither keeled shafts nor
waterleaf capitals can be assumed before the 1160s. |