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, facing the exterior. These stones, include attached shafts, cusped window heads and, from the 12thc, a scallop capital and two chevron voussoirs. Most prominent at the apex of the blocking is a small human head, possibly a label stop, of uncertain date. This is described here along with the stones that are certainly 12thc.
