OPINIONS about the effect of the Conquest on life in England are as divided among archaeologists and architectural historians as they are among other groups of scholars, yet a single observation makes it clear that, at least in the case of ecclesiastical architecture, the results were clear-cut and extreme. English churches are well known for the variety of building periods represented in their fabric, whether Norman, Early English, Decorated or Perpendicular: this mixture makes it all the more noteworthy that no English cathedral retains any standing masonry of undisputed Anglo-Saxon date. One could hardly wish for a more emphatic statement than this of the imposition of one culture on another.

Given this fact one might expect Norman architecture in England, at least in the larger buildings, to be a straightforward importation of the established traditions of Normandy, with perhaps a few differences occasioned by the greater opportunity for rebuilding and the greater availability of finance in the kingdom compared with the duchy, but this is by no means entirely so. Much Norman ecclesiastical architecture in England differs markedly from its counterpart in Normandy and becomes increasingly different with the passage of time after 1066. In examining this phenomenon I intend to proceed as follows, looking briefly at the chief characteristics of church building in Normandy from the tenth century to the early twelfth, and at the ways in which Anglo-Norman architecture conforms to this tradition, then in greater detail at the ways in which it is different, paying particular attention to the presence of an Anglo- Saxon decorative element and to the other non-Norman and even exotic characteristics of the style. In keeping with this approach the adjective ‘Norman’ in the title is intended in its broadest sense, applying to patrons in Normandy before the Conquest and in Normandy and England after it, and to those who were Norman as much by adoption as by birth.

What little is known of the character of church building in the Duchy of Normandy in the tenth century suggests that it was largely a conservative continuation of Carolingian formulae.