Monday 10 January 2022

Garway - a 12th C Templar Church

 Update to Sue and Tricia - Tam was able to get the colour embroidery thread I needed, but many thanks for both offering.

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We decided to make the most of the sunshine early on and go into Herefordshire to visit a church which we had read about and which Keith, especially, wanted to see.  The countryside was lovely, even though it had clouded over rather on our journey. Some areas are very familiar to us, others less so. We went through Bredwardine, and I told Keith about the time when Kilvert was Rector there and it had snowed and then rained and frozen solid (pretty much like 2010 when we could only make it to the front gate by hanging onto things.) Back in those days, people were very keen to go to church, and even the folk way up Bredwardine Hill, past the house we tried to buy, made it to church on their hands and knees along the ditches.


We cut across country when we neared Madley, following the lane (Stone Lane it's called) past the car boot sale we go to in the summer, noticing that Allenmore Nurseries had REALLY extended  their growing areas with huge glass greenhouses and then huge polytunnels, as well as outdoor nurseries. I'm sure I didn't notice all this back in the summer. All around this area there are acres of fruit trees too.  It is good to know that Herefordshire is self-sufficient in fruit, vegetables and livestock. Then we crossed a road, onto a narrow single track lane where you usually put your lights on in summer as the trees grow right over it and make it very gloomy.  Then we turned left onto the B road, but a narrow-way opposite the end of the single track lane continues up onto the wooded hillside.  I wouldn't mind betting that route came into being in prehistoric times.

We went "all around the houses" along single track lanes for several miles before getting to our destination.  Over 2,000 acres of land had been granted to the Templars to clear (using the local peasantry I don't doubt!) by Henry II.



Garway church is one of only 6 Templar churches in England.  It is in the most complete state of repair too.  The  tower dates to 1180 and looks to have been for defensive purposes. The Templar church which was built (with a circular nave and chancel in homage to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem).  However, this was replaced with a rectangular one by the Knights of St John (the Hospitalers) in the 15th C.  They took over from the Templars in 1326.



The font dates to the 14th C and the snake twirling round the cross represents healing  (Hospitaler iconography).



The beautiful Norman  archway and how it looks when you look up beneath it.




The Green Man.  It has been argued that he is more of a Green Cat, but I think those look like horns with human ears in their normal place.


More carvings at the top of the capitals - these are considered to be based on water leaves, Eastern iconography.









Keith is always taken by the age and integrity of the wooden chests which survive. This is a Templar one made from a hollowed-out trunk and dates to the 12th- 13th C- and would have been used for church vestements.








This would have been the top of a Templar tomb.


There were examples of the dedicated needlewomen of the parish too.







We will go back as it was a somewhat whistle-stop tour - we didn't look round outside and so missed the holy well and the carvings on stones externally, and also the Dovecote. There are castles in the area - Skenfrith is jut 2 miles away, White Castle and Grosmont about 5 in different directions. It's not that far from lovely Tretower Court either, so we will go back in the spring and see them all.


29 comments:

  1. Looks an interesting church Bovey though the relief of the Green Man looks nothing like the images of 'jack o the green' (amongst his other names) that I have come across before. To me he resembles a horned gargoyle rather than the Green Man, though I suppose churches have been guilty of demonising pagan customs for many a centuary.

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  2. Wonderful post and photos :) Garway is quite high up on my list of Herefordshire churches to visit :) I have a feeling the church featured in one of the "Merrily" books. Love the carvings and tapestry. Good to know too there are castles nearby. I may see you there in the Spring :)

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    1. Well worth a visit RR. Wouldn't it be nice if we could meet up at one of the castles? Trying to think which Merrily book Garway was in. (Just checked and it's The Fabric of Sin. Must re-read it now!)

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  3. You've set me to looking up what the horns might symbolize John. I was thinking more along the lines of Hern the Hunter (but he has proper Antlers - more like the Abbots Bromley Horn Dancers). These horns are quit devilish aren't they? Yet . . . https://spiritofthegreenman.co.uk/green-man-legend-mythology/ says "horns were symbolic of enlightenment or illumination" (find this in the bit about Robin Hood). Hmmm . . . time to go search further methinks.

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  4. What an interesting church to visit - thank you!

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  5. I especially like Norman churches - there are many in my home county of Northumberland. Something about the plain and square simplicity is appealing.

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    1. The Norman churches have little artifice, I agree. What you see is what you get. That version of the green man though, I find intriguing. Perhaps the horns are the message in that!

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  6. What an interesting church to visit. The carvings are wonderful.

    God bless.

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    1. We are spoilt for ancient and interesting churches in this area.

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  7. Good gravy! Here we get very excited when a house is 100 years old! They are few and far between, too! What an amazing church, and the description of the roads (lanes?) you have to drive! Amazing to me.

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    1. Indeed, we are so fortunate in the antiquity of our buildings - and indeed the history attached to them still being known.

      There were lots of narrow lanes to drive along on Sunday, but fortunately not much traffic about.

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  8. What a brilliant church to visit, so very old and the Templar connections are very special. Thank you for the tour - completely different to the churches I've visited

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    1. It was a very special church to visit. Not exactly on our doorstep (about 50 miles away) but worth the drive. LOTS more in my Celtic Christian Sites book, so we will try and make visits to new ones throughout the year.

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  9. Glad you enjoyed your visit. This is a special place for me, as I discovered a few generations of one branch of my maternal grandmother's family tree (the Weavers) appear on the parish register through the 1700's.

    We visited the churchyard in 2018, on one of our Malvern show jaunts. Sadly we couldn't go inside the church, as there had been some roof tiles fall,so repair work blocked the entrance that day.

    The whole setting is magical. I sat on the bench in the little herb garden and drank in the peaceful atmosphere - just bird song and a few sheep. You can fully understand why it was chosen as a sacred place as far back as the 6th century.

    I got into conversation with the couple living in the house below the church (and their delightful gang of dachshunds), who were fascinated by my seeking the place out due to family connections.

    After the church visit, we had a quick look at the nearby dovecote from the road, as it is private, then carried on toward the Monow, but fallen trees blocked the road.

    One of my other interests is corrugated iron buildings. Garway village hall is a good, and fairly well maintained example.

    If you haven't done so already, go to look at the church in Foy. Another tucked away church with family tree connections for me - more than I knew at the time we visited.

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    1. I thought you had connections here and did think of you - felt sure you had visited. I hope you can come back now the church is open again. It draws people in - some other folk arrived shortly after us, and no-one could fail to find it a special place. That family were busy out in the garden (childrens' voices) and I felt that it was a lovely place to live.

      Someone I heard of did their dissertation on the wriggly tin village halls and even tiny churches in Dorset.

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  10. I will say it again: I love these posts. What an amazing place. I'd want to explore that cemetery when the weather is warm.

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    1. Glad you're enjoying them Debby. I must sketch out a Plan of Action for churches to visit this year, though after Blue Shed's post, Foy had better be up there too! We will go back in the spring and look round properly.

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  11. Thank you for taking us on a tour of a delightful and interesting Church. I lived not far from that area for a few years and am trying to picture where this church is as I feel sure I will have been past it.

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    1. It's just a couple of miles from Skenfrith Sust.mum. I'm sure you'd know it if you went there. The route in was much longer and tortuous, from Pontrilas. I didn't know you lived in that region.

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    2. Not now obviously, but in the past. Pressed publish too soon.

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  12. Thanks for the fascinating visit with the many interesting pictures and captions.
    Many old paintings and statues show horns as a sign of power and/or authority. Michelangelo's Moses has horns on his head. In Hebrew, it says the horns of light came from his face after God gave him the ten commandments. In English, we say "rays" of light, but when Jerome translated the Hebrew into Latin, he used the literal word horn instead of the more common way to say it. ~skye

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    1. Hello Skye. Thank you for that - horns would indeed show power/authority. Thank you for the horns of light explanation too. So much gets lost in translation.

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  13. Lovely church, but my first thought was 'doesn't that grass look lush and green' ... it really does for this time of year. I guess that's because of the mild weather.

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    1. Time to put a few sheep in there I reckon! One of the churches we visited last year (Cascob) had sheep in the churchyard and a sign on the gate saying "please shut, sheep loose."

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  14. "The font dates to the 14th C and the snake twirling round the cross represents healing (Hospitaler iconography)."
    Also the sign of healing with the Roman God of medicine Asclepius, the rod with the snake symbolises medicine. Your snake is wound round the cross must be the Templar's interpretation I suppose Jennie. Exciting church to find.

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    1. The Class II Pictish stone at Glamis (in the Manse garden) has a snake on it (an Adder). There is a Holy Well there, near theKirk, and I always wondered if it was connected with healing in Pictish times.

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  15. The Templars have a fascinating history. Did you go to the Dovecot ?
    Here's an interesting article.

    https://www.cyclingwales.co.uk/cyclingherefordshire.html#:~:text=The%20stone%20dovecot,don%27t%20touch%20anything).

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  16. No we didn't - or look around outside - as Keith wasn't feeling at all well and just wanted to go straight home, so we are planning another longer visit in the spring. Thanks for that link - we drove past the one at Eardisley not that long ago (think we'd been to Ludlow and were coming home x-country). We did spot an amazing windmill further on the Bredwardine road (on the left, heading towards Hereford). Couldn't stop for photos but again will go back, find a gateway to pull into, and take a photo.

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