2nd October Visit to Herefordshire - Part 3: St Michael and All Angels, Ledbury - the Exterior

 

I'd left B, D and E on the High Street and had just 40 minutes to explore the church. First I spent 10 minutes looking round the exterior and churchyard feeling annoyed with myself that I hadn't read up on the church in Pevsner before visiting especially as the church was a lot larger than I envisaged!

The Church seen today has elements from 3 periods of English Church Architecture:

1. Early English
2. Decorated
3. Perpendicular.

St Michael and All Angels is built on the site of the Saxon Minister. The detached tower, one of 7 in Herefordshire, was built in the late C12th with 2 Norman phases and re-modelling in the late C13th and early C14th. The tower has lancet windows and the spire was added 1732-3 by Nathaniel Wilkinson of Worcester.

The Nave West Doorway is late Norman.  The arch has outer roll moulding and 2 inner orders of chevrons.  There are 3 orders of shafts with foliage capitals including one with faces or masks biting onto the shafts.

Plants in Walls

The outer north transeptal chapel built 1330 - 40 contains large four light windows studded with ballflower. The windows (see below also) reminded me of those I had seen at Leominster Priory.

The stonemason may have worked also at Hereford Cathedral or Tewkesbury Abbey.

One suggestion has been made that the chapel was built to contain a relic of St Radegund whose cult was later associated with the church.

Door to the Tower

More of the ballflower windows (sorry my photos were uploaded in the wrong order!)

I then had 30 minutes to whizz round the church interior! But enough photos for one post so I'll save the interior for another post.

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 or more could they please email me first - thanks)

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

Decorated in Glory Church Building in Herefordshire in the Fourteenth Century by Nigel Saul Logaston Press

National Church Trust Website

Return to Herefordshire - Part One: Pool, Bodenham and St Michael and All Angels

 

We returned to Herefordshire for a few days last week as the weather forecast looked dry! 

We arrived mid afternoon on Wednesday and went for a walk to the pool at tea-time. Autumn colours are certainly now appearing.

There are still Fly Agaric - some about ten inches in diameter - creating a little "fairyland".

Timothy was not happy and insisted on sitting near the radiator as I had forgotten to bring his jumper and scarf!

There are faint signs of colour appearing on the tree I am watching.

We saw many flocks of "winter thrushes" flying over.  There are a lot of hawthorn berries on the site and on one occasion when thrushes alighted in a tree we managed to get the telescope on them to confirm they were Redwings.  I also saw my first bats at dusk on two evenings flittering over the hedge/trees at the rear of the caravan.

Thursday was dry with sunshine and B suggested we returned to Bodenham Lakes.

When we got to Bodenham the car park was closed - we later discovered parts of the reserve were closed as they were doing habitat work - creating islands.  We parked by the church and decided on a walk round the village.

There was a little sign saying that these are rare examples of an elevated cobbled pavement.

Stump of village cross said to be connected to a weekly market granted in 1378 to Sir Walter Devereux.

War Memorial

Cross Well - a strange, big, solid, stone cylinder dated 1876.

We then went to the church in the hope we could access the reserve from the churchyard as there is a public footpath across to the lakes.

At least I had an opportunity to get closer to the church than on the last visit and to have a look at the exterior and churchyard.

The church of St Michael and All Angels is near the River Lugg. The West Tower was started in the late 13th century and completed in the 14th. It has a pyramidal roof set over the stump of an incomplete recessed spire. Most of the church is 14th century but extensive use of tufa suggests a Norman origin.  The doorways have ballflower decorations.

I am spotting a lot of mounting blocks outside churches in Herefordshire.

I wouldn't fancy being up there doing repair work with ladders!

We went a short walk to see if we could find a way onto the reserve and the parts that were open.

River Lugg

We did find ourselves on the reserve and we did see a couple of people but to be honest after five minutes I didn't feel comfortable or know if we should be there so we left rapidly!

We did stop off at Queenswood Arboretum and Country Park on the way back as the car park looked quieter.  But we had no change and B had problems paying over the phone with Ringo - both the car registration number and debit card details were out of date so you can tell how long it is since we used that system!  Anyway all updated now online which will make it easier in future and we will definitely be exploring some of the trails at the Arboretum.

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