Norman Churches

The Normans did not only demonstrate their power and control through the building of castles. They took a firm hand on the religious organisation of the country as well. William the Conqueror had sailed for England with the Pope's blessing. In exchange for this papal support he had committed himself to reorganising the Saxon church. New monasteries were founded, such as Wigmore and Abbey Dore in Herefordshire. These new foundations were granted large landholdings.

The Normans introduced not only new churches with a new style - the Norman style - but also new parishes. The parish system as we know it finds its origin in the early Norman period. Most Saxon bishops and abbots were replaced by Norman ones. In Hereford Edward the Confessor had already installed a French bishop prior to the Conquest, namely Walter of Lorraine. He rebuilt the cathedral in the Norman style, later called Romanesque, because the Normans felt (perhaps justly) that their architecture was superior (Trevor Rowley, The Welsh Border: Archaeology, History and Landscape, Tempus, 1986, p. 119).
 

The Herefordshire School of Sculpture

Scholars from around the world come to Herefordshire to admire the work of a group of 12th century sculptors. The churches in Kilpeck and Shobdon bear examples of these sculptors' beautiful carvings, which are based on ideas not only from the Celtic tradition in Britain, but also reflect sources from as far away as Scandinavia, Ireland, Spain, France and Italy. Many of the local ruling families, such as the Lacy and Mortimer families, and individuals such as Ralph de Baskerville and William Fitz Baderon, paid to have the buildings they commissioned embellished with carvings by this group of artists.
 
Malcolm Thurlby's book, The Herefordshire School of Romanesque Sculpture (Logaston Press, 1999), gives further examples of this particular type of stonework, such as St. Giles in Aston andSt. George in Brinsop.
 
The corbels around the outside of Kilpeck Church are particularly interesting. The carving of a rabbit there is said to be the earliest depiction of this animal in England, as the Normans re-introduced the rabbit as a cheap source of food. However, some scholars believe that the Kilpeck example is a hare. Some of the more grotesque figures on Kilpeck church were perhaps intended to frighten away evil spirits.
 
[Original author: Toria Forsyth-Moser, 2002]