Kilpeck - Church of St Mary and St David

This is the most famous church in Herefordshire, the Church of St Mary and St David (Historic Churches Trust), and is featured in almost every book on church architecture. The reason is partly that it is a perfect, almost unaltered example of a small Norman church, but even more because of the extraordinary richness of the sculptured decoration it is the show-piece of the Herefordshire school of sculpture which flourished in the latter part of the 12th century. Fortunately the red sandstone used here is unusually hard and weatherproof, so that even the external carvings are excellently preserved.

The south doorway contains some of the finest work, with superb quality of the carving on the shafts - the left-hand one with two striking figures wearing trousers and pointed caps - and dragons coiling up and down the jambs. The surprisingly plain tympanum carries a stylised 'tree of life'. One should walk round the outside of the church to study the great dragon-heads projecting from the west wall, and the remarkable series of corbels which runs right round the church, many of them carved with a vigorous and even comic originality. The interior shows the typical Norman plan of nave,