Dore Abbey & St Margaret's - Jan-Eric Osterlund

St Margaret’s Church

St Margaret’s Church in southwest Herefordshire isn’t far way from Kilpeck Church that I visited earlier the same morning. But now the frost had unfortunately disappeared from the ground. St Margaret’s is of Norman origin standing on the slopes of the Black Mountains (between Wales and England), 250 metres above sea level and overlooking the Hereford plains.

The rood screen of oak wood is from 1520 and a rare survivor of the Puritan period in England, when most beautiful elements of that type were destroyed. As always, I was very attracted to the overgrown churchyard, in which the diminutive church nearly (well, not quite!) disappeared. But I also loved the relatively speaking very modern window (1926) in the chancel with the Tree of Life and rivers of water flowing from the tree.

*Another view with the overgrown churchyard showing the scale of the small but beautiful church of St Margaret’s*

*The rood screen from 1520 of oak wood is very well preserved*

The stained glass east window in the chancel was made 1926 by Archibald Davies. On the left panel you can see St Margaret as a shepherdess. On the right the Tree of Life is growing and flowing from it are rivers of water. It was the depiction of these rivers that really attracted me to the window

I finish these photos with some early February views from the churchyard.

*The large “tombstone” is actually made of wood and was very stunning. We see of course the back of it here overlooking the Hereford plains*

*Another view before any green leaves or fresh grass has added colour to the scene*

Dore Abbey

Nearby St Margaret’s is Dore Abbey, which was founded in 1147 and is located near the river Dore. It is built of local sandstone, which takes on a beautiful, warm colour in the sunshine. It was a daughter house of the Cistercian abbey at Morimond in France, and the design of the church was modelled on that of Morimond.

The abbey was given further land by King John in 1216 and that as well as successful wool trade enabled the abbey to become rich and the wealth was used to finance a rebuilding in the 13^th C. The Bishop of Hereford consecrated the new building in 1280.

With the reformation the abbey was closed. Part of the buildings became ruins and other parts were saved as the parish church – in a village consisting of around 350 subjects!