Church of St Michael and All Angels, Clyro

Church of St Michael and All Angels, Clyro

clyro_church_and_villageThis Victorian church incorporates stonework from its medieval predecessor. The lower part of the tower is thought to date from the 14th or early 15th centuries. Some of the earlier stones may have been reused when the church was rebuilt in the 1850s, to a design by Hereford-based architect Thomas Nicholson.

The tower was extended upwards in 1894 to incorporate the clock, a gift from the Baskerville family of Clyro Court. It’s said that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle knew a member of the family and immortalised the name in his Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles.

The church interior features box pews, each numbered, rather than pews in rows. There’s also a monument to the diarist Francis Kilvert, who was curate here from 1865 to 1872. He started his diary in 1870 and continued it until his death, aged 38, in 1879.

The tower has two bells cast in 1708 and three cast in 1887. One of the church’s bell ringers, Frank Henry Anthony, was killed by a shell in Belgium in September 1917 while serving as a Gunner with the Royal Garrison Artillery. He was 34 years old and married. He is buried in Bard Cottage Cemetery, Ypres.

The photo of the church and village (courtesy of Eric and Tim Pugh) was taken around the time of the First World War.

Local men who died during the First and Second World Wars are commemorated by the war memorial near the churchyard entrance. Church chorister Albert Harris was killed in action in 1916, aged 22. His father George was the church’s sexton (caretaker and gravedigger).

A war grave in the churchyard is the resting place of Flying Officer Thomas Henry Anthony, who died in January 1943 aged 28. He was an aircraft wireless operator. His parents Robert and Elizabeth lived in the village.

With thanks to the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers

Postcode: HR3 5SF    View Location Map

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