Kilpeck Church (aka the Parish Church of St Mary and St David in
Kilpeck), located in Herefordshire near the Welsh border, is
home to the finest collection of Romanesque sculpture in
England. It was built in about 1140 and has survived remarkably
intact and unaltered to the present day. There has been a church
on this site since the earliest days of Christianity. The
village's name of Kilpeck is probably derived from kil Pedic,
the "cell of St Pedic," who is otherwise unknown but was likely
a local Celtic holy man. Records in the Book of Llandaff
indicate that "Kilpeck church with all its lands around" was
given to that diocese in 650 AD. Part of a previous Saxon church
may survive in the remains of a buttress on the north wall of
the present church. It has the characteristics of Saxon
architecture, but remains a bit of a mystery since the Normans
usually destroyed all trace of previous Saxon work. The Normans
arrived in Kilpeck not long after the Conquest, and William the
Conqueror gave Kilpeck to his kinsma