page_title: Pembridge
section_title: Parish church
hierarchical_section_title: Pembridge / Parish church
caption_attribution_description: English: Pembridge Church and Belfry. from the S
context_page_description: Pembridge is a village and civil parish in Arrow valley in Herefordshire, England. The village is on the A44 road about 6 miles east of Kington and 6 ¹⁄₂ miles west of Leominster. The civil parish includes the hamlets of Bearwood, Lower Bearwood, Lower Broxwood, Marston, Moorcot and Weston. The 2011 Census recorded the parish population as 1,056.
  Pembridge is the major part of the electoral ward of Pembridge and Lyonshall with Titley. The 2011 Census recorded the ward's population as 3,124.
context_section_description: The chancel is the oldest surviving part of St Mary's Church of England parish church, dating from the 13th-century, although a loose Romanesque pillar piscina remains from the Norman church. Blocked arches on both sides of the chancel mark the entrances to former chapels. The splendid font also dates from the 13th-century. The major rebuilding of the church in a mature Decorated style has been dated c1320-30.  The noble nave arcade is of six bays, with circular ogeed cinquefoiled clerestory windows above. The church has a cruciform plan with 14th-century transepts and a vaulted north porch.  There is a rood stair turret entered from the South transept and topped externally with a pinnacle. The West door and the North door date from the 14th century and both retain original ironwork.
  The pulpit preacher's desk, lectern and communion rail are Jacobean.  A north vestry was added in the 19th century, and the building was restored in 1871 by William Chick and in 1903–09 by Roland W. Paul. The church is a Grade I listed building. On the North side of the chancel a pair of 14th century tomb chests, one with contemporary effigies of a knight and his wife, the other with a civilian and his wife. They date from 1360 to 1380 and depict Nicholas Gour, a Sergeant-at-law with his wife and his son, John Gour and his wife, a steward in the employ of the Mortimer family. There are also several memorial tablets, including three of the 17th century to the Sherborne family, and one to Thomas Trafford (d.1685).
  Pembridge is one of several Herefordshire parishes whose belltower stands separate from the church. All but the base of the tower is timber-framed: one of a number of partly or largely timber-framed belltowers in Herefordshire. The tower was built early in the 13th century, rebuilt with the addition of an ambulatory in the 15th or 16th century, and further remodelled in the 17th-century when its spire was added. It is a Grade I listed building.
  The tower has a ring of five bells. John I Martin of Worcester cast the fourth bell in 1658. Abraham II Rudhall of Gloucester cast the treble bell in 1735. James Barwell of Birmingham cast or recast the first, second and tenor bells in 1898. St Mary's has also a Sanctus bell, which was cast about 1800.
  The churchyard contains seven Commonwealth war graves of service personnel, two from World War I and five from World War II.
caption: St Mary's parish church and (left) pyramidal belltower
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