Llanfilo Church near Talgarth

 P.S.  For some reason I do not have a separate blog for churches, just a separate page I can't add to.  Brain too fuddled to sort it out now.

We couldn't resist a drive out in the sunshine on Sunday, and after a disappointing trip to Talgarth (church locked and no exciting bits outside) we headed towards Llanfilo, which is about 2 miles away, on the slopes of the Dulas valley heading towards Brecon.  It has early Medieval roots, although the actual church dates from several periods and there are possible hints to Norman architecture, although Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust query this. It was, of course, locked, so I didn't see the boulder-type font, which is almost certainly pre-Norman in date.  

It stands in an elevated spot, and the oval churchyard which measures about 165 feet x 245 feet, suggests by its shape an early site.  It is embanked to the north and east.  In some areas only the tips of very early gravestones peep above ground level.  The Zaluckyj book suggests this may have once been a defensive site.  The presence of mature yews within the churchyard also underline its ancient religious use.

This excellent report by Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust gives details of the further extended Medieval village and road, now just crop marks.

There were lots of interesting old memorial stones on the walls.  You should be able to enlarge them if you click on them.

These two were too damaged to have any memory of their  dedication.

The dedication of the church is a little confused, as in the 1800s Theophilus Jones noted that it was dedicated to St Mildburgh, abbess of Much Wenlock and daughter of King Merewald of the Magonsaete.  This was a sub-kingdom of Mercia based in Herefordshire.  

However, both Baring-Gould and Fisher claimed that Llanfilo church was dedicated to St Belyau, yet another of the offspring of King Brychan, being one of his many daughters whose saintly presence haunt most of Breconshire.  This dedication is mentioned in 13th and 14th documents.

Outside of the churchyard is a reputed Holy Well dedicated to St Filo.

I loved the pretty windows on the church and the unusually-shaped roof on the tower which dates to the late 19th C.

The Lych gate with its stone tiled roof.

Hay Bluff in the background, running into the Black Mountains.

Definitely one to revisit.

A difficult few days

Well it looks like spring is here properly, with Celandines out along the lanes (at last - much later than last year) and the first Hawthorn leaves unfolding along the hedgerows.  Whilst today is sunny and was warm first thing, there is a very cold and pretty strong wind blowing which takes the edge off enjoying the sunshine.  I have managed some clearing in the garden as my 3 rambler roses have arrived and are currently sitting in a large tub of water.  I've been clearing the overgrown-with-ivy bare area behind the pond, as that is where the white Rambling Rector will be planted.

    I have bitten the bullet and got in touch with the gardener who worked for the previous owner, and have him lined up to come and do some of the heavy jobs I can't do.  Plus mowing the lawn when I can't get out there because of heat and/or pollen.

    After having to pay the plumber last week to put the new bulb in the UV system, I have had to buy a fresh one (having realized that the one he fitted was the one we took out last year and hadn't recycled) and then go back again because the system still wasn't working.  The controller was faulty but replaced under warranty and I then had to put the new one back on the wall and install the new bulb (which is the job I'd been trying to avoid all along as it's so fiddly and with a wooden clothes drier above it, the £73 bulb is easily knocked/broken!  Anyway, it is done now and at least I can do it again next year.  Only trouble then is that the glass liner will also have to be replaced then and that breaks VERY easily.    

    Then the week got very upsetting, as unfortunately my friend P has had great sadness as her lovely old grey horse had a fatal colic this week and had to be pts.  I had noticed he was laying down a lot and contacted P, who got the vet to come. Sadly, he didn't get better.  She is devastated of course, and I am sad as I had gotten fond of him in the time I'd known him.

    

Progress in the garden

I took full advantage of having No. 1 son staying overnight and asked for some help in the garden.  Here is the new path across the orchard and no way could I have done this on my own inside a 6 mth!  Path is cardboard box base, then good membrane and then barrowload after barrowload of chippings from the overly deep laid driveway.  He took about a foot of chippings off one side so vehicles shouldn't struggle reversing out now.  I need to get some lengths of wood to edge this and keep the chippings in place.

A little bit of the orchard.  I have a dozen fruit trees planted now.

Turf off the strip where the raspberries are about to be planted.  I will dig it over and put some of next door's muck heap on it and edge the strip with some of the many bits of roof tile which are about the place.

Ahem, a work in progress.  This is not just grass, wild strawberries and moss (and plantings in same) this is 15 year old useless membrane with all that growing on and through it and it's a devil to remove!

One of last year's plantings, this little Primula is so pretty.

    Tam was also here overnight and we had a bottle of Prosecco and an Indian takeaway to celebrate her new job (she starts today as an Archivist) and having been picked (from 50 applicants) for a fabulous flat in a big Victorian house overlooking the sea, AND it has a garden with veg plots which the owner wanted utilised.  Tam can't wait to oblige!

    We went to the Garden Centre yesterday.  I was good and mostly just got what I went for - some more bark chips to go on the bank as I clear it, a sack of sheep's wool compost I wanted to try out for plants in tubs, and a new and larger cat litter tray.  Having left Big Black Sam at our old house (new occupants took on the 3 outside cats for us) there is Big Black Sam mark II around the garden here - a feral tom - and his presence stops the cats going out at night for ablutions, so the bigger tray a necessity.  Oh, and I may have bought 3 double Hollyhocks. Red, maroon and yellow.

    I was up early yesterday and outside gardening.  There is a remnant of an earlier and very aged shrub hedge in front of part of the holly hedge, and I can do without it, so I began cutting it down yesterday.  Getting the roots up should be fun as it's probably been there more than 50 years! In its place, once it's all dug over, is going to be a rambler rose (probably Vilette which is on its way now, along with some others).  I will put some perennials to form a proper bed out there too.  Keith is muttering "high maintenance garden" behind my back!

    At some point this week I need to really gird my loins and bring up some of the oldest muck-heap.  Danny would have done it but wanted to do it all the same day (and not yesterday morning) and I was too tired on Tuesday afternoon after I gave the lawn the first cut of the year.  So it's down to me.  I have several roses to plant in the next couple of weeks as I asked for roses for my birthday.  Danny is buying me Malvern Hills, a yellow climber from David Austin.  Tam has a short list of 6 to choose from.

    Right, let's look forward to the heat-wave heading our way.  Meanwhile, another two afternoons of the Cheltenham Festival, so afternoons will be spent watching the best Steeplechasers and Hurdlers in the business, whilst I do the hand-sewing part of the little quilt I am making for a friend.

Unsuitable for Vehicles

 I have been intending to explore this walk ever since we first saw it on the map.  I left it too late to do it in its entirety (about 5 miles), so drove to the end of it and parked up and just had a short, but fairly demanding walk today.

As you can see, the heading was correct.  Mind you, there were tyre-tracks - in some places a tractor, in others probably a quad bike. It was quite a steep climb for the first half of the walk, but then without climbing, you don't get nice views.

And it kept on climbing.  My legs and lungs needed the exercise though.

Views in all directions.

Light levels were low as it was gone 4 p.m. when I started my walk.  I needed a break after doing all the sashing on a small quilt for a friend.

I can't find out anything about this fire-torn building.  It just shows as a small square on the map, and no report of a fire if I Google one in Builth area. No obvious fireplace or staircase - just a single story building that someone must have lived in.

Above and below: another interesting tree trunk, this one being an oak.

Welsh for Public Footpath.  This cuts across the fields towards Hillview estate.  I turned around shortly after this.

Sun on the distant hills.

A bank of Periwinkles included:

A little lonely Violet.  It was good to get out and put all the horrors of what is unfolding in the Ukraine in a box in the back of my head.  Those poor families.

Making the most of a dry day

 Phew, that's been a busy week. We had a lovely time with my cousin and her  husband visited us on Tuesday,  but I've been sleeping badly and setting my alarm all week as I was expecting the Plumber to come - yes, the one who isn't good at communication, so I didn't know when to expect him, especially as he said he would be here Monday or Tuesday first thing - then no show. I was relying on him to replace the water filter, and then change the UV water bulb. (Can't do the former job as not strong enough to turn the stop cock off or on).  I made sure I had a couple of the water filters in, but was convinced that the glass UV water bulb I could see on top of the cupboard was the new one we bought as a spare last year.  Imagine my horror when the Plumber turned up on Thursday morning, fitted it (oh dear, I had to look away, hairy bums NOT a good view before breakfast - or any time of day come to that!) and then the system wasn't working!  I had to pay him his £40 and say goodbye with the knowledge that we were now stuck with the very job I was desperate to avoid.  Keith and I had a big falling out after he said he thought I knew that he and Tam had changed the bulb last year.  If I had remembered that, surely I would have bought a new one when I was buying I was getting the filters?  Oooh, I was SO ANGRY.  £40 for nothing and still the job I was trying to avoid to be done.  Anyway, we had to go and get the replacement (£73 please) and Tam is going to fit it when she comes on Tuesday (when our son Danny will be here too).  Mind you, the chap at the shop showed me how to do it so I have a bit more confidence now, as no water needs to be turned off and I had a practice so know how to do it now.

I have been wanting a good walk all week, but life and the weather have got in the way.  Today the weather was kinder and after Keith had had a short walk on the flat in town, off I went, setting my sights slightly further afield and did the 3 mile circular walk from the house, across the fields.  It's a route I've shared before but I tried to take photos from different angles.

The sun was fickle and didn't last long but at least it was dry.

The bark on this tree looked almost reptilian .  Still trying to work out the species - the branches looked quite like a birch but of course younger trees have smooth papery light coloured bark. So, this is a lot more elderly, but a Silver Birch nevertheless.

An alternative round-the-block walk passing this farm goes through fields, across a stream, and up a currently-passable trackway which will be knee-deep in nettles in a few weeks, so impassable by May.

At the church I had a wander round the churchyard, and was hoping to get in as I had been told where the key was but alas, it was not there and a stout padlock stopped entry.

    Tomorrow the weather is set to be fairly miserable I believe, so I shall be sewing the little child's memory quilt.

Revisiting a day out in Bredwardine from this day in 2015

 

Back in 2015, it had been a Malvern Antiques Fair Day. We met up with some friends and bought a few things, and then on the way home, decided to stop off in Bredwardine, which is between Hereford and the turning off for Clyro and Hay-on-Wye.

Standing by the lych gate, this was the view north-westwards, across the ploughed fields and browning Hazel catkins.  It was far prettier than my photo allows it.

There was an apple orchard (cider apples) just beside the church, and looking across it to the steeply rising hillsides, dotted with houses, I was reminded of the view from the edge of Florence, this time in 2014.

Another view across the valley, to the left of the one above.

I loved this orchard - old trees which were smothered with Mistletoe.  I can't wait for blossom-time to come round so I can take some heart-lifting photos of the blooms.

The massive font is carved from one enormous piece of stone.  It dates from the 12th C, and is very simple in form.  The Herefordshire school of Romanesque Sculpture had no sway here.  If you are interested by that term, check out Kilpeck Church, Herefordshire, which is a magnificent example. The link is well worth checking out.  However, it does have one motif in common with Kilpeck (and other churches) which is a Sheela-na-Gig over a blocked doorway, see photo lower down.

The beautiful stained glass windows behind the Altar. Whilst some of the stonework in the fabric of the external building is Norman, at its heart lies the remains of a Saxon church .

Above, the tomb of the Knight Walter Baskerville which lies to the right of the Altar.

To the left of the Altar lies Sir Roger Vaughan, who died defending Henry V at Agincourt in 1415.  Sadly, he was later defaced - doubtless in the time of the Civil War.

The Rev. Francis Kilvert was the Vicar here back in 1877 - 1879, when he died aged just 38, some three weeks after marrying, from what was generally considered to be Peritonitis.  More about him later but here is a quick insight.

On this update, I managed to find a photo of Rev. Kilvert's grave at Bredwardine.  He was much-loved by his parishioners, especially at Clyro where he was for several years.

Over a blocked doorway is an intriguing carving, possibly 12th C.  The right hand figure looks very like a monkey, but some consider it to be like a Sheelah-naa-gig - though not obviously so in the normal way! The left hand figure looks to me to be rather like a bird-headed man, such as  you find on some Pictish stones.

Kilvert called this door "the Devil's door" . . . and elsewhere it is mentioned that this is a half-human figure with its tongue out (like the Devil in a similar representation at Hereford cathedral, some 12 miles away).  The other figure is considered to be a woman with a "fanciful head-dress" and two clear nude breasts, and could be Luxuria - connected with the vice of Lust.  See LINK.

Such a peaceful view.