Leominster Priory

     Without a doubt this is a monster of a church.  Perhaps not that big in the scheme of things - it is roughly 100 x125 ft - but there is something sublime about what is in fact merely the fragment of a larger medieval priory. It has to be said that is quite the experience to step into this building with all its complexity and seeming vastness. The scale is big, and very often powerful, almost primitive. At times verging on the sublime. At first it is difficult to comprehend, this is not a building that is at all lucid or coherent, and it is only as you walk around and it continues to open up to you is understanding achieved. A building to be apprehended first emotionally rather than intellectually, I think. Well, I suppose that could be applied to all buildings and in particular medieval churches where there is an attempt to embody mystery in the material. Only more so at Leominster where one is unprepared for the unexpectedness of it all, for what one encounters is really two interconnecting churches: a massive, and austere, early Norman priory nave and N Aisle, and in startling contrast to the S a vast parochial space divided into nave and s aisle (or is it two aisles?) by an elegant and daring arcade which is the work of George Gilbert Scott Sn in the 1870s. It replaces an arcade of Tuscan columns (the stoutest of the Classical orders) that in turn replaced the arcade destroyed in a fire in 1699. I would think Scott based his design on some surviving evidence, but even if he didn't it's a coup de theatre that easily justifies its presence. Bar the spectacular and vast Perp w window all the rest in this part of the church is early Decorated, in the style we have met before in the N transept of Ledbury church. There is plenty of ballflower here too both inside and out.
     The best sculpture is, however outside, where the late Norman w door survives in all its massive and barbaric splendour. The six capitals are fine examples of the Herefordshire school of Romanesque sculptors, blending late Antique and 'Barbarian' northern European elements. The two outer capitals are the most classical: on the right hand-side there is a form of 'running palmette', and the left 'Inhabited Vinescroll'. This latter is a symbol both of paradise and the church (which in worship is a foretaste of heaven, or should be). The other four capitals are definitely more northern in inspiration and the symbolism a little obscure in places. The easiest to understand is the centre left which two husbandmen pruning vines. The vine is both a symbol of Christ and the church (which is both his body and his bride) see John 14: 1-15. As Christians we are all grafted into the vine, i.e. the Body of Christ, and sometimes pruned away - this is what the capital depicts. Both this capital and the one to its left, the 'Inhabited Vinescroll' are Eucharistic symbols. It is also possible to see both column shafts as Christ himself. I think, while I'm about it, I'll also suggest that the two inner columns represent the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (left) and the Tree of Life (right). The left inner column may also represent the Brazen Serpent erected by Moses see Numbers 21: 4-9, a type of the Crucifixion of Christ see John 3: 14-16.
     In all great architecture, but there are no fittings of note, sadly. And those present are lost in the vastness. A lot of money would need to be spent in creating something that could hold its own here with any confidence. The only thing to stay in my mind is the picture hanging above the south porch - one part of a reredos perhaps? Alas there is far too much clutter, and I hate the re-ordering. Not a church I think I would happily worship in.