St Catherine, Hoarwithy

The church of St Catherine at Hoarwithy, Herefordshire, differs substantially from the usual Victorian Church of England building. Why? Well, it derives its appearance from Italian Romanesque churches. The bell tower, the rounded east end of the chancel, the loggia, the Roman tile roofs and the richly decorated, short apsidal chancel all speak of Italy rather than rural Herefordshire. It is a Grade 1 Listed building and on the day of our visit the steep path to the main entrance was covered in matting to make the ascent easier. A notice said that this had been permitted for one year during which time a more fitting finish was to be laid down.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: iPhone

A window and a print

We were recently in the Italianate church of St Catherine, Hoarwithy in Herefordshire. As we walked through the relatively dark and narrow narthex we came upon this stained glass window near which someone had propped a framed print of a Renaissance "Adoration". The print benefitted from the window light and it made a nice, asymmetrical composition that prompted me to take this photograph.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Italianate loggia, Hoarwithy

A couple of weeks ago we visited a number of "H.Art" arts and crafts exhibitions. This is an annual week in Herefordshire where artists and crafts-people get together, exhibit, and hopefully sell, their work. J.P. Seddon's Victorian Italianate church at Hoarwithy was one such site. The nave was full of a variety of exhibits and the narthex, loggia and back of the church had been turned into a large cafe serving refreshments to visitors. But not so full that I coudn't squeeze out a photograph of the columns and capitals of the loggia.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Hoarwithy's loggia

The visitor to St Catherine, Hoarwithy, usually remembers one of two features of the exterior - the Italianate campanile or the loggia (a rarity in Britain that Pevsner calls a cloister walk). The Mediterranean-inspired architecture is the work of the architect J. P. Seddon, who enlarged and transformed a church of 1842-3 with the present one of the 1870s and 1880s.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Hoarwithy church

The sight of Hoarwithy village church among Herefordshire's rolling green pastures, hedges and woodlands, strikes the passer by with an interest in historic architecture, as very incongruous. Were to be seen among the dry, stony, sun-baked countryside of Tuscany its tall, narrow tower, rounded arches, apsidal chancel, loggia and roof of Roman tiles would arouse much less interest. The fact is English church architecture of the countryside is invariably Gothic or Romanesque, is rarely Byzantine (or Italianate), and when it is, usually signals the Roman catholic religion. Here it is a nineteenth century building of the Church of England.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10