St Peter & St Paul Whitney-on-Wye

 

This week the Church Explorer visits St Peter & St Paul Whitney-on-Wye  in the second of his tour of the churches Francis Kilvert visited. The church is easy enough to find being set back off the main road along a track where you see rather nice Lychgate leading you to the churchyard and church beyond. The history came of the parish website. This was the first of seven churches on the Clerics trail I visited on this day.

This peaceful little church was built in 1740 to replace one which was destroyed by the River Wye. It contains treasures from the old church including the medieval east window and the old font probably 12th century. The beautiful stained glass windows are also well worth a look. The tower houses the original five bells which have been in situ since the church was built and are still in regular use today. The Revd. Francis Kilvert was a regular visitor both to the church and to his dear friend Revd. Henry Dew.

The church is always open for visitors to enjoy the peace and tranquillity.

 Path taking you to the church

 

The tower with door

South west aspect of the church

Going around to look from the north west

 Then north east across the churchyard

 

East end of the church

 Along the second path

 

Churchyard south of the church looking west

East end looking north 

North side looking east

 From the north side of the churchyard looking south

 

 Collage of headstones and Hope family monument

 

South west of the church

The blocked priest door make beautiful war memoial 

Inside looking down the aisle

 

 

Inside the chancel

 

 

The altar and carved reredos screen bhind

 

Altar cross and flower vases 

Looking back through the chancel arch

Phone photos of the altar

East window showing the calming of the red sea

Top of  the altar and screen

Closer view of the altar

 

The nave form by the pulpit

Pulpit and lectern 

Closer view of the pulpit showing the carving on it

 

 

 Looking down from the pulpit

Kneelers on the pews

There is a fare bit of stained glass to see, St Peter & St Paul

I think there are two different scenes here

Pretty sure this is the wedding feast at Cana 

St George and St Mary the blessed virgin 

Some of the memorials

 

I should have taken a photo of the statue

But I managed a crop to show L/Cpl A.L.Lewis VC. It is not often you come across someone who was awarded the Victoria Cross

Memorial to Armine Styleman Furlonge

Memorials in the corner of the chancel 

One I did not realise till after was that of Henry Dew who befriended Kilvert

Memorial to Armine Roderick Dew

List of the vicars of the church

The font which was no doubt saved from the old church

Organ

And the back of the church under the balcony

You did not think I would miss out going up for a photo did you

I will leave with this photo of I The Millennium tree Planted 28/10/2000 by Hazel Rayner.

Till next time may I wish you all a peaceful week

St Garmon St Harmon

 

This week the Church Explorer visit's St Garmons church at St Harmon the first of ten churches I visited over three days to complete the Clerics Trail of Francis Kilvert. What got into my head to do this I will never know but I did get enough photos to write a blog on each one. Not much history on this church other than what I have given below. My original intention was to visit the churches and only take a few photos of each one due to how much storage I had but I ended up getting enough photos to write a blog on each church even if the blog is a little shorter than so that I do write.

"The parish church is called Saint Garmon (Germanus of Auxerre), with many people assuming it has been spelt incorrectly. In fact, the village name of St Harmon is a further Anglicisation of the name St Garmon. St Garmon's Church is known for having the diarist the Reverend Francis Kilvert serve as Vicar there between 1876 and 1877."

 Information board by the entrance

Straight path leading to the church

Near the church

Looking from the south east

North east, I think they could have been more sympathetic when building the small extension the render looks lot of place

South east view

East end

South west view

The bell is on the side of the porch under a cover

Rowland family graves

Looking east

Around the north side of the church

West end looking south

Looks to the road through the village

East of the church looking west

There are a fare few chest tombs around the inscriptions eroded on them

More chest tombs and leaning headstones

Fenced family plot with pillar monument 

 

Looking easterly

Porch on the church

Doorway in, unusual color to see  a church door

Inside looking down the nave

Closer to the chancel arch

Kneeler and prayer desk

In the chancel looking at the altar

Very colorful altar cloth

East window showing the last supper

Altar cross on the shelf behind

The shelf sits on these carved corbels which are older than the church, I suspect they are from a ruined church or abbey

Looking to the back of the church from the chancel

The pulpit, I wonder if Kilvert stood in it

If he did this is what he would have seen

Brass chandelier 

Organ fitted in the north trasept

 

 

There is some nice stained glass to see 

Which shows when the sun shines

The center glass from the last two

This window is on the north side

The west window

With Madonna and child, I really liked this one

Vaughan family memorial 

Another Vaughan memorial a bit older

Collage of memorials some very faded 

Stained glass window in the north wall of the nave

Old photo of the church, note the bell cote, there is none on the church now which why the bells is by the porch 

List of vicars of the church

Cropped out to show Kilvert was vicar between 1876-1877

Chairs in the chancel

They are either side of the altar

The font which has three faces on. It looks medieval or older my thoughts are it is the  capital of a pillar from a church or abbey

Collage of the font and faces, it could even be Saxon. I came across second in another church

Last look around the church

St Harmon  did have a railway station near the church which Kilvert would have used to get here, the railway closed back in the 1960s and very little can be seen now. Next week I start visiting the churches around Hay on Wye going up to Bedwardine. By the time I have finished we will be in November

Till next time may I wish you all a peaceful week