For tickets Buy tickets – Friends and Supporters AGM – Kinnersley Church
The Church.
The design of the church is unusual. Its “most impressive” element is the, almost detached, tower, constructed in the 14th century.[2] The body of the church is simple, a chancel dating from c.1300, with a north aisle and an arcade.[2] The interior has waggon roofs, with “rich” decoration designed by Bodley and executed by Andrews.[1] It includes much multi-coloured stenciling. Alan Brooks, in the 2012 revised Herefordshire volume of the Buildings of England series, describes the decoration as “particularly fine”.[2] St James is a Grade I listed building.[1] The church contains some notable monuments, including one of the mid-17th century to Francis Smalman and his wife Susan, which Pevsner attributes to Samuel Baldwin.[Kinnersley Castle is a family-owned, Grade 2* listed historic house located approximately 10 miles from the book town of Hay-on-Wye. It was one of the many Marches castles sited by the Normans along the Welsh border, though as seen today it is predominantly the remodelled Elizabethan manor house of the Vaughan family. Kinnersley Castle features various fine oak-panelled rooms and the original 1588 plasterwork ceiling of the Solar.
It is just a short walk to the
The Castle
The Castle has changed hands numerous times in its long, interesting life since (possibly) Saxon times, and many families have made their own particular mark. Now there are three generations of the family of Henry Garratt-Adams, who purchased the castle in 1954 when it was under threat of demolition after WWII.
Early previous residents of note are;
Richard de la Bere – father of 21 children, who won his spurs at the battle of Crecy (1346) / their family monument can be found in Hereford Cathedral
Vaughan family(c.1588) – responsible for most of castle as it is today / legends about his uncle “Black Vaughan” and the phantom black dogs are widely recounted
The Reaveley family (c.1850’s) – their daughter married George Frederick Bodley, the Arts and Crafts architect and designer responsible for much of the decoration in the church
