Saturday 17 February 2018

Revisiting Clyro


Whilst we regularly drive through Clyro on the main road which takes us towards Hereford (and ultimately Malvern), it has been a long while since I last visited it.  Many many years ago a friend gave me a book entitled "After Kilvert" and I will confess, it was a good few years before I finally got around to reading it, and then regretted not having done so earlier, as I was captivated by the Rev. Francis Kilvert, who was a Rector here at St Michael's Church, from 1865 - 1872.   I then sought out his diary, which I have read and re-read and dipped into many times down the years, and it is a delight to read.  He wrote about the people of the parish, and their memories and experiences.  He fell in love several times but the fathers of the young ladies concerned would not allow him to offer hiss hand in marriage to their daughters because he had nothing to offer - Clyro was such a poor parish and he had no real prospects.


Whilst he did eventually marry (Elizabeth Ann Rowland, who he met in Paris), he sadly died from Peritonitis just 10 days after their marriage.  By that time he was the Vicar of Bredwardine, also on the Welsh Marches.  He was born in 1840 and died in September 1878, aged just 38.  He is buried in the churchyard there.


He kept a number of diaries, but sadly only 3 remain and are kept in the archives at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth.  In the 1950s, when William Plomer, to whom these diaries had been passed on by Kilvert's widow, contemplated publishing more of his diaries, he was horrified to discover that all Kilvert's remaining diaries and papers had been burned by a surviving elderly great niece - who was ironically President of the Kilvert Society!  She said that she had done so to protect "private family matters."  What a loss.






The church of St Mary's Clyro, where Kilvert was curate for 7 years.



The Baskervilles lived at Baskerville Hall, now a private hotel.  This is I think a son of the Baskerville who Kilvert visited, born 1884 and who died in WW1.  The Baskervilles had links with Marlborough and other parts of Wiltshire, and Kilvert was born in Wiltshire, and his father was the Vicar at Langley Burrell.





Kilvert was the curate of the Rev. Richard Venables.  This gravestone is in memory of his third son, Joseph, who died at Lysdinam, the family home and estate in Newbridge-on-Wye.




Ashbrook - the house where Kilvert lived when he was curate of Clyro.  It subsequently became the Kilvert Gallery (which I visited once, from curiosity of course!)  It was put on the market several years back at a silly price of £800,000.  It is worth, without the Kilvert connection, not much over half that . . .  Sadly, as you can see, there have been no takers and it is boarded up.




I will try and find time to return later and add a couple of extracts from his diaries.

12 comments:

  1. I love Kilvert's Diaries and read extracts often from my copy. i love the village too and when I lived in the Midlands we would often have a walk round it on our way to Wales.

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  2. Another memory I can relay to you then Pat - I'm glad about that. The road through Clyro is a busy one now, and when they have the Festival on they have lots of parking on offer in the grounds of the Baskerville Hotel, and there's a sign up for Glamping! How things have changed . . .

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  3. This sounds so wonderful. You have made it sound so interesting
    How crazy do you have to be to burn the other diaries and papers just because of what she thought of family matters. What could have been so awful in his village life. Poor, cold, wet and hungry ?

    cheers, parsnip and mandibles

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  4. parsnip - he was given to falling in love and also had a soft spot for the children of his parish. If you are kind you would say he couldn't wait for children of his own, and loved to have the little ones climbing over him in cottage homes, covering him with kisses etc. Then there is the faction from the "other side" who deemed him a paedophile, but the way he writes, in total innocence, I don't think so.

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  5. What a wonderful and informative post - I am sure you will know how much I enjoyed it! :) Super photos and you have now given me a real feel for the place where he worked and lived. One day I really must try and visit the area.

    As you say so very very sad that so few of his diaries remain. He had such a wonderful way of writing and he certainly had an eye for the ladies! I wondered about his liking for children but would agree with your comment above about him writing in innocence. It also seems so tragic that he died so soon after marriage.

    Thanks so much for taking the time to visit - I will be looking at this post again and again!

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    1. RR - It was written for you (and a little indulgence for me too!) I am glad it has bought you pleasure if you ever DO decide to visit Clyro, give me a shout and we can meet up. I do think he wrote in innocence, or else he would not have put it in his diary at all as I am sure - even in those days - such tendencies were very much frowned upon.

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    2. I can't thank you enough - it was so lovely to see photos of the area and read your text. I also need to thank you for mentioning the Diaries in blog posts otherwise I suspect my version would still be on the bookcase unread!!! I will certainly let you know if I do plan to visit - it would be lovely to meet you - thank you.

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  6. Fascinating history you have captured his character. Sad about the house falling into neglect and decay. I knew Langley Burrell well, we excavated a medieval kiln there for a long time.

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  7. Fancy you having excavated there Thelma. I think he was born at Hardenhuish, which is close by? Have you read his diaries at all?

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    1. Yes, but I cannot remember them ;) I do remember the excavation though, the cobbled yard, the kiln and the broken jug I found on top.

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  8. Thank you for taking the time to share pictures and stories related to Kilvert. I have his diaries and have dipped into them and find them a real treasure. It's wonderful to have these pictures to add to the story!

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  9. I have the one-volume edition (selected and introduced by Plomer. It was one of my setwork books for English III in my final BA year (1969). I did not appreciate his writing to the extent then, that I now do in old age! Now when I read it, I sometimes laugh out loud! It was very interesting to see where he lived,

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