Kilpeck

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Kilpeck (Welsh: Llanddewi Cil Peddeg) is a small Herefordshire village renowned for its Norman (Romanesque) church but also having the earthworks for a castle, no longer standing.

Kilpeck is about 14 km southwest of Hereford, just south of the A465, the road to Abergavenny.

Contents

1 Historical mention
2 Kilpeck church
3 Kilpeck castle
4 Sources

Historical mention

In the Domesday Survey, Kilpeck (entered as Chipeete) was given by the Conqueror to William Fitz Norman The castle is thought to have been built around 1090 as the administrative centre of Archenfield. According to the Domesday Survey Kilpeck had '3 ploughs, 2 serfs and 4 oxmen and there are 57 men with 19 ploughs.' There are mentions of a church on the site possibly as early as the 7th century.

Kilpeck church

Kilpeck church from the north

The parish church of St Mary and St David was built around 1140 (and almost certainly by 1143), perhaps as a replacement for an earlier Saxon church at the same site. The plan of the church, with a nave, chancel, and semicircular apse, is normal for the time.

What is remarkable is the carving of the red sandstone, particularly of the south door, the west window, and a row of corbels which run right around the exterior of the church under the eaves. The carvings are all from the time the church was built, and are in their original positions.

The south door has double columns. The outer columns have carvings of a series of snakes, heads swallowing tails. In common with most of the other carvings, the meaning of these is unclear, but they may represent rebirth via the snake's seasonal sloughing of its skin. The inner right column shows birds in foliage; at the top of the right columns is a green man. The inner left column has two warriors who, unusually, are in loose trousers. The outer sections of the arch above the doorway show creatures which can be interpreted as a manticore and a basilisk, and various other mythical and actual birds and beasts. The semicircular tympanum depicts a tree of life.

South door

image:Kilpeck Angel carving.jpg|An angel appears in the centre of the arch above the south door image:Kilpeck Details of Door Arch.jpg|Other details of the arch include serpents and dragons swallowing their tails (see Ouroboros) image:Kilpeck_Green_Man.jpg|The "green man" on the capital of the columns to the east side of the south door For many years the south door was hidden by a wooden porch, but this was removed in 1868 in order to allow visitors to see the carvings as originally intended. Although this has left the carvings open to the elements, the sandstone is considered to be rather robust, and its condition is carefully monitored. In 1968 a narrow protruding strip of lead was let into the mortar above the arch to protect the carvings from water running down the wall above.

Eighty-five corbels survive, one fewer than are illustrated by Lewis in 1842 (originally there were 91). The meaning of most is obscure, but some probably come from a bestiary, and they include a sheela na gig. image:Kilpeck hound & hare corbel.jpg|One corbel shows a hound and hare image:Kilpeck Corbels (Ram & Lion).jpg|Two corbels, depicting a ram and a lion image:Kilpeck Sheelagh na Gig.jpg|The famous sheela na gig

Two green men appear as capitals on the richly decorated columns of the west window. In the centre of the corbel table below the window, and at each corner of the nave's west wall, are large protruding dragons' heads with coiled tongues. Each of the three mouths gapes to a different degree, rather like an animated sequence evenly spaced across the western facade. (A fourth dragon head, on the south-east corner of the nave, is broken.)

Inside the church, the chancel arch is also richly carved, though far less spectacular than the south doorway. The ceiling boss or keystone of the apse depicts four lions' heads. There is a massive baptismal font of polished conglomerate, a curious holy water stoup, shaped like a fat, tightly girdled torso (brought from a chapel near Wormbridge), and a rare Romanesque font-stopper.

A very simple belfry now rises from the roof; although its design is in keeping with that of the rest of the church, it is a 19th-century addition. Elsewhere too, the restoration and necessary modernization of the church have conserved it well.

Kilpeck castle

West of the church lies a ruined motte-and-bailey and earthworks, which are less remarkable than the unique church. A few walls of the 12th or 13th century keep still stand on top of the motte; these are not well preserved. A fireplace and flues are visible.

Sources

Bailey, James. The parish church of St Mary and St David at Kilpeck. 2000.
Lewis, G[eorge] R. "Illustrations of Kilpeck church, Herefordshire." 1979. Pamphlet derived from a book of 1842.
[Population figures]
[CRSBI (Kilpeck)] A very detailed, fully illustrated description of the architecture, sculpture and history of Kilpeck church from [The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain and Ireland] website
[link] Kilpeck Castle and Church
[link] Kilpeck Castle details
[link] Kilpeck Castle archaeological survey

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