The Priory Church of St Peter and St Paul Leominster Herefordshire England, UK showing the Green Man, a pagan fertility symbol
The Green Man shows hops coming out of his mouth. It can be seen high up on the north wall of the nave which was originally the outside wall of the old monastic church. The earliest part of the present Norman building dates from 1123 in 12th century when Benedictine monks from Reading Abbey started building a Priory It was dedicated to St Peter The town grew prosperous and the church became too small for the parish and so additional naves were built The central nave built in 1239 was dedicated to St Paul and the south nave in 1320 so the church is unusual in that it has three naves In 1539 Henry Vlll 8 dissolved the monasteries and although the Priory was destroyed the main church was saved A fire in 1699 nearly destroyed the church but money was raised by the congregation The equivalent of 500 000 today to restore it In 1861 after years of neglect restoration began under Sir Gilbert Scott The central south window together with the Gothic arcade of pillars between the centre center and south naves come from this time The West Door under the Tower has some beautiful 12th century carving unique to Herefordshire There are also several fine examples of Romanesque sculpture and painting from 12th century
Size: 3934px × 5906px
Location: Leominster Herefordshire England English GB Great Britain UK United Kingdom EU Europe British
Photo credit: © GS UK / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: aisles, ancient, anglican, arches, architectural, architecture, attraction, belief, britain, buttresses, carvings, chancel, christian, christianity, church, columns, consecrated, conservation, design, detail, early, ecclesiastic, ecclesiastical, england, english, europe, fertility, fine, green, heritage, historical, history, holiday, holy, house, interior, man, masonry, medieval, memorials, monuments, naves, norman, pagan, parish, paul, peter, place, prayer, priory, protestant, religion, religious, restoration, romanesque, saint, sanctuary, scenic, sightseeing, st, stone, stonework, symbol, symbolic, tourism, tourists, travel, vacations, visitor, visitors, worship
