Norman, Anglo-Norman, or Romanesque architecture was called by the former name because it followed the Norman style. It is found in Normandy itself, in England, in Italy, and Sicily—in fact, wherever the Northern conquerors established themselves.

Its chief characteristics are solidity and strength—walls of enormous thickness, huge masses of masonry for piers, windows comparatively small, and a profusion of peculiar ornaments.

The earliest Norman work in England—as the transepts of Winchester Cathedral—is almost as plain as Anglo-Saxon; but the Norman churches are larger and higher than those of the Anglo-Saxon period. They are generally cruciform in shape, with a square tower over the intersection of the nave and transepts. The towers are not lofty, but are very solid, and usually contain windows with two lights. In a number of instances the choir ends in a semi-circular apse after the Roman style.

Early Norman work was much plainer than that of the later period; the arch is not recessed, or only once recessed, the edges are square, or have a plain round moulding cut in them, and the zigzag ornament (Pl. 20, Fig. 14) is used, though not so abundantly as at a later period. Windows are generally plain, small, and round-headed, and consist of single lights except in belfry windows. Doors are square-headed under a round arch. The simplest form is a narrow, round-headed opening with a plain dripstone. But Norman windows are not met with as frequently as doors, since they have, in many cases, been destroyed to make room for those of later styles. In England the Norman style is usually assigned to the eleventh century, and in the latter half of it the transition to the Early English style took place. It was introduced into England in the reign of Edward the Confessor, who was more Norman than English, and who himself founded the Abbey of Westminster. Some buildings were of a mixed character (Anglo-Saxon and Norman), some in the old style, others altogether in the new.

Soon after the Norman Conquest, the Norman Bishops who supplanted Englishmen in English sees and abbacies in very many instances commenced to rebuild the cathedrals and churches from their foundations.

The entire English fabric was usually pulled down, and a new building was erected on a much larger plan and in a better manner. It is chiefly in remote places, where the inhabitants were too few and too poor to rebuild and enlarge their churches, that we find remains of the original Anglo-Saxon work.

Early Norman masonry is very rude, the joints between the stones being filled with a great thickness of mortar, from one to three inches thick (this is called “wide-jointed” masonry), and the stonework was usually rubble. In the later work the joints are comparatively fine (“fine-jointed” masonry). The Normans were very active builders. William I. and his son, William II., built one hundred and ninety-five religious houses during their reigns, and all the cathedrals and great churches in the eleventh century were rebuilt, while many new ones were founded; though it is said that of the many churches commenced in the reigns of these two kings but few were completed until after 1100 A.D.

Gundulph built the Cathedral of Rochester, while certainly St. Albans and Ely were also commenced in the reign of the Conqueror. In the earliest work the ornament was not characterised by the same profusion so common in later work. It was shallow, and cut with the axe, as the chisel was little used at that time.