Return To Kilpeck, 2026

As students of this blog know, we have long been fond of Romanesque sculptural grotesques--hunky-punks, chimeras, or, as we mostly call them, funny faces--and we have travelled long and far all over western Europe to find some of the best examples and to post pix of them here. (Enter "funny faces" in the search box; maybe fix yourself a snack and beverage first.) The place where this all began, in 2009, is in the hamlet of Kilpeck, near Hereford, at the early 12th century parish church of St. Mary and St. David. We returned once again on May 23rd, our 4th visit. As usual, we found all the familiar faces but also found some new images and features at which to marvel. I'll post pix of only a few of the couple score of grotesques below and refer to previous posts for fuller coverage:

https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2009/10/parish-church-of-st-mary-and-st-david.html
https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2016/05/return-to-kilpeck-1.html
https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2016/05/return-to-kilpeck-2_29.html
https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2022/05/return-to-kilpeck-2022.html.

These posts also provide a bit more information on the Hereford School of Romanesque Sculpture, the Sheela-na-gig, and other matters. BTW, grotesques and gargoyles are different beasts: grotesques are purely decorative while gargoyles have a mainly plumbing function, in addition to the aesthetics.

The parish church of SS Mary and David...completed about 1130-1145

Portal...click to enlarge and see whether you can find any
obviously Christian symbols...

Lots of Celtic or so...

Ditto

The funny faces appears as corbels, sort of, between the
roof and outer wall, running all around the building; all
of them secular...or even profane

Or Celtic

The bell tower, as it were

The Sheela-na-gig; very famous among the hundreds
known to exist

Whenever you're sad, try to think of this 12th century 
dog and bunny show

Or the stupid ant-eater tricks

It's not easy being green

Fiddler on the roof

Sorry to disappoint: actually a wrestling hold, not an embrace

Now inside, where the more clearly Christian sacred things might be

A favorite place

Sherston

In need of a break on the drive back from Avebury, we stopped at Sherston, another pretty little Cotswold village. So the guidebook said. 

Church of the Holy Cross

Interesting figures on the porch

Alas, the ceiling was falling in...

One of our shorter church visits

But we did learn this one thing...when the Protestants came
to visit a town, such as Sherston, among other mischief,
they'd cut a hole in fonts such as this, so they would never
hold Holy Water again

Moving right along, we walked the main drag

Mostly a large parking lot where, apparently, the village green used to be?

The main sight being the pub, commemorating a local
hero in the Welsh wars, 1062 or so; the pub is noted for its
turnip tossing competitions; seriously; we proceeded on...

Avebury, 2026: The Church

The Avebury parish church is nearby, and, although perhaps not in Jenkins' 1,000 Best British Parish Churches, is well worth a look.

En route

A pied...

Note variety of stones in the porch

The zig-zaggy stuff is all over megalithic monuments
from Spain and Portugal to Ireland and England...apparently
in their genes even unto the 13th century CE...

Very old font

Not one of the great churches, I guess, but certainly 
among the best documented for visitors such as we

A bit of sculpture

A bit of glass...St. James, like so many others, was
originally built in an age where churches had to be
defensible...

More excellent documentation

Moving right along, but still religion, the great megalithic gift 

shoppe at Avebury is the Henge Shop, not to be missed, especially 

for its several rooms of New Age-y hocus-pocus inventory

Can't visit Avebury without connecting with the Crystal Beings