Return to Herefordshire Part 2: St Mary Magdalene, Little Hereford

On Thursday the weather was lovely again but B and E were quite happy to spend the day at the caravan. So I took myself off to visit a couple of local churches.

(Be warned this may be a long post with a lot of photos!).

Little Hereford church has been near the top of "My Herefordshire Churches to Visit" list for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, we visited or at least drove through the hamlet many times when I was a child. My paternal grandmother came from Burford which is only a few miles away. I remember my brother and I used to find the name hysterical comparing it to the city of Hereford (children have a strange sense of humour at times).  

The second, more recent reason, came when I bought this old postcard of Little Hereford Church.

 

Of great interest was the writing on the back of the postcard with a lady called "Flo" writing from Easton Court which is a mile or so from the church. I am not sure if she lived at the house or if she was just visiting and staying there. She describes the church as "This is our church".

The rest of the text says "Just a card to let you know that I'm still alive. Can't stay for letter but will get one in tonight. I hope you are all well. I have a lovely sore throat. With love from Flo" - hope I have read the content correctly!

I do love "windows into the past" like this and my imagination goes into overdrive as I try and imagine who Flo was and who she sent the post card to.

Sadly there is no surname and no date mentioned on the postcard. The stamp I think is a George V one penny stamp  - George V was king from May 1910 until he died in 1936 so I assume the post card was written at some time during his reign.

I've tried to do a bit of research into Easton Court and in 1909 it was sold to a Colonel Richard Henry Wingfield from Cardiff who lived from 1870 to 1945. The house was damaged by fire in the 1950's and I believe the roof was replaced  but since the 1970's the house seems to have been abandoned and is now in a ruinous state.

Anyway, enough of Easton Court onto St Mary Magdalene, Little Hereford.

The church is situated by the River Teme.  The nave is partially Norman. One Norman window remains and the other windows are mostly early 14th Century when the chancel was probably rebuilt. The church is in a lovely rural location and the church and churchyard were both deserted.

Mounting block by the entrance to the churchyard. I have seen quite a few of these at Herefordshire churches.

The massive 13th century West Tower is unbuttressed with a pyramidal slate roof.  Narrow lancets are paired for bell openings and the West doorway has three orders.

The West Door with re-used early 13th century ironwork

Oh joy - the church was open.

Church Interior

The chancel contains stepped tre-foiled sedilia.

A poignant memorial to a young child.

Early 14th century tomb recess (there are 3 recesses) probably for the Delamere family. Sorry not the best of photos and I couldn't get closer because of the seating!

The East Window is by William Wailes 1851.

I think this window is by Hardman 1864.

This memorial is dedicated to Joseph Bailey (died 1850) and was made by J Evan Thomas with a large white marble figure of a seated woman mourning. Note the reference to Easton Court!

Most of the fittings in the church date from 1848/49.

The font with tub bowl is 12th to 13th century.

Sorry for poor quality of the pictures. Why are fonts so often in the gloomiest darkest part of the church?!  I did like the ring of hops on the cover.

New bell clappers were installed when the bells were restored in 2007.  Two original clappers are mounted on the church wall. One belonged to a treble bell cast by John Green Worcester in 1628 and the 2nd is from a tenor bell cast by the same company but by Richard Dawkes in 1633.

This modern window was installed in 2000 and is entitled Air Water Fire Earth. The stained glass artist was Miss Jennifer Davies of Ludlow.

I then continued my exploration of the church exterior and churchyard.

I'd parked by the village hall and then walked up a track to the church although as it turned out I could have parked right by the church! Never mind good to get some exercise!

After I left I drove past a lodge with a drive that I assume led to Easton Court - I was tempted to go and have a look but decided it may not be open to the public.

To get back to the caravan I drove past Burford Church and stopped off there for a short while but I'll write about that in the next post. There will be fewer photos I think!

I hope everyone is staying safe and well.

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

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