Priory 900 and an exploration of the Herefordshire School of Romanesque Sculpture at Leominster Priory, June 14th to July 14th 2025.
In 2025 the Norman Nave of Leominster Priory will be 900 years old. The Priory is a Royal Church built by King Henry I to replace the much earlier monastery founded in 660. A nationally important spiritual, cultural and community space, this significant date will be marked by celebrating the royal Norman Nave’s amazing story. The exhibitions and events are supported by a number of charities, including the Heritage Lottery Fund, UKSPF, the Elmeley Foundation, Edward Harley Trust, the Rowlands Trust and the Friends of Leominster Priory.
The exhibition, events and workshops, set around this inspiring building, will celebrate the Normans in Leominster and wider Norman history and culture (alongside late Anglo-Saxon culture). Eight actual-size replica scenes from the Bayeux tapestry will be displayed in the Norman Nave. This will be an opportunity to see how the tapestry was originally displayed and used. Replica artefacts will give context to the images in the tapestries. Researchers believe that the mystery woman in one of the Bayeux tapestries was the last Abbess of Leominster, which links Leominster with 1066 and all that! This story will be brought to life in various ways.
A major feature of both exhibition and events will be the amazing Herefordshire Romanesque School of Sculpture which can be seen on the West Door of the Priory (beautiful, and of national importance) and at other churches in the surrounding area (eg Shobdon, Kilpeck). An illustrated time-line will explain 900 years of the Priory, and prompt us to think about the future of this amazing building.
The Priory 900 exhibition will include new work and installations by local artists, and students from Hereford Art College. Schools and community groups will take part in interactive workshops, talks, walks, dramas, concerts and services hosted by the Priory. Communities involved will include schools and churches from the surrounding villages, since the celebration is one for the whole, ancient ‘parochia’.
Herefordshire School of Romanesque Sculpture
The work of the Herefordshire School will be explored in a variety of ways by local artists, and members of the community through events, workshops and the exhibition.
1.Local stitching group ‘Stitched Atlas Folk’, led by textile artist and researcher, Jackie Morris, will create a large map of the places of the Herefordshire School’s stone carvings, including key examples brought to life in stitches.
2.Neil Ramsay, local artist, has studied the stone sculpture over many years, and will produce studies for display and for sale during the Priory 900 exhibition – see examples attached, and description of his work. He will also work with children from Orleton and Kimbolton Primary School to prepare them for a pilgrimage to the Priory when all 280 pupils will create their own combined art-work inspired by Leominster and Orleton’s Romanesque examples.
3.Robert Walker, architectural historian, will explore the sculpture in the context of an exploration of the Norman influence in the region and the parochia of the Priory in three ways: an illustrated booklet to guide interested visitors around local churches (including a ‘’Find Norman!’’ hunt for children), two illustrated lectures as part of the Priory 900 Festival, and two day-long guided tours of local churches in July.
4.Students from Hereford Art College will produce work inspired by the school in a variety of media.
5.Four local schools, including Orleton Primary, Shobdon Primary, Leominster Primary and Westfield Special School, will work with internationally renowned puppeteer and puppet maker, Andrew Purvin to create puppets based on sculpture local to their school. The puppets will be exhibited in the exhibition, and will be used in a multi-school performance on June 19th ‘Moving Stones’ and in a Community Service/Play which will tell the story of Leominster Priory over 900 years.
6.Displays in key village churches and in Leominster Priory will provide context by exploring the purpose, style, influences and key motifs of the school, including who the stone masons were, and where and how they worked.
7.Between 2000-3000 school students are expected to take part in workshops while visiting the exhibition and will have the opportunity to create art inspired by examples.
8.Members of the public will be able to access materials and create their own art when visiting the exhibition. A community competition, inspired by the theme, will be launched in March 2025.
Stitched Atlas Folk is a Community of Practice who have been working together since September 2023 responding to local place through its heritage using walking and stitching methods. We meet regularly to discuss personal research findings and to create stitched and storied outcomes. The group have two responses planned for the Priory 900. Firstly, we have embarked on creating a large map of the places of the stone carvings of the Herefordshire School of Romanesque Sculpture, as named by Polish-English scholar George Zarnecki. Malcolm Thurlby’s book on the subject has become our new reference work guiding our visits to these places. Our responses to our embodied experiences will be translated through embroidery. The beauty of the group is that no stitching experience is required, we consider it mark making, which allows a freedom of expression. Our poet Maggie Crompton is both inspired by and documents the group process. She writes
Human beings seem to have been artistic explorers from their earliest existence. Reflecting on their lives, the places and other creatures they see around them and their place in the mystery of what we know as the universe, we have drawn, painted, told stories and sung songs. In Stitched Atlas Folk, we reflect on the past in the present and re-imagine it with needle and with words.
Our second response is to the story of Eadgifu, who was the Abbess of Leominster Priory when it was a Benedictine abbey for nuns. She was abducted in 1046 by Sweyn Godwinson and may have been the same Abbess recorded as living in Fencote in Docklow parish, in the Domesday Book of 1086. We are taking time to explore and re-imagine her story in the context of the closely following Norman Conquest, when Anglo Saxon and Norman cultures collided. Intriguingly, there is a mysterious lady called Aelfgyva in The Bayeux Tapestry, which is a textile panel of 11th century Romanesque art, likely commissioned by William the Conqueror’s half-brother Bishop Odo. In its fifty eight scenes it depicts the story around the Norman conquest and may have been embroidered by English nuns. Aelfgyva is just one of three women making up its 626 characters in its main panel. There are many competing theories as to who Aelfgyva was, and in one 1960’s book of The Bayeux Tapestry that we found, her scene was the only one omitted because it was considered to add nothing to the story but a ‘moment of confusion’. The idea that Leominster Priory’s Abbess Eadgifu is one and the same Aelfgyva, has some credence with historians. It is this tangle of stories of Eadgifu & Aelfgyva that have Stitched Atlas Folk hooked!
The Drawings – Neil Ramsay
My watercolour drawings of the carvings at Leominster Priory are inspired by the work of the famous English nineteenth century watercolourist John Sell Cotman, an artist who would have delighted in rendering these sculptures had he not lived in Norwich! The pencil work was done on the spot, sitting on a camping stool in front of the West door, much to the bemusement of the dog walkers. The colour was added once I got home, a tricky job, as the shade of the stone seems to change with every shift in the light.
Design Inspiration: Studying the Leominster carvings by sketching them gives a good insight into the creative thinking of the sculptor. Despite the variety of images, there is a commonality of design which I believe confirms that they are the work of one hand. Looking at other local examples, I would suggest that these all carved by the so called ‘Chief Master ‘of the Herefordshire School. Although the ornamentation at Leominster may be by others, the sculpture is all of a uniformly high quality, unlike at Kilpeck, where some of the corbels for example, are clearly by someone less skilled. Many years ago, I visited Bafrestone in Kent to draw the comparable Romanesque doorway of this little Norman church. Although equal in scale and quality to Leominster and Kilpeck, the sculpture on this church has a very different feel, despite being roughly contemporary and sharing much of the imagery. It is the wide variety of design sources that makes the Herefordshire School so exciting and unique. Like the work at Barfrestone, the primary source of inspiration is, of course, from France. After all, it was the Norman French nobility who commissioned the work. It is possible that the sculptors were trained by French artisans, or may even have been French themselves, although I think this is unlikely because of the strong influence of local design. The interlaced patterns of Welsh and Irish art, for example, are found throughout the work of most of the Herefordshire school, including Leominster. There are also design motifs inspired by native Anglo Saxon and Scandinavian (Viking) art. It is possible that the Norman nobility, returning from pilgrimages to Europe and even the Middle East, gathered ideas or drawings to add to this medley of styles. The right-hand inner carving at Leominster for instance may be inspired by memories or a description of a Corinthian capital.
Imagery: There is an astonishing variety of imagery on the carvings of the Herefordshire School. Most of the underlying expression is of the battle between Good versus Evil. Some of the images, such as the Tree of Life, the Lamb of God and images of saints, angels and Christ in Majesty are common to many churches and easily explained. But the meanings of many are still a mystery to modern commentators. Quite a number are inspired by the medieval Bestiary – writings going back as far as the early Christian period, which use representations of real or imagined animals as allegorical moral teachings, illustrating good, evil and the frailty of humanity. Other carvings may illustrate local myths and legends, or even the exploits of the patrons or their families.
