Moreton Jeffries Church is a redundant

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

church in the hamlet of

Moreton Jeffries Moreton Jeffries (or Moreton Jefferies) is a hamlet in the English county of Herefordshire. It is situated off the A465 between Stoke Lacy and Burley Gate, approximately 8½ miles north-east of Hereford. It has a medieval church, which has bee ...

, some northeast of

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

, Herefordshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.

History

The church was built in the 13th or early 14th century, and was extended to the west at a later date. It was restored in the 18th century. A further restoration was carried out in 1860 by John Morley. It was declared redundant in 1980 and vested in the Churches Conservation Trust in 1984.

Architecture

Constructed in sandstone, the church has a tiled roof. Its plan is simple, having a nave and chancel under one roof, a south porch, and an embraced bellcote at the west end. The bellcote is timber framed and hung with

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

s. The external appearance of the church is

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

in style, although it contains older fabric. The oldest part of the medieval church is the south doorway, and the roof is also probably from the medieval period. In the south wall are two two-light windows. The north wall contains one similar window, and other blocked windows and a doorway. The east window has three lights. The interior of the church is plastered, and the floor is tiled, some of the tiles being encaustic. Many of the furnishings date from the 17th and 18th centuries. These include the chancel screen and the

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

. The latter is Jacobean in style, and has a

sounding board A sounding board, also known as a tester and abat-voix is a structure placed above and sometimes also behind a pulpit or other speaking platform that helps to project the sound of the speaker. It is usually made of wood. The structure may be spe ...

and a reading desk. The seating includes benches from the same period, and one box pew. The

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

consists of a round freestone bowl with a marble basin, standing on a black marble stem. On the east wall are

Commandment Commandment may refer to: * The Ten Commandments * One of the 613 mitzvot of Judaism * The Great Commandment * The New Commandment * ''Commandment'' (album), a 2007 album by Six Feet Under * ''Commandments'' (film), a 1997 film starring Aidan Qui ...

boards, and there are boards with the

Lord's Prayer The Lord's Prayer, also called the Our Father or Pater Noster, is a central Christian prayer which Jesus taught as the way to pray. Two versions of this prayer are recorded in the gospels: a longer form within the Sermon on the Mount in the Gosp ...

and the Apostles' Creed on the west wall. The memorials include a brass plate to John Morley, the restorer of the church, who died in 1899. The church has two bells, one dating from the 16th century, the other cast in 1709.

References

{{Reflist Grade II* listed churches in Herefordshire Church of England church buildings in Herefordshire Churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust

History

Architecture

See also

References