Woolly says – What a few weeks it has been, glamping tipis were raised and filled with all the relevant things that glampers might require and things were looking great for the start of the season. Then the rains came, lots and lot of it requiring Jo to start cancelling guests as the orchard found itself with a brand new lake and several ponds, so rather than humans arriving to enjoy the beautiful surroundings the ducks moved in and took over the new water features. Our first full day off saw us sat inside watching the latest downpour batter the ground while I spent a lot of time sighing in frustration.

Finally, after what seemed like years the heavens stopped, the sun came out and although the ducks were still enjoying the unwanted new facilities we could finally get out for a day of adventure. I’d chosen a small place a short drive away in the village of Kilpeck.

Kilpeck was once within the Welsh kingdom of Ergyng, following the Norman conquest the area became known as Archenfield and was governed as part of the Welsh Marches. It became part of Herefordshire and England in the 16th century, although the use of the Welsh language in the area remained strong until the 19th century. Having navigated our way through the Herefordshire County lanes we pulled up at the church and set off to view the castle.

I already knew that not much of the castle remained, in fact two fairly small walls were all that still stood on top. Having climbed over a stile which had seen Jo having to shovel Alfie the Dog through the middle of the stile, we found ourselves in the moat which contained quite a lot of water in parts unsure as to whether this was the usual look or whether they too had succumbed to excess water above ground we slithered across the mud in our efforts to circumnavigate the mound.

With the castle remains twenty feet above us it gave us an opportunity to see the walls from below as the mad mutt ambled through the grass pausing to stop every few paces to drink any water that came his way.

The short climb up gave us wonderful views across the countryside where bright yellow fields of rape were in abundance, obviously not affected by the rain we had been encountering. The Domesday survey of 1086 records Kilpeck being given by William the Conqueror to William fitz Norman, who set about planning his motte and bailey castle which started in 1090. In 1211 King John is entertained in the castle by its then host William de Cantilupe. By the mid 1500’s the castle had fallen into disrepair although it was still used as a garrison during the English Civil War, little has changed since then.

The first wall contained the remains of a fireplace which barking boy spent his time investigating as Jo and I wandered across to the second wall which was slightly more exciting with its own fireplace and a perfectly round drain which I felt the need to look further into.

With the dog and the mammoth occupied in their search I took the option of just sitting and enjoying the warmth from the sunshine and enjoying the views.

Woolly says – Having realised that the drop from the drain to the bottom of the moat was a long one I left it behind and followed the human back down the bank and into the churchyard. Headstones were everywhere and there were some really lovely ones to admire, we peeked over the fence to the neighbouring field where it is known that Romans had once camped form the coins found there, sadly nothing remains of their time but we had the church to look at and that I was excited about.

The Church of St Mary and St David is a Church of England parish church and is a Grade I listed building. The original building was built around 1140 and was given to the Abbey of Gloucester having been dedicated to a St David. Although substantially repaired in 1864, 1898 and 1962 the carvings for which it is famous have never been changed or defaced which is highly unusual.

As a minibus pulled up into the carpark my companion and I dashed inside before we got caught in a tourist situation of us all wanting to take pictures.

I love it when you walk into a church and it has a musty churchy smell to it, I inhaled deeply and wandered past the wooden pews glancing up at the wooden rafters. I paused to study the chancel arch with its wonderful carvings, the figures are said to have been inspired by those on the “Puerta de las Platerias” at Santiago de Compostela.

The altar although small and fairly plain was beautifully kept, lying at its foot were the now worn memorial to some of the families that have lived in the village.

I turned my attention to the walls and found only a couple of plagues and framed memorials, one of which was to the five men of the village who had lost their lives in the first world war.

As we arrived at the baptismal font the door opened and a herd of humans poured in, I left Jo to take a picture of the huge font which would have fitted me and Alfie the Dog and read through some information on the church. With so many people now crowded inside we beat a hasty exit to take in the wonders of the exterior.

I love a rounded aspe on a church and this one was a delight but even better were the carvings. Made in the local red sandstone they are remarkable for their number and their fine state of preservation, 85 remain out of the 90 that had once decorated the church.

With all sorts of animals and faces portrayed I suggested to Woolly that we each find our favourite gargoyle, only to be stopped in my tracks by his loud NO which surprised me.

Woolly says – It wasn’t a no to finding our favourite, it was a no to the gargoyles. The human looked bemused, so I explained the information in the church had told me that they were corbels, I smiled happily up at her with my knowledge. She then of course stumped me by asking what the difference was, having hummed and haaaared for a few moments my smug satisfaction of knowing something she didn’t faded, and I had to admit that I didn’t know.

Isn’t google a wonder within a few seconds we had an answer.

In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry weight, a type of bracket.  A gargoyle is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from running down masonry walls and eroding the mortar between.

Woolly says – So for all the years we have been adventuring and thinking that we have seen gargoyles on the hundreds of churches and buildings we have encountered we were actually wrong for hundreds of them, corbels have now entered the ring and will be termed correctly in the future.

With so many to choose from we spent several minutes making a decision with me plumping for the upside down boar and Jo picking the dog and rabbit which looked very modern but defiantly wasn’t.

Turning our attention to the main wooden door with its double columns we looked at the carvings of a series of snake’s heads swallowing tails, birds in foliage, a green man, some warriors and a variety of other mythical and actual birds and beasts. The work was incredible and in such good condition that it was hard to believe that someone would have stood in my paw prints hundreds of years ago and seen exactly the same thing.

With the interlopers now taking over the churchyard we wandered along the public footpath to allow the muddy mutt to stretch his legs more and for us to continue enjoying the lovely spring day.