Weobley is another village on the black and white village trail in Northwest Herefordshire, 10-15 minutes away from our home. Excavations at the site of the medieval castle have revealed a settlement at Iron Age times. A number of the houses in the village are half-timbered and mostly painted white with the timber painted black.
The oldest surviving building is the parish church, originally erected in the beginning of the 11th C. Now only the south doorway survives from this period. Most of the church is from the 13th C and the nave was only completed in the early 14th C. The bell tower was added in the northwest corner around 1330-1340. The spire is the second tallest in the country and reaches 56 metres up. It is built at an angle to the church, which I haven’t seen any explanation for. It has probably served as a fortified peel tower against Welsh raids (like the Pembridge bell tower). The entrance doorway was fitted with a drawbar for people to barricade themselves inside.
Weobley offers two good butchers, Lal Bagh, a classy Indian restaurant, and Jules, a more traditional English restaurant where Hereford Beef takes pride of place!
One of the houses, Stawne, is painted pink and black instead of the traditional white and black. It is from the 15th C and is the surviving solar wing of a much larger building, where the centre Hall and the other wing have been demolished (take a look at the slightly older Knightstone Manor, where both the central Great Hall and the two wings (originally the Solar and Service wings) are preserved. Houses from this era were sometimes painted pink, which was achieved by adding blood to the limewash.
