Recent Visit to Herefordshire - Part 1: Pembridge

 

Last Thursday we went into Pembridge before the click and collect at Morrisons in Leominster.  Pembridge is a very picturesque village on the Herefordshire "Black and White Village" Trail with many timber framed buildings.  This was my third visit and I still have lots to see there in the future.

A weekly market and an annual fair were granted to Henry de Pembridge in 1239 and Borough status followed soon after.  Pembridge's prosperity was probably due to the wool and cloth trade.

Dendrochronology (tree ring dating) has been used to date many of the buildings in the village and quite a few date back to the 15th century being "cruck framed" houses with solar cross wings.

Duppa's Almshouses - construction was started with Jeffrey Duppa and completed by his son Bryan Duppa - Bishop of Winchester in 1661.

The Olde Steppes Stores were once the Rectory. The building dates back to the mid 16th century.

The New Inn dates back to the 17th century and has two gabled wings both jettied.

Broadstone House is late Georgian.

The National School built by Henry Curzon in 1864/5 has a wooden bell turret.

The Pump House is 17th century.

"Westfields" date back to the late 15th century and has 3 bays and a first floor "jetty".

West End Farm was built around 1425 and altered in the 16th and 17th centuries.  

The Brick House to the left of the farm is mid 15th century.

The Market place contains the mid 16th century Market Hall. It is an open rectangle with a stone slated roof and 8 square posts.  This part of the village always reminds me of the Phil Rickman "Merrily" books!

I spotted quite a few garden gnomes as we walked around.

The church of St Mary the Virgin with its detached bell tower. The church was open for private prayer and for people to see the Pembridge Tapestries so I left B on a bench and paid a very quick (10 minute!!!) visit which I'll write about in the next post.

Ten minutes were nowhere near long enough as I could have done with at least an hour!

On the way back to Leominster I popped in the Monklands Dairy Cheese Shop - unbelievably the first shop I have been in since lockdown in March last year.  To be fair there were plastic screens everywhere and the staff were wearing masks. I bought some cheese and chutney but sadly they no longer stock Black Herefordshire butter as the man who made it has retired!  I don't know of anywhere else where you can buy it :(

I hope everyone is staying safe and well.

We are still having internet problems and are relying on the very slow mini hub (it took me ages to upload the pictures above!). Apparently the fault is outside our house somewhere and there are quite a few other houses nearby with the same problem. Four Open Reach vans and engineers failed to solve the problem and I think it has been passed now to more senior engineers!

All photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera.

Reference: Pevsner Buildings of England Herefordshire by Alan Brooks and Nikolaus Pevsner Yale University Press (2012).