St Mary the Virgin's Church, Yazor facts for kids
Quick facts for kids St Mary the Virgin's Church, Yazor |
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St Mary the Virgin's Church, Yazor
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| OS grid reference | SO 405 465 |
| Location | Yazor, Herefordshire |
| Country | England |
| Denomination | Anglican |
| Website | Churches Conservation Trust |
| History | |
| Founder(s) | Sir Uvedale Price Sir Robert Price |
| Dedication | Saint Mary the Virgin |
| Architecture | |
| Functional status | Redundant |
| Heritage designation | Grade II |
| Designated | 16 December 1986 |
| Architect(s) | George Moore Rev R. L. Freer |
| Architectural type | Church |
| Style | Gothic Revival |
| Groundbreaking | 1843 |
| Completed | 1855 |
| Construction cost | £3,883 (equivalent to £250,000 in 2021) |
| Specifications | |
| Materials | Sandstone, Welsh slate roofs |
St Mary the Virgin's Church is an old Anglican church in the small village of Yazor, Herefordshire, England. It is no longer used for regular church services. This historic building is listed as a Grade II listed building. This means it is an important building that needs to be protected. The Churches Conservation Trust takes care of the church today.
Contents
History of St Mary's Church
This church was built a long time ago, between 1843 and 1855. Two wealthy men, Sir Uvedale Price and his son Sir Robert Price, paid for it. The church cost £3,883 to build. This was a lot of money back then!
The main architect was George Moore. The local priest, Reverend R. L. Freer, helped design parts of the church. He designed the tall spire and some of the inside decorations. St Mary's Church was built to replace an even older church nearby. The churchyard of the old church has a grave for a soldier from the Second World War.
Church Design and Features
St Mary's Church is made from sandstone and has roofs covered with Welsh slate. It is shaped like a cross when you look at it from above. This is called a cruciform plan.
Outside the Church
The church has a chancel at one end and a tall tower at the other. The tower has a porch where people can enter. The main part of the church, called the nave, has three sections. There are also two smaller sections, called transepts, on the north and south sides.
The tower is very tall and has two parts. The top part has openings for bells. Above these, there is a decorative cornice and an eight-sided spire. The spire has small windows called lucarnes and a metal cross at the very top.
You can see three tall, narrow windows, called lancet windows, on each side of the nave. The transepts also have groups of three lancet windows. There are small porches on the west side of both transepts. One of these porches has a doorway leading down to a hidden room called a crypt. The chancel has five lancet windows, and a fancy metal cross on its roof.
Inside the Church
The ceiling inside the church has beautiful decorations. You can see carved wooden angels and a large, decorative stone carving called a boss above the chancel steps. The chancel area is very colorful with lots of painting. The walls around the chancel have painted designs, including eight rows of rampant lions.
Underneath each window in the chancel, there are metal plaques. These plaques have important religious texts written on them, like the Magnificat and the Ten Commandments. Above the central wall of the chancel, there is a carved oak canopy.
Between the nave and the transepts, there are carved oak screens. The pulpit, where the priest gives sermons, is built into one of these screens. It has a special roof above it, called a tester, decorated with symbols of the Four Evangelists. The font, used for baptisms, is very old, possibly from the 1400s. It is eight-sided.
The church has beautiful stained glass windows. The five windows in the chancel were made around 1845. The middle window shows scenes like the Ascension (Jesus going to heaven) and the Crucifixion. Other windows show stories like the Annunciation and the Nativity (the birth of Jesus).
The stained glass in the transept windows was added in 1866. It has patterns of blue squares and red triangles. The windows at the west end of the nave remember weddings of the Foxley family in 1866. One window shows Ruth from the Bible, and the other shows the Marriage at Cana.
You can also find memorials inside the church. These include tributes to Sir Uvedale Price, his son Sir Robert, and Reverend Freer. The church also has an organ, built in 1845, but it is not working anymore.
See also
