Parish Church of St. Mary and St. David

Eight or nine miles out from Hereford is the hamlet of Kilpeck and its Parish 
Church of St. Mary and St. David. What is of interest here are the carvings 
about the church, near the roof, door and window-ways. They are all 12th 
century and apparently the only examples of secular Norman sculpture in 
existence. On a church, no less. And, I must say, they are a complete and total 
hoot!

Altar; so far so good

Door...no religious imagery...

Beautifully carved sandstone, but no obvious 
religious symbolism

After this, however, things start to get a little weird

Creature from the Black Lagoon

Birds? Of a feather?

Lovers...I really like this one

Dog and bunny show? My sense of Norman art and architecture is forever 
changed...

Then it gets really weird

And weirder

The fine print

Afterthoughts: subsequent years of travel, in the UK and throughout Europe taught us that there was really little unique to this little church; it's simply one of finest early examples; and it was the beginning of my subsequent fascination with "funny faces," Sheila-na-Gigs, and so on. Examples abound in the later years of the blog...maybe some day I'll put a tag on them... (May 12, 2020)