Herefordshire 2023 (6) - Part 3: St Andrew's, Bredenbury

Following the visit to St Mary's, Hope under Dinmore,  I drove to Bredenbury and the lovely church and churchyard of St Andrew's. We drive past this church all the time and I have visited this churchyard once before.  

St Andrew's was built by T H Wyatt 1876/7 on a new site replacing the previous village church and the church at nearby Bacton.  The West Tower has a pyramidal roof.

Most of the front of the churchyard with more recent graves is neat and tidy but the rear and side of the churchyard have been left for wild flowers to flourish.

An Oontitoomp! I've been wanting to use this word for ages. Its an old country word for a molehill and was mentioned in a book I have just finished reading by John Moore - "Come Rain, Come Shine".  Oonti is an old country word for mole and toomp comes from tump. Huge thanks to Wessex Reiver for recommending these books. I've had "Come Rain Come Shine" for years and its a wonderful book to read.  Unfortunately I don't have any more books by this author and I suspect many of them are now sadly out of print so I will be checking in second hand bookshops.

Germander Speedwell or Bird's Eye as my grandfather used to call it.

Now we enter the "wilder" area and to me it looks lovely.

Ox-eye Daisies or Moon Pennies galore plus Cow Parsley.

Loads of Fox and Cubs too - I love this flower.

I was hoping this church would be open - it wasn't - it was padlocked! When I last visited in 2021 it was open for private prayer but I didn't go inside as taking loads of photos couldn't exactly be classed as private prayer.  Its unusual for Herefordshire because after the covid lockdowns most churches now seem open.

Font from Bacton church now being used as a flower pot.

I missed this little mouse last time. A friend who lives near Weobley found it on one of her church crawling trips. So I was determined to find it this time.

This tree was planted last year for the Queen's Jubilee.

Next post will be a visit to another National Garden Scheme Open Gardens.

All photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera (I don't particularly rate most of my photos but if anyone wishes to use one I would be grateful for an email first - thanks).

Herefordshire Again - Part 4: St Bartholomew's Docklow and St Andrew's, Bredenbury

 

Saturday was even hotter and I am afraid I just do not "do" hot weather. I hate anything above about 21/22 degrees centigrade!  B and E weren't bothered about going out but it seemed a waste of day to me to sit around reading all day and all evening so I decided to go and visit two local churches.

To be honest I was only gone for just over an hour - I would have loved to visit a few more churches but, although it was lovely and cool in the car with air conditioning, once I got out and meandered round the churchyards I was just baked!

St Bartholomew, Docklow

The unbuttressed West Tower is probably late 13th century and the nave and chancel North wall probably Norman with two blocked openings.  Otherwise the church dates backs to a re-building by Thomas Nicholson 1880.

There appeared to be bees nesting in the tower! I did not linger!

Stonecrop growing on some of the graves - parts of the churchyard especially by the car park had been allowed to go a little "wild".

The church was well and truly closed. I am not sure if it is due to the current pandemic or whether it has closed closed permanently. If you look at the lych gate a few photos down it does look rather in need of repair! There again the churchyard looks well looked after. I will have to do some research.

Most of the fittings in the church date from the 1880 rebuilding but I would have liked to have seen the Godwin floor tiles.

St Andrew, Bredenbury

 A few miles further along the Worcester Road is St Andrew's, Bredenbury.  We always drive past the church if we journey via Bromyard and I have often thought it looked an interesting church.

The church was built in 1876/7 by T H Wyatt on a new site replacing a previous church.  The West Tower has a pyramid roof and the porch is made of timber.

Most of the window tracery is in the style of around 1300.

The south side of the churchyard is quite neat, tidy and "manicured" but to the east, west and north it is a beautiful "living churchyard" with grasses and wild flowers.  Herefordshire does seem to have a good record for encouraging wildlife in most of the churchyards - at least from many of the churches I have visited so far.

Stonecrop again - a yellow species this time.

You may wonder why a photo of a Portaloo?!  On Twitter a group of church crawlers have fun trying to discover the most outlandish places where such items as portaloos and traffic cones are placed. Really rather silly perhaps but in current times it is good to be lighthearted, have fun and make people smile.

This is a font which came from a nearby church at Wacton now being used as a flowerpot!

The church was only open for private prayer.

Timothy enjoying the sunshine but he found it very hot too!

We didn't go anywhere on Sunday as, if possible, it seemed even hotter.  We drove home late afternoon.

I hope everyone is staying safe and well.

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

Reference: Pevsner Buildings of Herefordshire (new edition)