April Visit to Herefordshire - Part 2: St Leonard's Churchyard

 

As mentioned in the last post on Friday afternoon D and I travelled the short distance to the church of St Leonard's.  I do like visiting this churchyard as in Spring and Summer it is full of wild flowers.

The bank by the church was absolutely full of Lesser Celandine flowers.

Lesser Celandine (Ranunculus ficaria) is a member of the buttercup family and flowers between March and May.  It is one of the first wild flowers to appear in early Spring and is found in woodland, hedgerows and along stream banks.  The flowers close when it is cold or wet and re-open when the sun re-appears.

In the Language of flowers it represents "joys to come".  Local names include Star Flower, Bright Eye, Golden Stars, Golden Guineas, Pilewort and Golden Daisies.  

St Leonard's is the third oldest church in Herefordshire. The Nave is C11th and may even be pre-Conquest.  The church was extended to the West in the C14th when the chancel was probably built.

The churchyard was full of Primroses - one of my favourite flowers.

Primroses (Primula Vulgaris)  flower from March to May although the flowers can appear as early as December. They can be found on grassy banks, in woodland and hedgerows and in churchyards.

In the Middle Ages it was believed eating a primrose flower would give children the power to see fairies.  Primrose tea was made to ease the pain of gout, rheumatism and migraine. In the 17th and 18th centuries candied primrose flowers were often used to decorate cakes and desserts. An infusion of primrose flowers was believed to be good for insomnia - perhaps I should try some!

Primroses are an Ancient Woodland indicator plant and are insect pollinated.  They are the food plant of caterpillars of the rare Duke of Burgundy butterfly. 

The 19th of April is Primrose Day.

The timber West Porch is partly C14th and the bell turret may be medieval although the weather boarding dates from 1903.

We wandered round the churchyard at the rear of the church seeing loads more Primroses, Lesser Celandines and Daisies.

This tree had a nesting box for owls and also a bat box.  It really is good to see a churchyard that does so much to encourage wildlife.

The blocked North doorway is early Norman and the lintel has three large stones. The Tympanum above consists of Opus reticulatum  ie square stones set diagonally.

Late C11th herringbone masonry.

It was good to visit the church again. I think the last time was when D and I went in the church to look at the Harvest Festival displays last autumn.  We've talked about visiting at sunset  with the bat detector to look for signs of bats.  It is only about a quarter of mile from the caravan site so easy to get to.

Timothy enjoying being back on his shelf.

*D

On the Saturday D and I popped to Burford House Gardens nurseries and I'll write about that in the next post.

Photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera and the last photo was taken by D with the Canon SX50HS bridge camera. (I don't particularly rate my photos but if anyone wishes to use one of mine or my son's I would be grateful for an email first - thanks).

Reference: "Buildings of England Herefordshire" by A Brookes and N Pevsner, Yale University Press 2017.

"Britain's Wild Flowers" A Treasury of Traditions, Superstitions , Remedies and Literature by Rosamond Richardson.