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I Location

II General Description

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.

III Exterior Features

1. Doorways

(i) S nave doorway

Of reddish sandstone, four orders with tympanum, round-headed, re-set in S aisle.

Dimensions

First order

Plain square jambs with imposts with reeding below a face decorated with chip-carved saltires supporting a mutilated tympanum. This has a pointed opening cut into it to heighten the entrance. What remains of its decoration consists of a border of interlocking chip-carved circles containing six radiating petals with diamonds between them. This encloses remnants of sunk fish-scale ornament.

Second order

Plain coursed semi-nook-shafts with attic bases, originally spurred but only the L survives. The capitals are block-shaped, the L with a palmette on each face, a roll necking and impost carved with a row of sunk cusping on a chamfer below a plain stepped face. The R capital has a human head at the angle and two arms emerging from the necking to open the mouth. The head is flanked by two scalloped leaves on either side. The impost repeats the cusped chamfer of its companion, and the face is carved with dart motifs. In the arch is, frontal face chevron: two quirked rolls.

Third order

Jambs and bases as second order. The L capital has an angle volute low down with concentric grooves on either face above it. This and the neighbouring capital of the second order are almost identical with the capitals at St Michael's, Upper Sappey north of Bromyard. The impost is decorated on the main face and the chamfer with the same motif of pairs of chip-carved hollow leaves. The R capital has three fluted upright leaves on each face and a beaded band above them. The impost has a band of lozenges with a diamond-shaped pellet in the centre of each lozenge, and it is hollow chamfered below with alternate horizontal and vertical leaves on the chamfer. In the arch is a row of lozenges in low relief on the face, point-to-point with double-roll lateral chevron on the soffit, with a quirk between the rolls. On the angle are cross-in-square and similar motifs; in the face lozenges, fluted-petalled flowers with central bosses, and in the triangular fields to the extrados of the face, fan-motifs.

Fourth order

Twin coursed half-shafts on the face with a ridge between, on twin bases with spurs. The capitals are also twinned: the L a pair of sheathed double scallops, the R with upright scalloped leaves or palmettes enclosed by a pseudo-arcade of grooved stems. The L impost is quirked chamfered with a row of zigzag and pellets on the face; the R is quirked chamfered with no decoration. The arch face is carved with a row of fret and an angle roll.

(ii) N nave doorway

Of reddish sandstone, four orders with modern tympanum, round-headed, re-set in N aisle. The doorway is set in a thickening of the later wall to accommodate the four orders.

Dimensions

First order

The jambs are plain and square with quirked chamfered imposts, the L with a row of billet on the chamfer, the R with reeding on the face. The tympanum is a modern piece diapered with geometric chip-carving, possibly in imitation of a lost original.

Second order

Attached nook-shafts on attic bases, now almost completely obliterated by weathering. The L capital has a crudely-carved human head with stems of foliage emerging from the ears and ending with large leaves on either side. The impost has a quirked chamfer with a band of zigzag on the face. The R capital, very weathered, has stems with large leaves and a plain quirked chamfered impost. The arch is carved with frontal face chevron.

Third order

Attached nook-shafts on attic bases, now almost completely obliterated by weathering. The L capital has a downward-pointing palmette at the angle, enclosed by its own double stem. The faces to either side are carved with halved versions of the same motif. The quirked chamfered impost has a row of nested zigzags on the chamfer and a row of single zigzag on the face. The R capital is a trefoil scallop with an angle wedge, but the shields are chip-carved with interlacing rings. The impost is chamfered and quirked with a row of sawtooth on the narrow face above. The arch is square and uncarved, except for the lowest voussoirs on either side which are carved with a chevron design similar to that in the third order arch of the S doorway.

Fourth order

This is carried on a decorated square-section pilaster projecting from the face of the wall and standing on a chamfered plinth. Each pilaster is carved towards the inside of the jamb with point-to-point zigzag over the arriss, and towards the outside with a vertical row of face lozenge in low relief, the fields filled with diamond-shaped daisies or half-daisies. The imposts are plain and quirked chamfered, and the arch is square in section and plain.

(iii) Chancel, N doorway

Two orders with modern tympanum, round-headed.

Dimensions

First order

Plain square jambs support a modern tympanum diapered with chip-carved lozenges.

Second order

Attached nook-shafts on attic bases, very weathered. Both capitals are similar, the R better preserved. It is multi-scalloped in its lower half. On each face a pair of oval fruit hang down on double-strand stems, emerging from angle leaves. The imposts are heavy with narrow chamfers, the L carved overall with bands of lozenge in low relief; the R with a row of nested zigzag on the chamfer, rosettes on the front of the face and an incomplete dart motif on the E face. The arch is carved with lateral centrifugal face chevron of quirked roll / hollow profile with a cogwheel edge.

3. Exterior Decoration

d. Miscellaneous

(i) Figurative relief

St Peter in low relief on a rectangular stone set above the apex of the S nave doorway. He stands facing front, with a book in his L hand and two large keys in his R. The keys have circular bows at the bottom, long shanks and elaborate warding. His features are worn, hair is bobbed and drapery falls in soft loops. The edges of the block have a raised border.

(ii) Consecration cross

To right of (i), a rectangular block with a circular recessed field carved with an equal-armed cross in relief.

IV Interior Features

2. Arcades

c. Nave

(i) S arcade

Of five bays, pointed. The arches are of two square orders, the piers circular with half-column responds at E and W, with foliate spurred attic bases on square plinths. The capitals are octagonal at the top, with octagonal quirked hollow chamfered impost blocks and plain roll neckings.

E respond

Multi-trumpet scallop with pointed flat leaves between the cones. The base is probably re-cut.

Pier 1

Multi-trumpet scallop with upright flat leaves with a central spine and short stem between the cones.

Pier 2

Capital as pier 2. The base spurs are more elaborate.

Pier 3

Multi-trumpet scallop, the richest in the arcade. The four faces towards the aisle have enriched upright leaves between the cones and half-daisies on the shields with a band of lozenges on the abacus. The faces towards the nave have no ornament between the cones and simple palmettes on the shields. Base spurs as pier 2.

Pier 4

Multi-trumpet scallop with wedges with a central band of nailhead between the cones and plain shields. The base spurs are as pier 2 but less fine.

W respond

Plain multi-trumpet scallop. The base has no spurs.

V Furnishings

1. Fonts

(i)

At W end of S aisle. The bowl is Romanesque and stands on a later cylindrical shaft with chamfered base and plain circular step. The bowl is tub-shaped and slightly convex, described by Marshall (1951) as a 'bucket font with hoops in imitation of those on a tub'. The bowl is divided into two registers by roll-moulded bands: one at the upper rim, a pair together in the centre, and one at the bottom. The lower register is carved with a simple zigzag roll in low relief. The upper has a Tree of Life with a central trunk, fluted leaves curving down on either side in a palmette, a pair of horizontal lily-like crosses emerging from the top of the trunk, and springing from these a series of curved stems, four on the left and three on the right, and a short spiral stem on either side towards the centre. Some way to the L of the Tree of Life a short trunk emerges from the roll-moulded band and divides into two undulating stems with no leaves but spiral stemlets at intervals (the so-called 'branching scroll' - Valentine (1964, II, B,21)). This double stem occupies the remainder of the upper register of the bowl.

Dimensions

VII History

A Minster existed in Bromyard prior to 840. In 1086 the manor belonged to the Bishop of Hereford and it was valued at the not inconsiderable sum of £45 10s. To the south of the Minster Richard de Capella, Bishop of Hereford (1121-27) founded the town, as he did at Ledbury and Ross (Hillaby 1970, 22-23). However, he was King's Chaplain and Keeper of the Great Seal and could not devote much time to Bromyard. It was not until the last quarter of the 12thc., during the bishopric of Robert Foliot (1174-86), that St Peter's church was built, at first on a modest scale and almost immediately enlarged by the addition of the N and S aisles and the doorways.

Now Parish church

VIII Comments/Opinions

By comparison with the sculpture of the 'Herefordshire School' the decoration of the Bromyard doorways is mediocre. The capitals of the S nave arcade are competent but it is clear that the expense was to be kept to a minimum as is illustrated by the capital of pier 3, richly carved only on the side first seen on entering the church. Taylor and Taylor (1965, II, 716) consider both the relief of St Peter and the consecration cross to be pre-Conquest, and Williams (1987, 60) agrees. However, there is nothing in the style of the St Peter relief to suggest an Anglo-Saxon date. Admittedly it is a rustic work, so incompetent that even the rectangular border of the slab is not straight at the bottom. Henig (1994, no. 254) convincingly compares the St Peter slab to the figure on a relief in Churcham (Gloucestershire) which, following Gethyn-Jones (1979, 71), he dates to the late 11thc. The Bromyard font and a group of tympana with the similar Tree of Life motif were discussed by Zarnecki (1950, 223ff) where they were named 'The Bromyard Group', but since then Gethyn-Jones (1979, 15ff) renamed it 'The Dymock School of Sculpture'. Since the majority of sculptures in this style are in Gloucestershire and the Bromyard font is an isolated example in Herefordshire it is possible that it was imported. Bromyard lies on the River Frome, a tributary of the Lugg, which joins the Wye and flows into the Severn at Chepstow. The font could have been brought by water from Gloucestershire. On the other hand, the 'branching scroll' is absent in Gloucestershire but was used profusely on two tympana in west Herefordshire. The matter can only be solved by the examination of the stone from which the font is made: is it a local stone, or originating from Gloucestershire?

IX Bibliography