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1. St Giles, Acton Beauchamp, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
The church consists of W tower, nave and chancel, the latter two rebuilt in 1819 in Georgian style, but the original doorway was saved and inserted as S doorway of the nave. The W tower includes a S doorway with a lintel made from an Anglo-Saxon carved cross or gravestone, the most important pre-Conquest sculpture in the region. This is not described here, but photographs are included.
2. Amberley Chapel, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
The chapel is simple with nave, chancel and a bellcote rather than a tower. Details are mainly early 14thc., but there is a late-12thc. corbel re-set in the E chancel wall. This is the only Romanesque feature. The chapel was in ruins in 1868.
3. St John the Baptist and St Alkmund, Aymestrey, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
The 12thc. church consisted of a chancel and an aisleless nave. The present chancel includes two original plain windows of tufa; that in the S wall is blocked but the window in the N wall is still open. The nave has N and S arcades of three bays, supported on square piers with shafted angles. According to RCHM (3:9) the piers are of late 12thc. material, reused. Romanesque sculpture is found on a corbel set into the interior chancel wall; the plain font also contains some 12thc. work.
4. St Peter, Birley, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
Nave with a plain S doorway (not recorded but possibly 12thc.), 13thc. chancel with a 14thc. arch, early 13thc. W tower with a shingled bell-storey and pyramid roof. Only the nave is probably of a 12thc. date but, as the RCHME (3:15) stated, 'there is little evidence of this'. The font is the only certain evidence of the existence of a Romanesque church here.
5. St Mary, Bishops Frome, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
St Mary's has a nave with a N aisle and a square-ended chancel, all built by F. Kempson of Hereford in a style described by Hilary White (SMR) as a 'terribly pretentious neo-Norman'. The nave dates from 1861, and includes a genuine 12thc. S doorway with chevron ornament, which must be the excuse for Kempson's excesses. The chancel is of 1847, and includes Kempson's S doorway, which is far too big and elaborate for a priest's doorway. The chancel arch is 12thc. work too, and there is a large conglomerate font. At the W end, the tower is of c.1300 in its lower parts, with a later 14thc. bell stage and parapet.
6. St John, Bolstone, Herefordshire, England

Parish church (redundant)
The only surviving Romanesque feature is a doorway incorporated in the N wall of the nave.
7. St Andrew, Bredwardine, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
The name Bredwardine (DS - Brocheurdie, DBH - Brodewordin) means the place on the slope of a steep ridge and in fact, the village stands on the western bank of the Wye, on the ground that rises to the top of Bredwardine Hill, over 291 m (700 feet) above sea level. Of the 12thc. church, only the aisleless nave survives, with two carved doorways (N and S), the traces of one plain doorway, now blocked, in the W wall and a font. There is some herring-bone masonry in the N wall and tufa was used for quoins and for doorways. The sculptured features are of red sandstone, except for the huge font, of breccia. For the rest, there is a tower of 1790, built on the north side of the nave, at its east end. The nave was lengthened and the chancel, which doglegs to the north, was rebuilt in the 15thc.
8. St George, Brinsop, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
The present church has a late 13thc. chancel and nave to which a N aisle was added c.1320. Nave and aisle were lengthened by two bays c.1330-40. It was restored in 1866-67 when the N vestry, S porch and W bell-turret were added. RCHME (II, 27) claims that the NE angle of the chancel is part of the 12thc. church, but this is doubtful. However, numerous carvings reused inside the church testify to the existence of an earlier building, dating to the second quarter of the 12thc. All the 12thc. stones are reset inside the church, and are described in section IV.5.c. below
9. St Peter, Bromyard, Herefordshire, England

Originally Minster, now parish church
The building is cruciform, with a chancel, nave, transepts and a crossing tower; this last added in the 14thc. The church is essentially late Romanesque but much altered and restored in later times. The S aisle is an addition of c.1190 and the N aisle is early 13thc. The chancel was entirely rebuilt in the 14thc. The three Romanesque doorways predate these alterations and were re-set into the aisles and chancel. Duncumb (1812, 89) states that the fabric was 'completely repaired' in 1806. Williams (1987, pl. 2) illustrates an important 18thc. print showing the church from the SW but does not reveal its source. The font bowl predates the present church.
10. St Michael and All Angels, Castle Frome, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
The church is a simple two-cell building of local sandstone. The RCHME calls it 12thc., Taylor and Taylor 'Saxo-Norman, but probably post-Conquest', and Pevsner 'Early Norman'. This last view seems most appropriate. Four round-headed and deeply splayed windows are part of this early church: one is in the N wall of the chancel, two in the N wall of the nave and one (now blocked) in the S wall of the nave. There are also three original doorways and a chancel arch. The most outstanding feature, however, is the font described by Pevsner as, 'one of the masterworks of Romanesque sculpture in England. It would arrest attention in any country.'
11. St James the Great, Colwall, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
St James's has an aisled nave with no clerestorey, chancel with north vestry and organ room, and a tower at the west end of the nave, south of the south aisle. The nave arcades are of five bays; the south arcade dating from the 13thc., and the north from 1880. The chancel is entirely by Woodyer (1865), and the tower is 14thc. in its lower parts with a Perpendicular bell-storey and battlemented parapet. The only Romanesque sculpture is on a late-12thc. doorway reset in the south nave aisle, protected by a wooden porch built against the east wall of the tower.
12. St James the Great, Cradley, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
St James's was largely rebuilt in 1868-70, but some earlier features were retained. The nave has a N aisle by Perkins of 1869, with a six-bay arcade. The S doorway is 12thc., and the tower arch 12thc. too, but later. The tower is short and stocky, late 12thc., but fitted with diagonal buttresses and an embattled parapet around 1400. Re-set in its N wall is a relief decorated with a simple design that may be Anglo-Saxon. The chancel is by Sir G. G. Scott (1868) and the S porch dates from 1893.
13. St Mary Magdalene, Eardisley, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
The church has a nave with N and S aisles; the N arcade dating from the 13thc., but the S from the late 12thc. There is a 16thc. clerestorey on the S side only. Both arcades are unusual in having an E bay that is lower than the others, and on the south the first pier from the east is actually a section of wall containing a 14thc. niche towards the main vessel. Pevsner has argued that the eastern bay was originally the arch to a chapel, and thus that pier 1 marked the division between the nave and the chancel in the 12thc. Sculptural interest in the S arcade centres on the chamfer stops of the piers, carved with foliage motifs and heads. The present chancel has no masonry arch to it, but a timber arch supported on 19thc corbels. There is a N chapel, now housing the organ, and its arch and the chancel windows are of the early 14thc. The tower stands at the NW of the nave, and was rebuilt in 1707. It seems clear, therefore, that a 12thc aisleless church of nave and chancel was given a S aisle and chancel chapel at the end of the 12thc, and a N aisle and chapel in the 13thc. Early in the following century a new chancel was added, with N chapels, and the former chancel incorporated into the nave. The church was 'thoroughly' restored in 1862 (Duncumb (1897), 47).
14. St Mary, Fownhope, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
St Mary's is one of the longest churches in the county at 36.3 metres (119 feet). The central tower is 12thc., as is the eastern part of the nave. A south aisle was added in the 13thc., and nave and aisle extended westward c.1300. The present chancel is of the early 14thc., as is the chapel to the south of the tower, now a vestry. A shingled oak broach spire was added in the 14th or 15thc. The jewel of Fownhope is a tympanum of the Virgin and Child by Herefordshire School sculptors, now detached from whatever doorway it once adorned and displayed inside the church. Also recorded here are the E and W tower arches, and the tower bell-openings, string courses and angle corbels.
15. SS Mary and David, Kilpeck, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
Kilpeck church is a three-cell building consisting of nave, chancel and rib-vaulted apse, all dating from the 12thc. At the west end of the nave is a wooden gallery including material dating from the 16thc. to the 19thc. There is no record to show when it was erected. The church is constructed of old red sandstone blocks; irregular in size and shape in the nave and chancel but of regularly coursed squared ashlar in the apse, which was refurbished by Cottingham in 1846 at the same time as its roofline was lowered. The walls are supported by flat, slender pilaster buttresses of ashlar, dividing the nave into three bays, the chancel into two, and the apse into one straight bay and three curved ones. There is no pilaster buttress at the NE angle of the nave, although traces of one remain at the top of the wall. Below, the angle is of long and short quoins and the nave wall to the N of the angle is of masonry different to that of the rest of the nave wall, sloping inwards so that it dies into the wall just below the level of the original nave window sills. This section of wall is on a slightly different line to the rest of the nave wall. Its interpretation, as a vestige of an earlier church on the site or as a later rebuilding, is discussed in section VIII. Over the west gable of the nave is a gabled double bell-cote; also part of the 1846 restoration.
16. Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Madley, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
Madley is a large village in central Herefordshire, 6 miles W of Hereford. There is evidence of Iron Age and Roman settlement in the area, and a Roman road runs through the E end of the village, running from Leominster towards Abergavenny. The church stands in the centre of the village. It has an aisled and clerestoried nave with a north porch and a S chapel; a W tower, and a chancel with a crypt below it. The building history begins with the 12thc. N porch, apparently once the transept of a much shorter church. The present church is substantially of the 13thc. and 14thc., and the oldest part of this is the W tower, whose E arch still has a form of scalloped capital, and whose windows and bell-openings are plain, pointed chamfered lancets. The nave arcades are of six bays, carried on cylindrical columns with moulded capitals and chamfered, two-order pointed arches. The clerestory windows are plain pointed lancets. The aisles extend westward alongside the W tower; a 13thc. arrangement with the original lancets surviving on both sides. There was a major remodelling c.1320, when the four eastern bays of the N nave aisle were heightened and fitted with three-light reticulated windows, and a chapel with a four-bay arcade was added S of the S aisle (the Chilstone Chapel). The semi-octagonal-apsed chancel and its crypt also date from this campaign. There were repairs in the 17thc. and 18thc. (see Anon (1957) below). In 1833-35 and again in 1871-79 the church was re-seated and repaired; the latter campaign under the supervision of F. R. Kempson of Cardiff. Further repairs were carried out in 1962-64 and in 1979, both times by H. J. Powell of Scriven, Powell and James, Hereford. Photographs of the 13thc. E tower arch capitals are included, but no description. The former N transept, now the N porch, has plain 12thc. lancets on its E and W walls, and the remains of a 12thc. arch above the present 13thc. entrance. These have been photographed but include no sculpture and are not described in detail here. The only 12thc. feature recorded below is the font.
17. St John the Baptist, Mathon, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
St John's is an aisleless church of c.1100 or slightly earlier, originally with an apse but now with a square-ended chancel, nave and W tower. There is herringbone masonry in the fabric, and N and S nave doorways of c.1100, the latter under a medieval timber porch. There is a blocked 12thc. window in the S nave wall at the W end. The S chancel doorway is plain but later 12thc., and there is a contemporary composition of two round-headed lancets with an oculus above in the chancel E wall. The W tower is late 14thc.
18. St Michael and All Angels, Moccas, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
The church stands on a mound near the south bank of the Wye, in parkland belonging to the Moccas Court estate. It is a three-celled, aisleless apsidal building. The walls are of calcareous tufa with some grey and red sandstone dressings. The church is a well-preserved and complete building of one date, with only a few later additions. The principal sculptural enrichments are the two doorways of the nave, in situ.
19. Holy Rood, Mordiford, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
Mordiford is a village 4 miles SE of the centre of Hereford, built around a crossing of the river Lugg at a point less than half a mile before it joins the Wye. The land is flat to the W, in the floodplains of the two rivers, but to the E is a series of wooded hills, partly cleared for arable or rough pasture, or replanted as orchards. The church stands at a crossroads in the village centre, alongside the bridge, which dates from the 14thc. in part, and the Old Rectory, an imposing red brick building of the 1750s. The church of the Holy Rood was greatly modified in the 19thc.; first after a flood in 1811 and then in a restoration of 1868-70 by F. R. Kempson of Cardiff. The medieval church had a nave and a chancel with a central tower. After the flood the tower was taken down and a replacement built at the SW angle of the nave, but the late-13thc. E and W tower arches remain. From the S side of the nave at the E end projects the Hereford pew, of uncertain date. A N aisle with a four-bay arcade was added to the nave in 1868-70, and a polygonal N vestry was added to the chancel at the same time. The latter has a plain late 12thc. doorway re-set in its NW face. The only other Romanesque sculpture here is the S nave doorway, now squeezed between the tower and the Hereford pew and protected by a lean-to porch.
20. St Bartholomew, Munsley, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
St Bartholomew's is a simple, two-cell aisleless building ofc.1100, rebuilt in 1863. It has a double bell-cote on the W gable and a S nave doorway under a porch, both 19thc. The surviving 12thc. features are the herringbone masonry in the E wall, plain windows in the E and N chancel walls and the N nave wall, a plain chancel arch and a font.
21. St Mary, Pembridge, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
Pembridge is a small town towards the NW of the county, seven miles W of Leominster. The town is built on rising ground on the S bank of the river Arrow, which has a crossing here. It boasts a tiny market place with a 16thc. timber-framed market house, and a good deal more timber framed housing of the 14thc. to 17thc. The church stands on a steep rise to the E of the market, and is unusual in having a detached timber-framed bell-house to the N. This is octagonal in plan with three storeys having hipped and pyramidal roofs. It was dated by RCHME to the later 14thc., but more recent dendrochronological dating indicates a single build of 1206-17 and a rebuilding after 1668/69 (see Tyers, Morriss). The church itself is a substantial building with an aisled six-bay nave with clerestories and N and S transepts, and a lower chancel with a modern N vestry and evidence on the S interior wall of a chapel arch, with an early 13thc. capital. The main entrance is from the N, via a porch, and inside this is the only evidence of 12thc. fabric here in the form of a loose pillar piscina head. For the rest, the narrow chancel, built of roughly course irregular blocks, may date from the 13thc. while the ashlar nave, arcades and transepts are early to mid-14thc. Curiously the nave arcade takes no account of the transepts at all.
22. St Peter, Peterchurch, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
Peterchurch is a large village in the Golden Valley, built along the road from Hay-on-Wye to Hereford and Ross-on-Wye (the B4348) on the E side of the river. The church stands just off the main street, alongside the river. St Peter’s was originally a Norman church with an apsidal E end, a central tower and no transepts, but in the 13thc. the tower was removed and a new one built at the W end. An unusually tall and slender recessed stone spire was added c.1320, but the top two-thirds of it were removed by W.E. Anderson and E. A. Roiser of Cheltenham in 1947-49 when it became unsafe. Funds were collected for its rebuilding, but there was never enough and in the meantime the stump of the old spire also became unsafe. When Pevsner saw it, the stump of the spire remained, with large lucarnes. In the early 1970s a decision was made to replace the spire with a fibreglass copy, 186 feet high. The new spire was installed in large sections, using a crane and the original weathercock was mounted on the top. This later fell off in a gale. What remains, then, is a church with four compartments: apse, chancel, tower bay and nave, and a W tower with a spire. The 12thc. apse is semicircular in plan with a semi-dome vault and three lancets with decorated heads and an ornamental external stringcourse. The chancel has round-headed lancets in the N and S walls. The tower bay originally had two round-headed lancets on each lateral wall, but the W ones on each side were replaced with larger, two-light windows in the 15thc. The nave retains one 12thc. lancet on the S and three on the N. The N nave doorway is 13thc., under a porch of 1867-70 in a 14thc. style; the S is 12thc., without a porch. The tower dates from the 13thc. to the early 14thc., and has diagonal W buttresses. Inside there is no tower arch; simply a 13thc. doorway into it from the nave. In addition to the repairs to the spire noted above, the church underwent a restoration in 1867-70 by T. E. Williams of London, involving reseating and repairs including the rebuilding of the S nave wall and the porch. Romanesque sculpture is found on the two original tower arches, the apse arch, the apse windows and stringcourse, the N nave doorway and the font.
23. Putley Church, Putley, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
Putley is in East Herefordshire, four miles W of Ledbury. It is a dispersed village, approximately a mile from E to W and consisting of a few house and farms along a network of minor roads, with no clear centre. Roman finds E of the rectory indicate the presence of a villa. The church is more or less in the middle of the village, set in a hilly wooded landscape and surrounded by orchards. To the W is Putley Court and to the N the Brainge; two major houses dating from the early 18thc. The church itself is substantially of 1875-76 but the architect, Thomas Blashill of London, reused some medieval fabric from the old church, including four 13thc. windows, two in the nave and two in the chancel, and a 13thc. piscina. In the course of restoration, more Roman remains (bricks and tiles) were found in the foundations of the N wall. The only Romanesque sculpture here is a group of carved stones re-set in the blocking of the nave N doorway.
24. St Peter, Rowlestone, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
The original Romanesque church in red sandstone is modest in size. It consisted of an aisleless nave and a chancel without an apse. To this was later added an impressive 16thc. W tower. The S doorway and the chancel arch are, in Pevsner's opinion, 'the very best and most characteristic pieces of the Herefordshire school of carvers'. By contrast, the Romanesque font is so modest that Pevsner fails to mention it. Both the S doorway and the chancel arch are in situ.
25. St James, Stanford Bishop, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
St James's has an aisleless nave, chancel and west tower. The nave has N and S doorways of c.1200, the south under a porch with a round-arched entrance, dated to the 14thc. by RCHME. There are plain c.1200 lancets in the chancel S wall and the nave N wall. Nave and chancel share a single roof, although the chancel is slightly narrower. The short tower is capped by a pyramid roof. Romanesque features are the two nave doorways and the font base.
26. St Peter and St Paul, Stoke Lacy, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
In 1812 the church was described by Duncumb as a small building with one aisle, a chancel and a low tower. This church was rebuilt in 1863 by F. R. Kempson, architect of nearby Bishops Frome, who here uses a 13thc. idiom with plate-traceried windows. Kempson's church consists of an aisleless nave and chancel and a W tower with a short broach spire. Externally all appears to belong to the 1863 campaign, and Pevsner especially disliked the tower, the spire and the mixture of rock facing and smooth ashlar dressings, all of which he described as ugly. The interior is more satisfying; plain, bright and retaining its 12thc. chancel arch - the only Romanesque feature.
27. St Mary Magdalene, Stretton Sugwas, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
Stretton Sugwas is 4 miles W of the centre of Hereford, just off the A438 Brecon road. Although it is far enough outside the city to be largely unaffected by its expansion, the village lies between a new bypass and the former RAF base at Credenhill, now the headquarters of the 22nd SAS Regiment, so its ancient communications are massively disrupted, including a Roman road that runs westward from Hereford through the village centre . A mile and a half to the NW is the important Iron Age hill fort of Credenhill. The old church was situated at the N end of the village; its site is now in the grounds of Stretton Court Hotel. The present church was built in 1877-80 on a site outside the village to the S, 0.7m SW of the old church. The architect was William Chick of Hereford, who used some pieces taken from the old building. Chick’s church consists of a nave with a S porch and a two-bay N aisle, with a tower at the W end of the aisle, and a chancel with a N organ room. The ground storey of the tower is a vestry, entered through an external W doorway, or through a S doorway inside the church. Stretton Sugwas is justly famous for the great tympanum of Samson and the Lion, brought from the old church and set over the S entrance to the vestry. The S and W doorways are also 12thc. as is the font. The church is of sandstone except for the timber-framed upper part of the tower, based on Holmer.
28. St Mary, Tyberton, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
Tyberton is a small village in SW Herefordshire, midway between Hereford and Hay-on-Wye. It lies E of a wooded ridge separating the flood-plain of the Wye to the NE from the valley of the Dore to the SW. Tyberton is one of a chain of settlements on the E side of this ridge, including also Blakemere, Moccas, Bredwardine, Shenmore and Cublington.The church stands in the centre of the village, in the grounds of Tyberton Court immediately to the W. Tyberton Court was built by John Wood of Bath for William Brydges in 1729, but the church is slightly older, dating from 1719-21. The house was demolished in 1952. A chapel was noted at Tyberton on Elizabeth I’s reign, but by 1652 it was described as being in poor repair. Improvements, including a new steeple, were made in 1655. By 1711, when William Brydges inherited the estate, it was in a poor state again, and by 1718 the decision had been taken to replace it. The present church is a red brick building consisting of a nave with S porch, chancel and W tower. The chancel is square-ended outside with no E windows, but inside is a false apse with a semi domed ceiling and elaborate carved panelling on the walls, by Wood and dating from 1728. The S nave doorway from the medieval church was used in the 18thc. building, and is the only piece of Romanesque sculpture here. There was a restoration in 1879 when the nave and chancel windows were replaced with inappropriate lancets, and repairs were carried out by Roiser and Whitestone of Cheltenham in 1969-71.
29. St Bartholomew, Vowchurch, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
Vowchurch is in the Golden Valley in SW Herefordshire, the village consisting of a few house and the church clustered around a crossing of the rive Dore (little more than a stream at this point) on the minor road to Turnastone and Michaelchurch. To the N the road rises steeply to Vowchurch Common. The landscape here is hilly wooded pastureland. The church, of coursed sandstone rubble, stands alongside the bridge and consists of a long nave and chancel in one with a timber-framed W bell turret with a broach spire. There is no chancel arch. At the W end of the nave the N and S walls are of a different build from the rest, and this section is all that remains of the 12thc. fabric (confirmed by a round-headed window in the S nave wall, immediately E of the S porch). The eastern part of the church was rebuilt in the 14thc., and probably lengthened, and the church was rededicated in 1348 (see VII History). The N and S doorways and the remaining windows are 14thc.; the three-light N, S and E windows being of a type that is locally common that has simple tracery bars on the flanking lights but not in the central light. The bell turret was built with a bequest from Thomas ap Harry of Poston around 1522, and the broach spire added as part of a restoration campaign in 1871. The timber porch is 17thc. and was restored in 1860. The only Romanesque sculpture here is the font.
30. St John the Baptist, Weston Beggard, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
Weston Beggard is five miles E of the centre of Hereford, on rising ground on the N side of the river Frome. There is little of the village except the church, a few nearby houses and scattered farms at a distance. The land is wooded and hilly, with arable, pasture, orchard and hop cultivation. The church consists of a nave, chancel and W tower. Nave and chancel are narrow, and the nave has a S doorway of the late 12thc., and a chancel arch with features of a similar date. The chancel (including two wall tombs), S porch and W tower are all early 14thc., and most of the nave and chancel windows are stylistically of this date, but replaced in the 19thc. There was a restoration in 1825-27 when a gallery was added, and another by T. Nicholson of Hereford in 1880-81, when the S nave wall was rebuilt and many windows were replaced.
31. St Bartholomew, Westhide, Herefordshire, England

Parish church . Formerly a chapel of Stoke Edith.
Westhide is a village in E central Herefordshire, 5 miles NE of the centre of Hereford. It lies in hilly farmland on a minor road that snakes from Withington to Ocle Pychard, and has the wooded Shucknall Hill to the S. The village centre is compact, with dwellings grouped around the church. St Bartholomew’s is a stone church with nave, S aisle, N vestry, chancel and W tower. The 12thc. tower is unbuttressed with small lancets having pointed or roughly segmental chamfered heads. It has a modern slate pyramid roof. The N wall of the nave was rebuilt in the 19thc., when a N vestry was added at its E end. At that time it was given plate-tracery two-light windows in a style of the mid-13thc. The S porch is also a 19thc. addition. The S aisle, with a two-bay arcade, was added in the 14thc., and an early 14thc. date also fits the reticulated aisle windows and the chancel with its arch. The major restoration was in 1865-67, by Thomas Blashill of London, and included repairs to roof and walls, the rebuilding of the N nave wall and the chancel, and reseating. Romanesque features described below are the tower arch and a plain font.
32. St George, Woolhope, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
Woolhope is in the E of the county; seven miles SE of Hereford. The village is in hilly country, in the valley between the Woolhope Dome to the NW and the ridge of Marcle Hill to the E. It consists of a cluster of dwellings around a crossroads, and the church stands on a knoll to the N, overlooking the village. St George’s has a continuous nave and chancel without a chancel arch, and aisles to both nave and chancel. The N aisle is as long as the chancel, while the S is shorter, but both have four-bay arcades. At present the screen and chancel step are positioned so that both nave and chancel have two arcaded bays, but this arrangement dates only from 1882, when the screen was moved westwards to accommodate the choir. Beyond the arcades, at the E end, there is a 12thc. N lancet that now communicates only with the end of the N aisle, which has been screened off as a vestry. The S arcade is 19thc. throughout, but the W part of the N arcade is 12thc., with a round-headed W bay carried on a pier and respond of Romanesque design, thoroughly restored. The rather plain W tower is 13thc. in its details. The church apparently dates from 1157, when the bishop gave permission for the building of a church here. The Church Guide suggests that the original building was a rectangular box, and that the Romanesque arch in the N arcade belonged to a chantry, also mentioned in early documents. The N aisle and tower were added in the 13thc., and the N aisle extended eastwards in the 14thc. There was a major restoration in 1882, funded by the Booker family with work carried out by Stone Brothers of Fownhope. At this time the S aisle was added and the S doorway of c.1300 moved into the new aisle wall, the chancel was extended into the nave, the chancel floor was raised and the church was refurnished. Romanesque sculpture is found in the N nave arcade and a pillar piscina.
33. St John the Baptist, Yarkhill, Herefordshire, England

Parish church
Yarkhill is 6 miles E of the centre of Hereford, and lies on the river Frome. The compact little village is on rising ground on the N bank of the river, among woodland and pasture. The church is on the eastern edge of the village centre, and to the S, by the river, is a moated site. St John’s is a stone church with nave, chancel and W tower. The S nave doorway is of c.1200, and the tower arch and the lower storey of the tower are of a similar date. The upper storey of the tower 15thc., probably of 1466, and has a battlemented parapet and a modern tiled pyramid roof. In a major restoration of 1862 by C. R. Ainslie and T. Blashill of London, the church was practically rebuilt except for the tower and the chancel walls, and a S porch and N chancel vestry added. The church possesses three fonts: a 12thc. one with a scalloped bowl; a 13thc. one, and a 17thc. one with a fluted bowl. It also contains two small mortars of uncertain date, probably post-Medieval. The S doorway, tower arch and the oldest font are described here.