Norman Arch - St Michael - South Elmham St Michael, Suffolk - Romanesque Architecture on Waymarking.com

Norman south doorway with one order of colonettes, one enriched cushion capital and one volute capital, and abaci with nailhead ornament; roll-moulded arch, and an outer arch of doubled lunettes with a surround of billet moulding.

"The seven South Elmham villages; St James, All Saints, St Nicholas, St Cross, St Margaret, St Michael and St Peter, to which may be added Homersfield, sometimes referred to as South Elmham St Mary, lie in a scattered group between Bungay and Halesworth in NE Suffolk, to the W of the Roman road known as Stone Street. North Elmham (the centre of the see until 1071) is over 30 miles away, to the NW of Norwich, and both apparently took their name from Aethelmaer (bishop of East Anglia 1047-1070) the landholder before the Conquest. This is not certain; Tricker suggests that the name meant villages where elm trees grew. The land here is flat, generally arable and sparsely populated; the villages rarely more than a few houses clustered around the church without shops or pubs.

South Elmham St Michael consists of a few houses along the minor road running S from St Peter's to Home Farm, which marks the end of the village. The church is off this road to the E. It comprises nave, chancel and W tower, all of flint but mortar rendered on nave and chancel. Both nave and chancel have been raised, with courses of brick at the top of the walls. A mark on the W wall of the tower shows an earlier, steeper roofline. The nave has a 12thc. S doorway under a timber-framed porch, mortar rendered on the exterior. The N nave doorway is blocked and gives no indication of its date. The nave windows date from c.1300 and have two lights with Y-tracery. The chancel S and E windows are of the same c.1300 type (there are no N windows), and the priest's S doorway and piscina are contemporary. There is no chancel arch. The tower, of unrendered flint, has W window and bell-openings of c.1300, and the tower arch is tall and narrow. The only Romanesque sculpture is on the S doorway.

The land that became the South Elmhams was part of an ancient deanery given to the bishops of East Anglia while they were at Dunwich in the 7thc., and the ruins of the ancient minster that served the area survive in the parish of St Cross. The South Elmhams, known variously as Almaham, Almeham, Elmeham and Halmeham in the Domesday Survey, were still held by the Bishops of East Anglia immediately before the Conquest and in 1086. They remained in the possession of the bishops throughout the middle ages. The Domesday Survey does not allow the different manors to be distinguished with any certainty.

Round-headed, of two orders.

Dimensions

First order

Jambs and arch are plain and square in section, and the jambs are very narrow from E to west, although the arch order is broader. Imposts are quirked hollow chamfered.

Second order

Detached nook-shafts in sections. Their bases are hidden under the pavement, but neckings are visible. The W capital is a cushion with angle tucks containing conical wedges. Its E shield has a groove around its lower edge and its S shield has a row of cusping in relief around its lower edge. The E capital is of the volute type elaborated with small fluted leaves below the main volutes. Both capitals have plain roll neckings and hollow chamfered imposts with a row of nailhead at the bottom of the face. The arch has an angle roll, and on the face outside this a row of double-stepped hyphenated scalloping with one shield per voussoir. The label is chamfered inside and out with a row of billet on each chamfer."

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