Editing Anglo-Saxon architecture (section)

== Diagnostic features ==

{{Anglo-Saxon society}}
There are many churches that contain Anglo-Saxon features, although some of these features were also used in the early Norman period. [[H.M. Taylor]] surveyed 267 churches with Anglo-Saxon architectural features and ornaments.<ref>H M & J Taylor, ''Anglo-Saxon Architecture''</ref> Architectural historians used to confidently assign all [[Romanesque architecture|Romanesque]] architectural features to after the Conquest, but now realize that many may come from the last decades of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom.  Typical Anglo-Saxon features include:<ref>Pamela Cunnington ''How Old is that Church?'' (Marston House, reprinted 2001)</ref>
* long-and-short [[quoin (architecture)|quoins]];
* double triangular windows;
* narrow, round-arched windows (often using Roman tile);
* herringbone stone work;
* west porch ([[narthex]]).

It is rare for more than one of these features to be present in the same building. A number of early Anglo-Saxon churches are based on a basilica with north and south ''[[porticus]]'' (projecting chambers) to give a cruciform plan. However cruciform plans for churches were used in other periods. Similarly, a chancel in the form of a rounded apse is often found in early Anglo-Saxon churches, but can be found in other periods as well.

<gallery widths="150" heights="150">
File:Quoins at Stow, Lincolnshire.jpg|Quoin stones in the south transept of [[Stow Minster]], Lincolnshire
File:St Mary's Deerhurst - geograph.org.uk - 1733000.jpg|Double triangular windows at St Mary's, Deerhurst
Image:Corringham-detail.JPG|Herringbone stonework at [[Corringham, Essex]] parish church
</gallery>