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St Kenelm

Romsley CP

Worcestershire

C12 with C14 alterations

Architectural Features

C15 additions

plain-tiled roof has gable-end parapets and kneelers with crocketted corner pinnacles situated above winged gargoyles.

Mainly Norman and Perpendicular styles.

West tower: C15 on C12 base

tall west archway with four-centred head and hoodmould with large finial and grotesque stops (this once provided access to a C12 doorway blocked in C19).

Upper two stages have small diagonal corner buttresses with offsets and a large winged gargoyle at each base.

These niches are repeated in the corner buttresses which are terminated by gargoyles at the parapet base.

Nave and chancel: C12

east wall rebuilt C14

West wall within tower arch has blocked C12 archway with C19 rectangular light and, above the C12 archway a three-light C19 window with four-centred head.

a C13 window of two lights with a square head, a similar C19 window

a C14 lancet at the eastern end (to the west of which is a C12 jamb).

C14 door has been inserted beneath the eastern buttresses and there is also a blocked C14 entrance opposing the south doorway.

There is a two-light C14 window with hood mould at the eastern end situated above a C14 archway which once led to the undercroft.

Also two other two-light windows, one C14 but much restored, the other C19 and C19 cusped lancet.

To the upper right of the second window from the east end is a small relief of a figure with a hand raised in benediction (probably re-set).

South porch: C15

four-centred archway with foliated relief carving in spandrels

East end of the church is C14

stone font and pulpit are C19

fragment of a C14 cycle of wall paintings illustrating the life of St Kenelm survives at north east end.

Glass: south window probably by Sir Edward Burne-Jones of c1905 with figures of Peace and Faith.

C9

According to disproved legend the church is built on the site of the murder of St Kenelm, the boy Prince of Meraci in 819 AD.

The church retains a substantial proportion of its Norman masonry including the impressive tympanum and mouldings of its south doorway

the striking detailing of its west tower and the C15 jettied porch are also of particular note.