Friday – Leominster – A grey day. Down to the White Lion. A large mound of cobbles from the town centre makeover are piled up in the yard opposite and a digger is moving them about. Over the railway and onto Butts Bridge. The River Lugg flows more slowly now. The water level is unchanged and the river reflects the sky in its greyness.
Back and round to the Millennium Orchard. A few Bramley apples lay on the ground and I collect those without Blackbird pecks out of them. Up through the churchyard. There are Grey Squirrels aplenty, chasing up the trees or bouncing across the grass.
Sunday – Leominster – The sky is a pigeon breast uniform grey. There is a damp, coolness to the air. Jackdaws are still chacking, although without much enthusiasm. The streets are coated in copper leaves. A Blackbird utters a strangled alarm call from beside the station building. A Blue Tit squeaks as it moves through the bushes. Robins sing in the riverside trees. Rabbits scuttle up the old railway track. The water level in the River Lugg is falling slowly.
Back to the Millennium Park. Intermittent Robin song and a few chatters from Blue Tits are the only sounds (apart, of course, the traffic on the bypass). Even the bell-ringers are late this morning. The River Kenwater flows steadily. Into the churchyard. Bell practice starts. Through to the west end of the church. More Robin song. The bells finally ring out in a full peal.
Tuesday – Home – Another grey day. The temperature has dropped a little. Fifty red onion sets are planted. I then tackle the apricot in the fruit cage. It has grown out of the top of the netting, so the first job is to cut off all the branches from the outside. Then more pruning is undertaken inside the cage. It is not the easiest job! A decision needs to be made as to whether to remove the tree completely. We have not had any fruit for many years.
The pak choi and lettuce in the greenhouse are still growing slowly. The little aubergines well need harvesting soon as will the last chillies. Outside, there are a lot of parsnips to be dug. There are some more buds on the purple sprouting and other plants are getting larger. They will sprout in the spring.
Friday – Ludlow – Another grey morning with occasional fine drizzle. Into St John’s Road beside the old town wall. St John’s Lane runs down to the River Teme. A 17th century timber-framed cottage stands on the corner. St John’s Road continues past a short terrace of 18th century houses with an infill of 1907. Past the Wheatsheaf, a pub in an early 18th century building beside the Broad Gate. Up Broad Street, lined with mainly 18th century houses although many have earlier cores. The Methodist church is dated 1879. To one side is an early 17th century house with a 15th century rear range and to other, a Georgian house and then the former Jester Inn, now a house.
Into the Market Place then back along High Street. There are still a fair number of empty shops in this main thoroughfare. On down Old Street. Modern apartments stand on the site of the wonderful Clifton Cinema, destroyed in 1987. The former Primitive Methodist chapel is still encased in scaffolding. It was erected in 1870 and seated 400 people. It was closed in the late 1950s and for some time after closure it became a factory making trousers. Past the site of the Old Gate, which stood on the corner of St John’s Road. A cold wind is beginning to blow.
Sunday – Leominster – Another grey, vaguely misty morning. The cloud is breaking up. Jackdaws fly around the rooftops. From the bottom of the road black poplars can be seen along the river bank leafless but festoon with balls of mistletoe. In the equipment hire yard the pile of cobbles from the town centre has grown far larger. Onto the railway bridge, Rabbits below scurry away into the undergrowth. A Carrion Crow with a rather high pitched cry circles high up before flying away eastwards. The herd of British White cattle graze at the far end of Lammas meadow.
Onto Butts Bridge. The River Lugg is fairly shallow and clear. The sun shines weakly through the thin cloud. At the edge of the Millennium Orchard the yellow leaves of a Field Maple shake as a Grey Squirrel leaps about the branches. A small dog looks up in anticipation but the owner remarks he has never caught one yet. A rasping Mistle Thrush flies over. Nine Redwings head south. A few gnats float through the air. The River Kenwater flows steadily.
The Minster bells toll nine o’clock followed by the call to prayer then the beginning of bell practice. A few fresh molehills are dotted around. A PA system is being set up by the War Memorial for Remembrance Sunday.
Monday – Home – Magpies, Carrion Crows and Jackdaws are all very agitated in the trees on the edge of Eaton Close. There is a call I cannot place. The Corvids fly off in different directions or others sit at the top of the trees. A flock of winter thrushes fly it over, very high in the air. A little later I head round to Eaton Close. A Song Thrush is in full voice in a large Leylandii beside the garage but I cannot locate the unusual call, then it ceases.
Clun – The River Clun flows swiftly. A Great Tit hops through the gnarled Ivy shoots at the base of multi-trunked Beech. Robins sing. A wooden bridge crosses the river into a meadow. A track climbs the hill to Clun Castle. Goldfinches twitter in the trees. Other trees provide perches for a few Redwings and a good number of Starlings. The track comes to a deep moat. A twisting path then leads up to the ruins. The Goldfinches have moved onto the dead stems of umbellifers on the castle slopes.
The castle was most likely started around 1090 as a wooden construction built by Picot de Say, who came over with William Duke of Normandy, who had been granted the estates of Clun and Stokesay. It was rebuilt in stone a few years later. Helias de Say inherited the castle from his father around 1130, and said to have fought and killed the Welsh princes Howell and Cadogan. Under Helias, the barony of Say was divided in two, with Helias’ daughter, Isabella de Say, receiving an expanded estate centred on Clun, and the more easterly elements of the de Say land being given to Theodoric de Say. Isabella first married William FitzAlan, a powerful Marcher Lord from Oswestry, who soon died, leaving the widow a young son, also called William. Isabella then married Geoffrey de Vere and, after his death, finally William Botterel. Isabella probably lived with Botterel at Clun, with her husband exercising authority as lord of the castle. Henry II regarded Clun as the regional centre for protecting the border, and invested heavily in the castle during 1160-1164. In 1196, the Welsh prince Rhys attacked the settlement, as part of the campaign leading up to the Battle of Radnor. Rhys burnt the castle the ground, and Isabella herself died three years later. The Fitzalans, as the Fiztalan-Howards, Dukes of Norfolk, have held the land ever since. Three sides of the great tower rise up. The tower was built by Richard Fitzalan when he succeeded to the Earl of Arundel and inherited large estates in Sussex in 1292. Its position right at the edge of the motte, making it weak defensively as it could have been easily undermined. It was clearly built for show and was probably luxury accommodation for hunting parties. The Fitzalans probably spent little time here preferring their Sussex estates. By 1539 Leyland reported that the castle was ruinous. There are several other small sections of wall and far below the River Clun winds its way round the base of the hill. There were two baileys, one now containing a bowling green.
Across the fields, a border collie is rounding up sheep in a field. It makes a lengthy the outrun up the side of the field and round into a small area off the top where some of the sheep are gathered and drives them towards the main flock. Having gathered up the sheep the shepherd and dog drive away making me think the whole exercise was just for training. In the next field another flock is gathered up, then off go man and dog.
A track leads down to Castle Street. Opposite the end of a track is a large Victorian house, Fizt-Allan cottage of 1880 in very poor condition. A terrace of small cottages leads out of the town. The gardens are long, almost certainly former burgage plots, and run down to playing fields. The town was laid out by the Norman lords in a grid with some 183 burgages, larger at the time than Oswestry, and wealthy through the wool trade. However, by the 15th century, the wool trade and hence the town’s fortunes, had declined. Back to the town centre. The Buffalo Inn looks closed. The butchers which sold fine pork pies has gone. The Sun Inn and The White Horse are still in business as is the ironmongers.
Down to the bridge over the river. Houses have flood defences on their entrances. Over the bridge is a general store and a café. Other shops up the hill are now residences. A couple retain the names of their former users, draper and cobblers. The Six Bells pub however had been demolished and replaced by a modern house. A quick visit to the church of St George and back down to the river.
Thursday – Jackfield – We visit this village on the banks of the River Severn in the Ironbridge Gorge. The Jackfield Tile Museum is housed within the former Craven Dunnill factory. Craven Dunnill & Co Ltd (formerly Hargreaves & Craven, then Hargreaves, Craven Dunnill & Co) was formed in February 1872, by Yorkshire businessman Henry Powell Dunnill. The business moved to Bridgnorth as a tile distribution company after tile production ceased at their Jackfield Works in 1951. Tile manufacturing still takes place there today, by the same company albeit on a smaller scale. The museum has an extraordinary collection of tiles from all eras. They range from the plainer types used en masse throughout the Victorian era and up to the modern day and the wonderful designs of our favourites, William De Morgan.
A major landslip in 1952 devastated a large part of the centre of Jackfield resulting the loss of 27 cottages and some parts of the village (such as between the Tile Museum and Salthouses) being abandoned. Across the road from the museum is the church of St Mary the Virgin. It was built in 1863 to the designs of Sir Arthur Blomfield and is constructed of varied local brick and bears a passing resemblance to Keble College Chapel. The floors contain excellent examples of local tiles, and the sanctuary windows are claimed to be of the school of the Pre-Raphaelites; but look rather more earlier Victorian with just a hint of the long jawlines of Morris & Co.
Friday – Hereford – A damp foggy morning. A Muntjac stands by the edge of the Bodenham road between Westfield Wood and Hoarstone Rough. It stares at the car for a moment then turns and bounds off into the wood. Into Hereford. The city centre is relatively quiet. It seems yet more shops have closed. Through the cathedral precinct. The porched entrance to the cathedral is closed off for repairs. Down to the River Wye which is shrouded in mist. Bells ring out from the cathedral whose tower is barely visible. Back up Bridge Street. The gates to the yard of the Black Lion Inn are open. The deeply jettied cross-wing can be seen with old stables behind it. The building is early 17th century, once a house. The old nurses home is covered with listed buildings stop orders to prevent unauthorised alterations. It would appear the building is currently owned by the same people as have bought the Royal Oak in Leominster and have allowed it to deteriorate so badly.
Leominster – A Grey Wagtail in is in the churchyard. Blackbirds are in good numbers as are Grey Squirrels. Nuthatches call from the trees. Robins sing.
Sunday – Leominster – Blue sky and high cirrus clouds make a change from the incessant grey. The Manchester to Seville aeroplane roars over. A Great Tit squeaks a single note continuously on the White Lion garden. The sun is blinding in the south east. The Brussels to Dublin 737 leaves a bright white trail, the Toronto to Dubai 787 heads on the opposite direction. To the north west, the last supermoon of the year is still in the sky. Robins sing.
Onto Butts Bridge. The River Lugg looks unchanged. A pair of Dippers dash upstream in a whirl of wings. A few minutes later they return downstream squeaking loudly. A minute after this another two appear from upstream, one alighting on the rocks before the bridge singing loudly. Then they both head off back upstream. A few trees are holding onto their leaves, an Ash and a Field Maple decked in yellow, but the great Black Poplars are bare now. Downstream from the bridge an angler is in the water, flicking a fly over to the far bank. Aircraft continue to pass over in numbers, the Houston to Frankfurt and the New York to Dubai 777s seemingly in a race. The Leeds to Faro 737 leaves no trail at all.
Into the Millennium Orchard. A dozen or so Blackbirds are feasting on the fallen cider apples. Through the green. The Great Western Railway 1915 boundary marker, a cast iron round tablet on a piece of rail stands remarkably unscathed in these times of vandalism. The White Mulberry in the Peace Garden is surrounded by pale lime fallen leaves. The River Kenwater flows steadily. A silent drake Mallard flies upstream.
Through the soaking wet grass of the churchyard. Fresh molehills have been thrown up at the western end. The irregular pattern of red and grey sandstone on the tower of the church shine in the morning sun.
Monday – Abbey Dore – White clouds lay below the summits of the hills between Leominster and the Golden Valley. We visited the church of the Holy Trinity and St Mary in 2016 and its history is here. Through the small gate porch beside the former rectory, possibly a 17th century building enlarged several times, and into the churchyard. The path passes a group of seven chest tombs dating from 1779 to 1839, all but one being for a Morgan. Through the 17th century wooden porch and mediaeval doorway into the church. One enters a large open area with the choir and chancel to the east. To the west is a large wall with a number of wall paintings and a minstrels gallery. This area was originally the crossing and the north and south transept and the nave was to the west but was blocked off and removed in the 1633 restoration by John Scudamore, 1st Viscount Scudamore; his great-great grandfather having bought the site at Dissolution in 1536. A new tower was built and a new rood screen made by John Abel. Further restoration was carried out between 1700 and 1710, and new paintings, including a large coat of arms of Queen Anne, were added and the end of the 19th century the church was again in need of repair, and work was carried out by a local architect, Roland Paul, in 1901–09. To the east of the church is the site of the sacristy and cloisters, now an orchard. Beyond ran the GWR Golden Valley Branch line and beyond the River Dore. Back through the churchyard. Beyond is a paddock with a number of rare breed pigs snuffling in the grasses.
Wormbridge – A small village on the Hereford-Abergavenny road. The church of St Peter and St Thomas is 12th century in origin. In 1189 King Richard I granted the manor and Church to the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem at Dinmore. After dissolution the manor passed through several families before becoming the property of the Clive family, who still own much of the area. They were related to Robert Clive – Clive of India. The Church was lengthened and the tower added in the 13th century. There are a number of monuments to the Clive family, including two marble reliefs to Lady Katherine Clive who died in 1882 and her husband Charles who died in Winnipeg the following year. Others include a plaque to Lewis Clive was killed at the Battle of Ebro, Spain fighting for the International Brigade in August 1938 and another to Meysey George Dallas Clive was killed in action in Tunisia in 1943. Stained-glass includes, from the 14th century, Saints Peter, Paul, Edmund the king, Catherine and Stephen, and a group depicting the Massacre of the Innocents; from the 15th century the Virgin and Child. The pulpit came from Newnham Paddox near Lutterworth, given in 1870, perhaps incorporating some Jacobean work. Five hatchments are above the western end. In 1851-59 the building was dramatically restored by Fulljames and Waller. The walls were refaced and buttresses added, all the windows were replaced and the tower rebuilt and the spire added. Nearby Wormbridge Court was an early 18th century farmhouse.
Tuesday – Home – Just after 4:00 in the morning and it is beginning to rain. Just after 6:00 we rise to a covering of snow. It continues to snow past the dawn and into the morning. The Rowan in the garden with pretty pink berries is bending over precariously. Its trunk has always been too thin. I shake the load of snow off the branches, drive a large stake into the ground behind it and tie the tree up. I then get a hoe and knock the snow through the netting on the fruit cage. There is a thaw although the snow does not stop until the early afternoon.
Wednesday – Leominster – A short flurry of snow at dawn has been replaced by bright sunshine. It is cold but there has been a partial thaw. Down to Butts Bridge. The water level in the River Lugg has risen and the water is more coloured. It is quiet. Back round to the White Lion. Their open fire scents the air with a somewhat rare aroma these days. Blue Tits churr across the railway. Jackdaws chack and a Robin sings. There are only a few Blackbirds in the Millennium Orchard which is surprising as there are still a lot of apples on the ground. A Buddleia is bent low with the weight of snow. The water level in the River Kenwater has also risen. A two-wagon freight train hurtles by. Along Church Street there is a clamouring of House Sparrows from one of the side alleys.
Sunday – Leominster – Storm Bert blew through during the night bringing gales and heavy rain. Both eased up by 9:00. Down the very wet road. An agitated Blackbird calls from a street sign. Over the railway bridge and onto Butts Bridge. The water level in the River Lugg has risen considerably and is now past the top of the steps of the monitoring station and flowing out onto Easters Meadow. The water is a bright orange-brown carrying tons of top soil and mud.
Through Pinsley Mill. A Robin sings from the top of an evergreen in a garden behind Pinsley Road. Another sings briefly across the railway and a Magpie chuckles. A rasping Mistle Thrush flies overhead. Into the Millennium Orchard. A large number of Lady’s Fingers cider apples have fallen, there are still more to come down. The wind begins to rise again. Onto the Millennium Green. Blue Tits flit through the hedgerow by railway. Bell practice starts at the Minster. Like the Lugg, the River Kenwater is flowing very high, rapid and muddy. A Moorhen heads off upstream.
Home – The tarpaulin over the chicken run is pretty much ruined now and the run is a sea of mud. I am beginning to think it would be better to get a tradesperson in to put on a proper roof than my amateurish attempts. The recent snow has crushed all the vegetables, but hopefully they will recover. Gulls glide overhead, tilting into the wind with no effort.
Monday – Leominster – Storm Bert has moved away from the country. However its effects are still widely felt. There is flooding and damage everywhere, many roads were closed yesterday and in various parts of the country electricity supplies were interrupted. In Tenbury Wells Kyle Brook, which historically caused flooding, has broken a wall and the town centre has been badly flooded. The situation was exacerbated by an idiot charging through the flooded streets in a tractor causing waves which broke windows and caused further flooding.
The sky is largely clear with small white clouds swiftly passing to the south east. The River Lugg has risen again causing slightly more flooding on Easters Meadow. The water is a paler brown today. I squelch across the meadow to Mosaic Bridge where the path under the A49 is in deep water. Some of the meadow is quite deeply flooded as I discover on filling my shoe! Through the park to the River Kenwater which is flowing swiftly. Corn Square is beginning to look like it may be finished before the Christmas Market. The kerb stones all look in place, so I assume it would not take long to tarmac the road et voila! as they say.
Tuesday – Leominster – A waning horned moon is high in the eastern sky. To the west is Jupiter and Mars. A light travels east, one of a number of rocket bodies passing over about now. The rain has, temporarily, moved away and there is a slight frost.
The morning sky is cloudless, blue with brilliant sunshine. It is cold and the ground is still damp. A Blackbird on the Grange tosses leaves aside looking for invertebrates beneath. Long-tailed Tits seek their nourishment in a Sliver Birch. A Carrion Crow barks from a television aerial. Jackdaws chack from the towering Wellingtonias. Iron railings have been placed around the Verdun Oak. Into the churchyard. A Robin watches from a Holly bush, then bursts into song. A Wren sings from a much larger Holly and a Blue Tit chatters in a Yew. The Rowan trees in front of the west end of the Minster have been stripped of berries. A military large transport plane roars across the town at a very low level.
Down The Priory to the footbridge. The water level in the River Kenwater had dropped but it is still flowing rapidly. Through Paradise Court to Bridge Street. A large tree is across the river, jammed against the Kenwater Bridge.
Friday – Eardisley – A village on the A4111. I have started out from here on rambles several times before but not really looked around the village. Into the churchyard of St Mary Magdalene. The original church was built around 1100, but little remains, the present building being largely 14th century, although the south arcade dates from around 1200 and cuts through what was the original north wall of the nave. The north arcade was built in around 1300, but was widened and extended to the east by two further bays in the late 13th century. The tower was built in 1708 after an earlier timber one burnt down. The church was restored in 1863 by E Christian. Monuments are to the Baskervilles, Barnsleys, Cokes and Cockburns. The church’s main glory is the mid 12th century font with carvings by the Herefordshire School of the “Harrowing of Hell”, two men fighting and a large lion. The two figures are thought to represent Lord Drogo of Clifford and his son-in-law, Ralph de Baskerville of Eardisley, who engaged in real-life combat in a dispute over ownership of land sometime before 1127. The elder knight was killed, but Ralph repented of his actions and became a monk at Gloucester Abbey. The lion is very similar to that on Leominster west door pillar. In the churchyard is a cross, probably 15th century which was restored in 1908.
Towards the village centre. By the church is a fine early 18th century barn converted in the late 20th century to dwellings. Opposite is the village school, built in 1857, as Eardisley National School, by W Perry Herrick. The road crosses a mill stream by Church Bridge; the mill once stood to the west. Modern housing lies between the barns and the village centre. An Art Deco former garage is a retail outlet. Either side of road, are 17th and 18th century houses, many timber-framed. One was the post office, sorting office and telephone exchange until the mid 1960s, another the police station. Oakwood Lodge is a large late 16th century house. Eardisley Bridge crosses a brook. A cruck hall house of three framed bays was the former smithy. Recently, it was a gun shop but is now empty. Past more 17th century houses. The village hall, on the site of the Church Institute Hall, stands in a yard behind an arch between two houses. Into Tram Square. New Inn is now a restaurant, bookshop, bar and Post Office. The Tram Inn is closed. On the junction of Woodeaves Road, geese cackle in a garden. The Primitive Methodist chapel is now a residence. The village pump, the village water supply until the 1960s, stands outside a cruck framed house.
Kington – A wander down the High Street. A market is in the old market hall. There seem to be more shops occupied, although many are “stuff” and crafts types. Several are not open despite it being market day. Another market, really a single stall, is in the Baptist Chapel. It is an opportunity to look inside. It was built in 1868. A pair of doors lead into the hall. A raised pulpit stands at the far end. To its left is a pipe organ installed in 1956. At the other is a gallery.
Redwings and a good number of Starlings. The track comes to a deep moat. A twisting path then leads up to the ruins. The Goldfinches have moved onto the dead stems of umbellifers on the castle slopes.
other small sections of wall and far below the River Clun winds its way round the base of the hill. There were two baileys, one now containing a bowling green.
Friday – Hereford – A damp foggy morning. A Muntjac stands by the edge of the Bodenham road between Westfield Wood and Hoarstone Rough. It stares at the car for a moment then turns and bounds off into the wood. Into Hereford. The city centre is relatively quiet. It seems yet more shops have closed. Through the cathedral precinct. The porched entrance to the cathedral is closed off for repairs. Down to the River Wye which is shrouded in mist. Bells ring out from the cathedral whose tower is barely visible. Back up Bridge Street. The gates to the yard of the Black Lion Inn are open. The deeply jettied cross-wing can be seen with old stables behind it. The building is early 17th century, once a house. The old nurses home is covered with listed buildings stop orders to prevent unauthorised alterations. It would appear the building is currently owned by the same people as have bought the Royal Oak in Leominster and have allowed it to deteriorate so badly.
the bridge an angler is in the water, flicking a fly over to the far bank. Aircraft continue to pass over in numbers, the Houston to Frankfurt and the New York to Dubai 777s seemingly in a race. The Leeds to Faro 737 leaves no trail at all.
– Abbey Dore – White clouds lay below the summits of the hills between Leominster and the Golden Valley. We visited the church of the Holy Trinity and St Mary in 2016 and its history is 
with a number of wall paintings and a minstrels gallery. This area was originally the crossing and the north and south transept and the nave was to the west but was blocked off and removed in the 1633 restoration by John Scudamore, 1st Viscount Scudamore; his great-great grandfather having bought the site at Dissolution in 1536. A new tower was built and a new rood screen made by John Abel. Further restoration was carried out between 1700 and 1710, and new paintings, including a large coat of arms of Queen Anne, were added and the end of the 19th century the church was again in need of repair, and work was carried out by a local architect, Roland Paul, in 1901–09. To the east of the church is the site of the sacristy and cloisters, now an orchard. Beyond ran the GWR Golden Valley Branch line and beyond the River Dore. Back through the churchyard. Beyond is a paddock with a number of rare breed pigs snuffling in the grasses.
Wormbridge – A small village on the Hereford-Abergavenny road. The church of St Peter and St Thomas is 12th century in origin. In 1189 King Richard I granted the manor and Church to the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem at Dinmore. 
After dissolution the manor passed through several families before becoming the property of the Clive family, who still own much of the area. They were related to Robert Clive – Clive of India. The Church was lengthened and the tower added in the 13th century. There are a number of monuments to the Clive family, including two marble reliefs to Lady Katherine Clive who died in 1882 and her husband Charles who died in Winnipeg the following year. Others include a plaque to Lewis Clive was killed at the Battle of Ebro, Spain fighting for the International Brigade in August 1938 and another to Meysey George Dallas Clive was killed in action in Tunisia in 1943. Stained-glass includes, from the 14th century, Saints Peter, Paul, Edmund the king, Catherine and Stephen, and a group depicting the Massacre of the Innocents; from the 15th century the Virgin and Child. The pulpit came from Newnham Paddox near Lutterworth, given in 1870, perhaps incorporating some Jacobean work. Five hatchments are above the western end. In 1851-59 the building was dramatically restored by Fulljames and Waller. The walls were refaced and buttresses added, all the windows were replaced and the tower rebuilt and the spire added. Nearby Wormbridge Court was an early 18th century farmhouse.
Bridge. The water level in the River Lugg has risen considerably and is now past the top of the steps of the monitoring station and flowing out onto Easters Meadow. The water is a bright orange-brown carrying tons of top soil and mud.
However its effects are still widely felt. There is flooding and damage everywhere, many roads were closed yesterday and in various parts of the country electricity supplies were interrupted. In Tenbury Wells Kyle Brook, which historically caused flooding, has broken a wall and the town centre has been badly flooded. The situation was exacerbated by an idiot charging through the flooded streets in a tractor causing waves which broke windows and caused further flooding.
restored in 1863 by E Christian. Monuments are to the Baskervilles, Barnsleys, Cokes and Cockburns. The church’s main glory is the mid 12th century font with carvings by the Herefordshire School of the “Harrowing of Hell”, two men fighting and a large lion. The two figures are thought to represent Lord Drogo of Clifford and his son-in-law, Ralph de Baskerville of Eardisley, who engaged in real-life combat in a dispute over ownership of land sometime before 1127. The 
elder knight was killed, but Ralph repented of his actions and became a monk at Gloucester Abbey. The lion is very similar to that on Leominster west door pillar. In the churchyard is a cross, probably 15th century which was restored in 1908.