Moving to Herefordshire we became fascinated by the beauty of the black-and-white houses, many from medieval times surrounding us. And living in Eardisland we were based just in the middle of these historic towns and villages on the Welsh Marches, the borderland between England and Wales. This is where much historic fighting as well as trade took place in medieval times. I have described several of these villages in earlier posts from Eardisland and Pembridge to Weobley, Ludlow and Leominster. But until now I haven’t posted or photographed any black-and-white church.
The prettiest of England’s medieval black-and-white churches is in my mind St Peter’s in the tiny village of Melverley in Shropshire, a little more than an hour north of Eardisland. It is located beside the River Vyrnwy, just before it meets River Severn. At this stretch of the River Vyrnwy it is also the border between England and Wales.
It has been a place of Christian worship here for at least a thousand years. In 1141 was documented a wooden chapel on the banks of the river above Shrewsbury. But in the many skirmishes between the Welsh and the English, the Welsh chieftain Owain Glyndŵr burnt down the original Saxon church. In a remarkable short time period of five years, the new church was constructed entirely of local oak. The new church was in use again in 1406.
The whole church is delightfully crooked due to the oak beams bending over time in all kinds of directions. The gallery was sloping and setting up my tripod there, I felt like I could slide off any moment. There are no nails at all in the church, only wooden pegs. I read somewhere that the church is held together by faith. Knowing that it was quite uplifting to enter it and reflect upon the people who erected the church and then listened to God’s words in the pews since medieval times.
In the church yard is an old yew tree. The yew tree symbolises both death and resurrection. They were important in Celtic culture and folklore as well and very often the yew trees precede the church building, indicating that the church has been built in an old pre-Christian place of worship. You can read about yew trees in my post about An Ancient Yew Tree. But in this case the churches that have been at Melverley have a longer history than the yew tree, which is estimated to be “only” around 400 years old.
It is very unusual to have such a well preserved medieval church constructed entirely in wattle (wooden sticks woven together), daub (sticky mixture of clay, dung and straw) and timber put together by pegs. Parts of our own house, Lynch Court, is constructed that way. But at St Peter the interior is fully exposed and the church is really black-and-white. The church is divided into three sections (see the image below and the image above captured from the gallery). At the west (far) end is a gallery and underneath that the entrance and staircase. The middle part is the nave and then another structure separates the nave from the front chancel.
