Easter Monday, very promising weather forecast, so why
not go out grave-hunting? We studied the
map and drew out a rough sketch of the route for the target churches for the
day, made some sandwiches, and two bottles of orange squash, found a chocolate
bar and bag of crisps each and set out at 8.20 a.m.
As usual Martin drove to the first church of the day,
which was 43 miles from home (we have already visited all the churches closer
to home, so it is over an hour’s drive now to find the first “new”
church). This one was at Hampton Bishop,
just east of the city of Hereford. For
our non-British speakers of English, Hereford is pronounced “Herry-fud”, not
“Her-ford” or “Hear-ford”. The grass was
still very wet, so we were glad of our Wellington boots. This church was begun in the twelfth century,
and has been added to over the succeeding centuries.
The next three churches were all within a circle of
diameter about two miles. Unusually,
there was another couple visiting a family grave at the first one at Fownhope –
often we visit churches all day and hardly see another soul at them. This church had its porch on the north side
instead of the more usual south side. The next one at Brockhampton was a surprise
because it was thatched, which is extremely unusual. It was only just over 100 years old, having
been consecrated in 1902. We also met
other visitors at this church.
The approach to the fourth church was down a lane with
grass growing in the middle – a good clue to how isolated it was. There was a farm and two houses near it, and
we were spotted by a distant large black dog which announced our arrival to its
owners by barking at us.
We did well for animals on this trip. We earlier heard a woodpecker hammering on a
tree, saw some rabbits, and passed a dead badger on the road. The church at How Caple was memorable for
some really handsome cattle with very long horns in the adjacent field. It was nice to see an unusual breed, and we
were also greeted by the screeches of peacocks nearby. One sounded overhead – peering up into the
big conifer near the church entrance revealed a white peacock complete with
enormous tail feathers. It would have
been lovely to see it close up on the ground.
This church also had the “memorial plaque of the day”. It referred to a man who had been killed in
1921 while a prisoner as a reprisal by Sinn Fein, the Northern Ireland
political group who fought for many years for independence.
The time was approaching noon, and Martin was ready for
his lunch. We surveyed Yatton
churchyard, and tried the church door handle, but this was the first church
that was locked. There was a bench at
the end of the churchyard in a lovely peaceful spot with a good view, so we sat
there for our lunch. As we left another
couple arrived who proved to be the parents of the young man whose grave we had
admired in front of the bench as we ate our lunch. They pointed out their house about half a
mile away, and said that they had chosen their son’s resting place so that they
could see it from their home.
Much Marcle church proved to be the “grandest” of the
day. The big yew tree in the churchyard
is apparently over 1500 years old, and has a hollow trunk inside which seats
have been fitted. Inside the church were
some spectacular tombs. There was a
wooden effigy of a landowner dated 1360.
His legs were crossed indicating the reputation he had earned among his
relatives for the piety of his life.
There is only one other cross-legged effigy of a civilian in
Herefordshire, the other is at Clifford near Hay-on-Wye. There was also a splendid alabaster tomb of
Sir John Kyrle and his wife, who died in 1660 and 1637. The quality of the carving of their elaborate
costumes, and of their curled hair was remarkable.
On this trip we had our book about the stained glass
windows created by the Kempe studios in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. Much Marcle church had six
windows by this studio, which we could identify with the aid of our book – we
surprise ourselves with what we have learned since we began our graveyard
surveys. Do you all know about piscinas,
sedilas, sheela-na-gigs and baldacinos?
When we arrived at the last-but-one church of the day we
thought that there must be an event in progress because there were about six
other cars parked in the lane outside.
This was St Mary’s church at Kempley, just over the county border in
Gloucestershire. The church was begun by
the Normans in 1130, and the reason for the “crowds” was the stunning old wall
paintings inside the church. We have
learned to recognise Norman arches over doorways by their zig-zag carvings. At
this church the original paint colours on the archways were still obvious. The decoration must have been spectacular
when it was new.
There was one more church in Herefordshire on our way
home, at Storridge. We did not find any gravestones of interest at this church,
but over the course of the day we took about 50 photographs which will find
their way onto our website www.grave-mistakes.info. One of the exterior church views might well
be selected as the cover picture when we compile our next book on “Gravestones
of Herefordshire”, the companion one to our recent book on the “Gravestones of
Shropshire”.
Claire did most of the driving between the churches while
Martin did an admirable job of navigating along the country lanes. We then shared the return drive, making a
total of about 126 miles before reaching home at 4.45 p.m. A lovely and successful day out. Judging by the number of other people we met,
church-visiting on a lovely day is popular, but we are probably the only ones
who look at the gravestones as well as the church itself.
Tally for the day:
9 churchyards surveyed.
7 churchyards with gravestones of interest to photograph.
20 gravestones photographed.
16 plaques, memorials or monuments inside churches
photographed.
8 stained glass windows photographed.
126 miles driven.
Nearly 8 hours away from home.