Kilpeck
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Kilpeck is about 14 km southwest of Hereford, just south of the A465, the road to Abergavenny.
Kilpeck church
The parish church of St Mary and St David was built around 1140 (and almost certainly by 1143), perhaps as a replacement for an earlier Saxon church at the same site. The plan of the church, with a nave, chancel, and semicircular apse, is normal for the time.
What is remarkable is the carving of the red sandstone, particularly of the south door, the west window, and a row of corbels. The carvings are all from the time the church was built, and are in their original positions.
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The south door was long hidden by a wooden porch, but this was removed in 1868 in order to allow visitors to see the carvings as originally intended. Although this has left the carvings open to the elements, the sandstone is considered to be rather robust, and its condition is carefully monitored.
Eighty-five corbels survive, one fewer than are illustrated by Lewis in 1842. The meaning of most is obscure, but some probably come from a bestiary, and they include a sheela na gig.
A very simple belfry now rises from the roof; although its design is in keeping with that of the rest of the church, it is a 19th-century addition. Elsewhere too, the restoration and necessary modernization of the church have conserved it well.
Kilpeck castle
Sources
- Bailey, James. The parish church of St Mary and St David at Kilpeck. 2000.
- Lewis, G[eorge] R. "Illustrations of Kilpeck church, Herefordshire." 1979. Pamphlet derived from a book of 1842.