NOTES ON ST. DAVID'S CHURCH, MUCH DEWCHURCH by
Hubert Reade (1936)
Part 4 : FEATURES OF THE BUILDING
The Church as rebuilt in the year before the Conquest must have
been
a position of some strength. Its thick walls and narrow windows, some of which still remain, were by no means insignificant means
of defence in days when sieges were mostly carried on with bows and arrows, as must have been the case
with
these border districts.
The Chancel Arch shows most probably that the Church must have
been lengthened about 1060 when a square end replaced the former semicircular
apse. The base of the tower is, however, of
a somewhat later date, and is believed
to be of Twelfth Century origin, whilst the upper part is probably of the early Thirteenth Century.
Thus this long narrow building with its thick walls, pierced
only with narrow -window slits and entered by heavy doors, formed in itself a fortress which could be used in times of danger from
Welsh marauders to store the property of the villagers,
and served to protect the highway leading up from
the ford along the ridge leading towards the Monnow and South Wales which ran between the marshes to the West
and
South.
It was not until the Fourteenth Century that any great
changes were made in the structure of the Church. Windows had gradually become larger, and the narrow loopholes of
the early Norman period had been transformed into large casements formed of several lights, which by the time of
Edward III had made their way into every village church. Thus it became necessary to pull down the upper part of
the original structure and to rebuild the walls in the eastern part of the nave and chancel in order to allow of
the change in the windows. At Much Dewchurch the reconstruction had been finished before 1350 when the ravages of the
Black Death by decreasing the population checked the progress of the
so-called decorated architecture, and caused it to be replaced by a style known as the Perpendicular, which was
more
economical of labour and material.
The pointed arch in the wall of the nave under the Westernmost of the new
windows probably marks the grave of the rebuilder of the church, but nothing
remains to show who he was.
We know that the Black Death must have committed great
ravages in Much Dewchurch as in other parts of Herefordshire, for
in 1348 three vicars held the parish within the year.
The Southern porch of the Church dates from about 1370,
and the figures of a King
and a bishop on the springs of the outer arch are
generally said to be portraits of King Edward III on the East, and Adam or
Orleton - that Bishop of Hereford who had raised him to the throne by
assisting to depose his father Edward II - on
the West. It seems, however, more
probable that the Bishop is Lewis de Charleton who built the White Cross
at
After the
large windows had been inserted about 1345, the church
suffered comparatively little change until after the Reformation
when the side altars were removed, and a large gallery built at the west end of the nave, almost blocking
up
the entrance leading from the nave into the tower. This gallery
remained until 1876, when the Church was thoroughly restored
by the late Sir James Rankin Bt. To replace the gallery, the quarter part of the north wall of the nave was
pulled
down, and an aisle now known as the "Shepherds Aisle" -
from the first window placed in it - and a vestry which allowed room
to be made in the chancel for an organ, were built out into
the churchyard to accommodate those who had previously sat there.
At the same time the old chancel rails were pulled down and
replaced by a stone balustrade covered with Algerian onyx, and
seats for the choir were placed in the chancel. None of the glass in the Church is
old. The oldest window is that in the
south wall of the nave with pictures of the Raising of Lazarus and dating
only from 1858.
The pulpit which is elaborately carved in the Jacobean style
was probably erected about 1630, and stands on the site of one
of the side altars.
The bells
date from 1721 and were cast by Rudhall of Gloucester.
Next month - Part 5
The Verry Family; the Moated manor; ghost of a famous cat?