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St John the Baptist, Weston Beggard, Herefordshire

Location
(52°4′3″N, 2°36′29″W)
Weston Beggard
SO 584 412
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Herefordshire
now Herefordshire
medieval Hereford
now Hereford
  • Ron Baxter
21 June 2006

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Description

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.

History

Gunnfrothr held Weston Beggard before the Conquest, and in 1086 it was held by Roger de Lacy. There were six hides of ploughland, a mill, a meadow and a priest, so presumably a church for him.

The parish is now part of the benefice of Lugwardine with Bartestree, Weston Beggard and Dormington.

Features

Exterior Features

Doorways

Interior Features

Arches

Chancel arch/Apse arches
Comments/Opinions

Of the chancel arch only the corbels are Romanesque, and they must date from c.1200. A similar date is likely for the S doorway.

Bibliography

A. Brooks and N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Herefordshire. New Haven and London 2012, 659-60.

Herefordshire Sites and Monuments Record 6853. Now available online at http://www.smr.herefordshire.gov.uk/db.php/p.

N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Herefordshire, Harmondsworth 1963, 315.