Stiffleaf's photos

The chancel arch here dates from the change from saxon to norman, say 1070.

The vices being beaten by the virtues. c.1150

Once relegated to a garden, now back in the church. c.1145

A woman and a man stand on the left, Christ pushes the staff of his cross into the head of the Beast whilst he leads figures by the hand out of the mouth of Hell.

Compare this with the photo of the cast in the V&A to see how much damage has been suffered by these great carvings by the Shobdon Master

The chancel arch and two doorways stand as a folly built when Shobdon church was rebuilt Gothick in 1752. They have been severely damaged by weather, vandals and even theft

This sheela resides on her side in a chancel window reveal. Most sheelas date from the mid C12th and appear from context to be warnings against lechery, and are not pagan idols

This dragon is in the flat ribbon like style with long thin straight legs in amongst its writhings, and with its tail in its mouth.

Built around 1000 A.D. by the saxons, this church with its nave aisles and crossing arches gives a good example of the possibilities destroyed by the Conquest

the pre-conquest design here is outstanding, simple yet assured, the proportions feeling just right. here the work is really worth seeing for its own sake rather than because of its age; the robust columns and elegant simplicity of the capitals, along with the partially surviving crossing, show a real understanding of gravitational thrust expressed as architecture. as far as modern additions go , the globe lights are fairly innocuous, but the heaters hanging down everywhere show that the Vandals are still with us. Get rid, please, here and elsewhere, of these ugly things. why is it that our age seems unable to add positively to our built heritage, that the best that we can do is not wreck its beauty ? the oddly curtailed arch is due to the c14 west tower being imposed on the nave.

Made in the mid C12th of Tournai marble this font shows the angel instructing Adam in the use of a spade, and booting Adam and Eve out of a many arched Eden. there are 8 and a half of these fonts in England.

Kings holding sceptres and angels alternate under the arcade on this lead font, probably made in lead producing England. There are still 30 here in churches.

Cross slab prob. from around 700 A.D., now in the museum here

These capitals from the west door show similarly clad figures within the scroll work as do Shobdon, Kilpeck and other places where sculpture of the Herefordshire School exists.