Kilpeck is a village and

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

in the county of

Herefordshire Herefordshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England, bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh ...

, England. It is about southwest of

Hereford Hereford ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of the ceremonial county of Herefordshire, England. It is on the banks of the River Wye and lies east of the border with Wales, north-west of Gloucester and south-west of Worcester. With ...

, just south of the

A465 road The A465 is a Trunk roads in Wales, trunk road that runs from Bromyard in Herefordshire, England to Llandarcy near Swansea in south Wales. The western half in Wales is known officially as the Neath to Abergavenny Trunk Road, but the section fro ...

and Welsh Marches Line to

Abergavenny Abergavenny (; , , archaically , ) is a market town and Community (Wales), community in Monmouthshire, Wales. Abergavenny is promoted as a "Gateway to Wales"; it is approximately from the England–Wales border, border with England and is loca ...

, and about from the border with Wales. On 1 April 2019, the parishes of

Kenderchurch Kenderchurch is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Kilpeck, in the county of Herefordshire, England. In 2001 the parish had a population of 98. On 1 April 2019 the parishes of Kenderchurch, St Devereux, Treville and Wormb ...

, St Devereux, Treville and

Wormbridge Wormbridge is a village and former civil parish in Herefordshire, England, about southwest of Hereford, on the A465 road at (). The neighbouring villages are Kilpeck, Didley, Howton, Treville, Ewyas Harold, Pontrilas and Crizeley. In 2001 ...

were merged with Kilpeck. The village is renowned for its small but outstanding

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 9th and 10th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norma ...

(Romanesque) church, SS Mary and David's, but also has the earthworks of a

motte-and-bailey castle A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy ...

that is no longer standing. The church is a

Grade I listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. There is a public house called the Kilpeck Inn, formerly the Red Lion, situated in the centre of the village opposite the village green. Other amenities include a village hall and post office.

History

Until the 9th century, when it was taken over by

Mercia Mercia (, was one of the principal kingdoms founded at the end of Sub-Roman Britain; the area was settled by Anglo-Saxons in an era called the Heptarchy. It was centred on the River Trent and its tributaries, in a region now known as the Midlan ...

, the area around Kilpeck was within the Welsh kingdom of

Ergyng Ergyng (or Erging) was a Brittonic kingdom of the sub-Roman and early medieval period, between the 5th and 7th centuries. It was later referred to by the English as ''Archenfield''. Location The kingdom lay mostly in what is now western Herefor ...

. After the Norman conquest, the area became known as ''

Archenfield Archenfield (Old English: ''Ircingafeld'', Middle English: "Irchenfield") is the historic English name for an area of southern and western Herefordshire in England. Since the Anglo-Saxons took over the region in the 8th century, it has stretched ...

'' and was governed as part of the

Welsh Marches The Welsh Marches () is an imprecisely defined area along the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom. The precise meaning of the term has varied at different periods. The English term Welsh March (in Medieval Latin ''Marchia W ...

. It became part of Herefordshire, and England, in the 16th century, although the use of Welsh in the area remained strong until the 19th century. The English name for the village derives from the Welsh name, ''Llanddewi Kil Peddeg'', with ''Llanddewi'' meaning "church of St David" and ''Cil Peddeg'' probably meaning the "cell of Pedic", an otherwise unknown local early Christian

hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Chr ...

.James Bailey, ''The Parish Church of St Mary and St David at Kilpeck'', 2000 In the

Domesday Book Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...

of 1086, Kilpeck (entered as ''Chipeete'') was given by

William the Conqueror William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was D ...

to William Fitz Norman

de la Mare Delamare or De la Mare is a surname of Normans, Norman origin. Delamare may refer to: *Achille Joseph Delamare (1790-1873), French senator. *Sir Arthur de la Mare (1914–1994), British diplomat *Delphine Delamare (''née'' Couturier, 1822–1848), ...

, son of Norman de la Mare. The clan de la Mare is one of the oldest in

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

and is descended from

Ragnvald Eysteinsson Rognvald Eysteinsson () was the founding Jarl (or Earl) of Møre in Norway, and a close relative and ally of Harald Fairhair, the earliest known King of Norway. In the Norse language he is known as Rǫgnvaldr Eysteinsson (''Mǿrajarl'') and in ...

, earl of Møre and Romsdal. According to the Domesday survey, Kilpeck had "3 ploughs, 2 serfs and 4 oxmen and there are 57 men with 19 ploughs." There are mentions of a church on the site possibly from as early as the 7th century. There are vestiges of an enclosure, 200 yds (183 metres) by 300 yds (274 m) in the field, defining an

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

village.

Landmarks

The St Mary and St David's Church was built around 1140. It consists of a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

and semicircular

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

. It is remarkable for its wealth of

stone carvings (and their fine state of preservation), both inside and out, all original both in form and position and incorporating many

corbels In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a bearing weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applie ...

with representations of human faces, hares, fish, fowl, stags etc. Eighty-five of 91 corbels survive, an extraordinarily high percentage. West of the church lies a ruined

motte and bailey A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy ...

with earthworks. The castle is thought to have been first built around 1090 as the administrative centre of

. A few walls of the 12th- or 13th-century

keep A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residen ...

still stand on top of the motte; these are not well preserved. A fireplace and chimney flues are visible, as are two sections of standing castle walls.KILPECK CASTLE
''historicengland.org.uk'', accessed 8 June 2021 A little over a mile to the north is the surviving motte of another castle, at Didley Court Farm.

References

External links

* Renn, D. F.

. ''Castles of Wales.'' *

". ''Castles of Herefordshire.'' Archaeological survey.
Population figures
(PDF) {{Authority control Villages in Herefordshire Civil parishes in Herefordshire