Kilpeck walk 30th June

Today we need to deliver books to the Kilpeck church warden. Their church is historically significant as it is one of the most perfectly preserved Norman village churches in England and dates from 1134. Logaston Press (Andy and Karen's business) has published a book on the history and architecture of this church which is sold through the church, amongst other places.

Getting to join them on these expeditions means I get to see a wide variety of towns in Herefordshire and meet lots of locals. It gives me a great insight into the county. We are combining this delivery with a walk in the area. The Kilpeck walk is another of the walks in the book soon to be published and the directions need to be checked as Andy walked it in winter. 

We start at a little hamlet and walk up a steady hill that meets a common. The views are wonderful back to the Welsh border. 

The country is such a colourful patchwork of fields bordered by woods or hedgerows and little farmhouses or hamlets dotted here and there. While admiring the view a woman and her dog come from the common and she has a Bearded Collie just like my dear Cassie. I get quite a lump in my throat. He is called Sam and is 14 years old.

 As we turn into the common and proceed up the hill the bracken has obscured  the remains of an Iron Age village which was visible in winter. There are wild ponies,mainly white, grazing calmly and are not concerned by us walking through them. 

The top of the hill gives a 360 degree view of all of Herefordshire. The day is warm and hazy so the photos don't really do it justice but you can see it is a rural county first and foremost.  We plunge down the hill into woods and later across fields where startled pheasants fly out of the grass giving me a fright. 

We cross a few stiles which we rarely have in Australia. You need to be pretty flexible and fit to get your leg over some of these stiles as they are quite high and not always steady.

We eventually pass some charming properties and through fields of sheep with black faces.  The walk leads us down to a river and then back up the fields to where we began. A good 11kilometres. Walking over the grass was quite tiring.  While the grass is soft underfoot it drags at your legs.

  

We then go to deliver our books and visit the Kilpeck church. It has these amazing corbels (supports just under the roof line a bit like gargoyles but not just decorative) that are carved into all sorts of figures, animals, people, monsters. There is one of a woman pulling her vagina open! The sculptures are remarkably well preserved and are inspired by the Bestiary and other parts of Europe and the Mediterranean. They are pretty weird really and look more pagan than religious to me.

The church is very simple inside with the curved arches and hardly any stained glass. There is a wall nearby that is the remains of an outpost castle with moat but it was destroyed during the English civil war.  

  

Next we are off to Hereford the largest town in the county and is the commercial hub. I am starting to get used to the hedgerows now. They made me dizzy when I first came here and I felt like I needed blinkers like a horse! 

We pop into All Saints a church which has services one end and runs a cafe at the opposite end. The cafe has been built like a module that can be removed if the church was to return to full size.  We are all starving after our walk and I need to change from walking gear to city clothes. Karen and Andy's nephew is playing Oberon in a primary school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream which we are going to attend. The local theatre has a Shakespeare program for primary school children to introduce them to his writing. The standard of the productions( three schools performed) was excellent and the kids were impressive in dealing with the language and enjoying the stories.  

Dinner in a new Mexican restaurant followed and then home. I find England so expensive even compared with Australia. My money just disappears!