St Mary & St David, Kilpeck

 

 I had been dodging the rain for most of the day and by the time I got to Kilpeck there was a light drizzle coming down so I have not covered the outside like I normally would, it did not help seeing all the corbels looking down. Inside I was in awe at all the carvings in the church concentrating mostly on the those so the views might not be like I normally would take. It is one church I hope to return to on a better day 

The short history :- St Mary and St David's Church was built around 1140. It consists of a nave, chancel and semicircular apse. It is remarkable for its wealth of Norman stone carvings (and their fine state of preservation), both inside and out,^[7] all original both in form and position and incorporating many corbels with representations of human faces, hares, fish, fowl, stags etc. Eighty-five of 91 corbels survive, an extraordinarily high percentage to read more on the church visit the link St Mary& St David Kilpeck

 The south of the church from the road below

North side

West end with double bells

From along the path to the church

 East end, the blemish is a raindrop on my lens

 

North side from along the footpath

The freeze and corbels around the apse

On the west end there are three of these carvings 

Corbles

There are so many carved faces looking down

Collage showing a few of the 81 corbels to see around the church

Couple of tomb chests beside the path

Some of the headstones south of the church

Commonwealth War Grave of Captain P.G. Meadmore

He is buried in the churchyard extension up here

Looking south down the path by the tombs

South of the church looking east

Headstones over by the trees on the north side

North side looking east

From Kilpeck castle looking to the churchyard extension

 

The extension on the west side

Over to the east side

The fist think you notice when coming to the church is the doorway

It is really stunning to look at

I have not seen the like of it before

Collage of the arch and timpanium 

The doorposts just as amazing to see

Carving on the capital

Wyverns the other side

Inside looking to the first arch to the chancel

Looking up at the arch

Not sure what this is at the base of the arch

Pillar carvings on the arch

Pillar capital

The apse arch

The altar and the tree east windows

Collage of the tree east windows

The apse 

Altar cross and candle holders 

Cross with window behind

Looking back through the chancel

From the apse showing the chancel

Looking towards the gallery

You know I would go up and here we look down to the chancel into the apse

Looking down to the nave

Seats in the gallery, note the two blocked windows

I think this is part of an old tomb slab

Across the church from under the gallery

The font 

Closer view of the font

Time to go, I did not bother showing the memorial as it was hard to read and the same with the tomb in the chancel floor. I would like to visit this one again on a nice day.

Till next time have a peaceful week