May Visit to Herefordshire - Part 2: Fencote Station and St Leonard's, Hatfield.

 

On the Wednesday morning we did the usual click and collect at Morrisons Leominster. To be honest I would rather do it on the day we arrive and get it out of the way but B likes to relax on the first afternoon. We stopped off at B and Q and I came away with a perennial wall flower (Bowles's Mauve) for the border at the caravan and a pepper plant to bring home for D.

In the afternoon B wanted to garden so I took myself to nearby Fencote to look for the restored railway station on the disused railway line which I seem to be totally obsessed with!

Fencote station was a stop on the Worcester Bromyard and Leominster railway. Great Western Railway rescued the railway from bankruptcy in 1888 and the line was completed in 1897.

Due to lack of use the line was closed to regular passenger services from September 1949.

In 1980 Fencote Station was purchased by a former railway employee who restored it to use as a private residence. The station and signal box etc are all fenced off so you can't access the site but you can view it from the bridge that goes over the track. The signal box has also been restored and sections of the track re-installed.

As you can see it looks beautifully restored. I understand that in the past there were occasional open days so you could look round but the station has been recently sold I've been told - thankfully to more railway enthusiasts!  So I just hope there may be more open days in the future.

This is the view from the other side of the bridge.

I did wander down to the station fence and gate but as you can see it is marked private!

The hedgerows are full of Cow Parsley.

There is another restored station on the same line at Rowden Mill, near Bredenbury, which is not far away but that has been converted into holiday accommodation so I doubt that could be accessed either.

On the way back I stopped off at St Leonard's in Hatfield.

I must try and time a visit so I can go the Flower Festival later this month.

I had a lovely chat with a lady in the church who was decorating it for a VE Day service.

East Window

The copse with the trees now in leaf taken at the "Golden Hour".

On the Thursday we popped into Tenbury Wells and then a visit to Burford House Gardens but I'll write about that in the next post. 

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

Short Trip to Herefordshire - Part 2: St Peter's, Birley

 

Monday afternoon I decided to visit a local church. I didn't want to go far as we were going for a meal in the evening and I had to get back.  In the end I decided to visit St Peter's, Birley, which is slightly less than 30 minutes drive away and has family connections. It  was dry when I left Hatfield but it was drizzling slightly when I arrived at the church.

My great great grandfather Noah  (born 1830) who was a Gamekeeper/Farmer  lived at Birley for a while and married an Anne Galliers.  Their first child, a daughter Ada, was born on 24th February, 1867, at Birley.  They later moved to the Sarnesfield area of North Herefordshire.

St Peter's is a Grade 1 Listed Building built in the C13th and extended in the C14th. The West Tower is early C13th and the shingled pyramidal roof is probably C17th.

The manors of Birley were in the possession of two important Marcher families - de Lacy and Mortimer and were run by tenants.  In 1086 the tenants were Godmund (tenant Roger de Lacy) and Richard (tenant of Ralph Mortimer).

War Memorial

The South Chapel is C14th and the timber framed gable was probably added in the C17th.

The churchyard was full of Buttercups and in some places Cowslips.

The South Door is probably C12th.

It is always good to see a sign that the church is open :)

The interior of the church was very dark and, although I tried, I couldn't find a light switch anywhere and so I used high iso for most of the photos, except the windows, and even then I was only getting a slow speed.

The church was restored in 1873/4 by Henry Ward.

This window from 2000 is by Richard Mather.

Encaustic floor tiling from the Restoration which Pevsner describes as "strident"!

The C12th chalice shaped font is the only evidence that a Romanesque church was here.  

Ogee headed C14th stoup.

Kneelers

Stained glass window by Jones and Willis 1902.

Pulpit from 1633

C14th chancel arch with ballflower decoration.  The piers are decorated with human faces and the heads of floppy eared puppies.

C14th Piscina in the chancel

The East Window (1887) is by Jones and Willis.

Looking from the chancel down the nave towards the West Tower.

Rose Window

The South Chapel

Victorian Memorial Glass

Looking from the chancel towards the West Tower

Back outside the rain had stopped - ignore any raindrops on the lens in the initial photos of the exterior!

Birley Court is opposite the church

As usual I missed a few features mainly fragments of medieval stained glass and my photos of the reredos were rubbish!

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

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