Clodock is a village in SW Hereforshire, a mile from the Monmouthshire border. It lies on the river Monnow, which flows directly behind the church, where there is a weir for providing water to power Clodock Mill, a restored and working water mill. Immediately to the W of the village rise the Black Mountains. Clodock consists of the church, a public house (the Cornewall Arms) and a few houses, but the road through the village continues N up the valley where it soon enters Longtown; a continuous settlement extending for another 1½ miles. This now shares Clodock church, as its own has been converted for residential use.

St Clydog’s is of red sandstone with an aisleless nave with a wooden W gallery, a chancel and a W tower. The nave has two small round-headed N lancets, and the chancel a single pointed N lancet. The chancel arch jambs are 12thc, although the arch itself is later – pointed and chamfered. The simple chalice-shaped font is also 12thc.

St Clydog is a mysterious figure, perhaps 6thc, perhaps a devout king of Ewyas, or a virtuous young man, or a hermit, who died in a hunting accident, or was murdered by a rival in love. Clodock takes its name from his burial place: according to one version of his legend the ox pulling the cart carrying his body refused to go any further at this point, so a church was built on the spot. According to the Book of Llandaff, Clodock was first settled and farmed in the early Middle Ages, perhaps the 6thc, by two brothers, Lybiau and Gwrfan and their nephew Cynfwr, and there is certainly evidence of settlement in this period in the form of an inscribed grave-slab found beneath the church. Clodock is not mentioned by name in the Domesday Survey but Ewyas is, and it was held by Roger de Lacy. Roger was banished in 1096 and his lands passed to his brother Hugh I de Lacy, and on his death to his son-in-law Payn fitzJohn. Gilbert de Lacy, perhaps the son of Roger, came to England in 1135 and had regained most of the Lacy possessions by 1157-58. The lands remained in the Lacy family for the remainder of the 12thc except for the periods from 1185-89 and from 1194-98, when the king held them.

The carving at Clodock seems early, especially in view of the bulbous base forms, and a date in the second quarter of the 12thc is likely. Scallop capitals without shields also appear at Tyberton, some 8 miles to the NE, but there they are in a later context.