England - Kilpeck, Church of St Mary and St David

The parish church at Kilpeck, officially Church of St Mary and St David, is one of the finest surviving examples of the Herefordshire School of stonemasons. It is remarkable that so little is definitely known of the history of the church; the date of its commissioning and dedication is not confirmed, but is probably from about 1140 and is little changed since.

Until about 1840 there appears to have been nothing written about the church, when a privately commissioned and funded book “The Sculptures of Kilpeck” was written, where the carvings and views were first illustrated.
If any church deserves the word “extraordinary” it is the church at Kilpeck.

The church is famous for its Norman carvings in the local red sandstone, which are remarkable for the number and fine preservation, particularly round the south door with its double columns (PiP) and a row of 85 corbels, which run right around the exterior of the church under the eaves. Many of the elaborate corbels (PiP) have a distinctly un-Christian nature. Celtic, Scandinavian, Anglo-Saxon and pagan imagery vies with Christian iconography in a riot of dragons, warriors, monsters, animal heads, birds, beasts and obscene subjects. It is generally presumed that these corbels were intended to teach something, however many also seem to be simply entertaining or the ideas of the individual carvers.