I didn't know it snowed in Jordan! . . . and Medieval Killer Bunnies!!

 Gabby and I synchronized today and both of us looked up the forecast for our holiday at the same moment! Cold when we arrive, and SNOW the next day.  Cold but sunny the rest of the week . . .  Pretty long sleeved tops being put back on hangers and more warm woollies replacing them . . .

I will share my "sketching practice" with you.  Well, all I can say is perhaps I shan't be sketching architecture and castles when I get there.  Weeds more like, I can do plants.  Oh and horses.

Say no more!  It IS still a work in progress as the end heads are awful.  Middle one a tad less so!  Stick to horses Jen!

Hackney

Aquilegia

The cats know the best place to be of an evening.

I have done some more painting in the guest bedroom.  Two walls done bar for the very top and a bit of touching up. Now I'm started on the last wall (plank top one again) as the bit around the window is staying white. Reaching up high makes my shoulders ache and my neck arthritis start to think about complaining, so having a rest now (and from gardening) until I get back from holiday.

I managed a short - but cold - walk this afternoon.  I parked up by Rob's (2nd hand house clearance stuff) and walked up to St Matthew's Church at Llanelwedd.  It was locked again - should have taken a tip from Billy Blue Eyes and gone there when there is a service.  Still, a wander round the graveyard reading names and dates got me out of the house and in the mood to bother a few more churches in Powys* and beyond. 

I assume this may well be the original font, sat atop the base of a preaching cross? The tower is 14th C, so the font probably dates from that early period.  The church was restored in late Victorian times.

Name at top broken off, but he was a Wheelright and married to Ann.  Sadly their daughters died so young - Elizabeth aged 6 in 1801 and Mary, aged 1 yr & 9 mths, in the same year.  Yet others made it to their late 80s and 90s . . .

* At the top of my church bucket list is St Melangell's, a Grade 1 listed church which has been on this site some 1200 years.  It holds the shrine of St Melangell, patron saint of Hares and Rabbits. 

"Saint Melangell was a female saint of the 7th century. According to tradition she came here from Ireland and lived as a hermit in the valley. One day Brochwel, Prince of Powys, was hunting and pursued a hare which took refuge under Melangell’s cloak. The Prince’s hounds fled, and he was moved by her courage and sanctity. He gave her the valley as a place of sanctuary, and Melangell became Abbess of a small religious community. After her death her memory continued to be honoured, and Pennant Melangell has been a place of pilgrimage for many centuries. Melangell remains the patron saint of hares."  Taken from HERE.

She was mentioned in the talk I went to last Friday, and we were also shown some pictures of Medieval Killer Rabbits!!!  to show that the Huntsmen didn't always have it their way :)  Those did make us laugh.

St Matthew's Church, Llandefalle

 

Keith and I tried to visit this church last summer, but there was no obvious or marked entrance.  I tried again when I went to Brecon a couple of weeks back,  although  it was not marked the obvious way which took you into the yard of the Manor House/Rectory. I chose to approach up a steep little lane - no parking, so I cwtched into a corner of a house driveway and crossed the lane.   The church sits on a terrace and looks towards the Black Mountains.   A previous church dated to the 13th C but the present one is mainly of 14th and 15th Century construction.  It's earliest roots are in the 6th Century, when it was dedicated to St Maelog, and there are still parts of the churchyard which are slightly circular. Baring Gould and Fisher considered it was dedicated to the unknown St Tyfalle, but that was more of a guess than any considered antiquarian research.

What beautiful blue skies. During the Middle Ages, the church belonged to Clifford Priory, over the Herefordshire border.

The porch with a stout door and piscina.

The plain font dates to the 13th C.

The two fragments of painted walls give a hint of how the church once looked.  My "Painted Temples" book describes them as a fragment of St George/St Christopher, and fragmentary floral designs.  There are Blackletter texts (illegible) which I must have missed.

The stairway up to the (now defunct) rood screen, and below, the pretty rood screen and a close-up of the fruiting vine motif.  This dates from the 14th C and luckily escaped destruction.

Some of the earliest memorials to parishioners.

A list of bequests - no chance they will forget their largesse to the church and forget a payment then!  Forget and you pay double!!

The alter in the shadows.

More memorials.

Fragments of Medieval glass made into collages. The wording reads: "This ancient glass was restored to the church of Llandefalle 1949. "  Then the Curate's and Churchwarden's names.

Another Piscina, this time inside the church.

I hope you have enjoyed visiting it with me.

Now as it's dry and sunny, I'm back outside to carry on tidying up the garden.  Have done a chunk of the 40 feet or so of old stable yard cobbles, getting rid of the moss, mud and weeds mainly using a screwdriver.  I know how to have fun!  It's made me more cheerful anyway - a job that really needs tackling.

St Matthew's Church, Llanelwedd

 

On the homeward leg of our walk up the old railway line in town last week, we stopped to check out St Matthew's Church at Llanelwedd.  Judging by the cobwebs across the gates into the church, it was definitely LOCKED, which is a shame.  It dates back to the late Medieval period, although of course the Victorians, as they were wont to do, smartened it up a bit and only the tower (below the Belfry) is the only original part of the church.  The CADW listing describes it as being 19thC Gothic style (it was restored in 1877 by the London architect John Norton.

The churchyard had absolutely masses of Autumn Flowering Cyclamen - as you can see it has romped into the distance and is also in the grass below the dropped wall to the right (out of sight).

HERE is a link about the architecture of the church and its interior.

Memorial stone to John Rumbate? and his wife Margaret, who died aged 67 (1801) and she aged 80, in 1820.

Memorial to the memory of Elizabeth Meredith of Penybont in this parish, died Jan 11th 1799 (I think!) and also of her daughter Maria.

Two Children of Evan and Jane Thomas of Cwmbach in this parish.  Viz Mary died the 20th August 1817 aged 17 weeks.  Jane died the 5th of February aged 1819 aged 7 mths.  Their ages suggest that they lost two children in a row. I can just make our a Richard towards the bottom of the stone - I hope he grew up.

I managed to clip the top name off this  memorial to Thomas Morris, of this parish, Gent, and his wife Ann.

Another touching one - his name has flaked off but he was a Wheelright in the parish, and married to Ann.  Three of their children died so young - Elizabeth died 11th February 1793 aged just 2 yrs.  Another Elizabeth fared no better and died on 8th November 1801 aged 6 years, and their little sister Mary died aged 1 year 9 mths.

Tomorrow the Electrician arrives to do the electrics here (fitting an up to date fuse-box to replace the 1960s Bakelite "plug in" fuses) and checking the system, and installing my new cooker, and various light fittings.  We have a single light in the middle of the "business end" of the kitchen, which is useless for lighting what you are doing.  Keith and I also have our flu jabs, and so it is going to be a busy day.