The first fully Romanesque church in England was Edward the Confessor's rebuilding of Westminster Abbey (–60, now entirely lost to later construction), while the main development of the style only followed the Norman Conquest. However, at Stow Minster the crossing piers of the early 1050s are clearly proto-Romanesque. A more decorative interpretation of Romanesque in lesser churches can be dated only somewhere between the mid and late 11th century, e.g. Hadstock (Essex), Clayton and Sompting (Sussex); this style continued towards the end of the century as at Milborne Port (Somerset). At St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury (–61) Abbot Wulfric aimed to retain the earlier churches while linking them with an octagonal rotunda, but the concept was still essentially Pre-Romanesque. Anglo-Saxon churches of all periods would have been embellished with a range of arts,Conant, Kenneth John. Carolingian and Romanesque architecture, 800 to 1200. Vol. 13. Yale University Press, 1993. including wall-paintings, some stained glass, metalwork and statues.
The first fully Romanesque church in England was Edward the Confessor's rebuilding of Westminster Abbey (–60, now entirely lost to later construction), while the main development of the style only followed the Norman Conquest. However, at Stow Minster the crossing piers of the early 1050s are clearly proto-Romanesque. A more decorative interpretation of Romanesque in lesser churches can be dated only somewhere between the mid and late 11th century, e.g. Hadstock (Essex), Clayton and Sompting (Sussex); this style continued towards the end of the century as at Milborne Port (Somerset). At St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury (–61) Abbot Wulfric aimed to retain the earlier churches while linking them with an octagonal rotunda, but the concept was still essentially Pre-Romanesque Anglo-Saxon churches of all periods would have been embellished with a range of arts,Conant, Kenneth John. Carolingian and Romanesque architecture, 800 to 1200. Vol. 13. Yale University Press, 1993 including wall-paintings, some stained glass, metalwork and statues.