Architecture

The interior is notable for its lovely vista of the two Norman arches opening into the chancel and apse respectively. The chancel arch is adorned with saltire crosses (another indicator of an early Norman date), the motifs being continued laterally in string courses; the arch to the apse is plainer.

Centrally placed in the chancel is the tomb -chest of a 14th century knight, with a stone effigy. His identity is uncertain but he is believed to belong to the de Fresne family (possibly Sir John de Fresne of Sir Reginal de Fresne) who held the manor from the 13th Century. The tomb was restored as part of the 1870 restoration of the church and moved from the north wall to its present position in the centre of the chancel.

The four major windows of the church located in the nave and chancel date from the early 14th century and are important surviving examples of the work of an English studio of the period 1130-50. The work is of high quality and distinctively from the same studio responsible for the Great East Window at Gloucester, the Tewkesbury Abbey choir windows and the Jesse tree windows at Ludlow, Tewkesbury and Bristol, as well as the local churches of Madley and Eaton Bishop. Little is known about the workshop; however, it is thought to have been based in the West Country or the West Midlands, and to have been influenced by the French style. The windows by this studio all date from 1330 to 1350.

The north and south aisle windows include figures holding the De Fresne arms. It is tempting to suggest that the glass was commissioned by Sir John De Fresne, mentioned as a patron of the church in 1306, 1320 and 1339. All of the panels contain elements of the de Fresne family who were incumbent at Moccas between 1160 and 1375. The figure elements of the windows have been lost, but without doubt the original stained glass would have filled these windows. There are the heads of niches within these surviving panels that suggest figures were sited below. Perhaps these windows were removed to let in light or stolen or smashed for iconoclastic reasons. There is an un-attributed reference in the church guide book to the a 16th century visitation where it was stated that, “church and chancel were found to be unrepaired, windows unglazed, pulpit not convenient”.

It is documented that there was some rebuilding of the windows in the nineteenth century during the restoration of the church by George Gilbert Scott Jr. about 1870 as mentioned below.

After the early 14th century, few significant changes were made to the church. In the late 18th century, Sir George Cornewall (formerly Amyand) undertook a series of repairs in the church and inserted a family pew with fire grate and chimney in the chancel. This was stated in 1891 by Revd Sir George Cornewall, Rector as follows:

“The Church was repaired in the beginning of the century by Mr Westmacott. At that time the south window of the apse was like an ordinary cottage window, as I can show you by a drawing. He probably added the fireplace and chimney and may have rebuilt the bell cote. The Church before it was restored by Mr George Gilbert Scott Jr., was ceiled, a semi-domical lath and plaster ceiling being in the apse and the effigy was then placed in the corner of the chancel. The chancel and apse were both raised and the windows of the chancel which had been crushed by the lowering of the walls, were restored according to their original design, there being little difficulty from the tracery which remained in determining what must be. The old glass was also restored. About half of it is new”

In the late 19th century, the Revd Sir George Cornewall decided to undertake a major restoration of the church and to install an organ. His architectural task was greatly influenced by his antiquarianism. In 1891 he lectured the Woolhope Club on the “Roman basilica plan” which was adopted by the early Christian church and reflected in the apse and chancel at Moccas. In 1863 he had visited the Roman site of Paestum where he noticed that many temples were constructed of Travertine (tufa) which had also been used at Moccas Church. Thus, Sir George required a collaborative architect rather than one hidebound by the prevailing gothic fashions. Gilbert Scott Junior was therefore an ideal choice as he had already broken away from his father’s 13th century gothic model. The Revd George raised the height of the apse and chancel using more tufa from the estate, and when that ran out, from near the river Teme .The heightening of the apse and chancel necessitated the rebuild of the Romanesque chancel arch and the provision of a new roof. A new floor was laid using the existing floor slabs. The windows needed new tracery and mullions and were reglazed but with the original stained glass reinserted.

The Romanesque windows in the apse were repaired and given “hard arches”. Both doors were restored, and a new porch was added for the south side, based upon the 14th century timber porch at Thruxton. The internal plaster work was removed from the walls which were repaired and re-pointed. New ceiling boards were put up in the 15th century manner with 54 carved wooden bosses designed by Scott. A stone altar was placed in the apse, and wooden stalls were placed in the chancel, four placing the altar for the congregation and six facing across the chancel for the celebrants. The correspondence between Sir Gilbert Scott Junior and Sir George Cornewall makes no mention of altar rails, and today’s rails are Jacobean; brought to Moccas from Willersley church in the 1970’s. The oak pews, pulpit and reading desk were produced by Franklin and Sons and are late gothic in detail. At the west end of the church, Scott inserted a massive tie beam with arched braces, producing a frame for the decorative work behind. A vestry was created, and stairs inserted to the bell chamber. This was hidden behind a fine oak screen, boarded in the vernacular manner with narrow overlapping slats, crenellated in the 15th century style.

The organ was built by R W Walker and Sons and placed in the organ loft above the vestry. Whitehead (2019) writes:

“Here we encounter the olive green and orangey-red that dominates the ensemble. Kempe and Co’s printed arabesque papers are separated by vertical strips, painted blue and gold as heraldic poles. The top of the panelled balcony is finished with a briar rose frieze, derivative from Morris and Co. Above the console, flanked by red panels, a canopy curves forward, embellished with laudatory exclamations, with the gothic letters painted on scrolls. The composition is crowned with the pipe case which breaks forward in the baroque fashion and is enriched with late gothic fretwork, set in margins of more blue and gold piping. On the bottom of the pipe case a royal blue frieze, enriched with golden sunbursts, separates the loft from the pipes. Finally, on either side is the great expanse of olive-green panelling, with the margins picked out in black and central squares of pierced quatrefoils, seen against a black and white ground with a gold patera at the centre. The panelling is terminated with a green and red briar rose frieze, leaving a stretch of stonework visible either side, under a green ceiling, suggesting that some mural decoration was planned but not executed. It remains a wonderful composition, unparalleled anywhere else in Herefordshire”.

Contemporaries recognised that George Gilbert Scott Junior was an exceptional architect; ‘scholarly and sound in style’ but also ‘individual and interesting’; an architect of ‘remarkable and exceptional ability’ whose work showed ‘delicate refinement without weakness’. Sir John Betjeman thought that Scott Junior was ‘the greatest architect of the Victorian era’. Whitehead (2019) writes that

“Sir George, it seems, chose well and let Scott get on with the work and took credit for the glory of it thereafter”.

Pevsner, 1963, “The Buildings of England” writes:

“ St Michael’s, Moccas, if it were not for the bellcote and some tall Decorated windows, which help to let light into the interior, would be the perfect example of a Norman village church.”
Simon Jenkins, 1999, “ England’s Thousand Best Churches” gives Moccas Church two stars and the following entry:

“There is no village, just an Adam mansion set in a deer park sweeping down to the banks of the Wye. Remember those who have trodden this place before” bids the vicar in his guide. Today we tiptoe gently across what is a private estate, past a genteel wall of clipped box. Moccas takes its name from the Welsh for a pig and a moor, Mochyn and rhos.
The small, neat church consists of nave, chancel and apse in a descending sequence. The inside is Norman at its most theatrical. The view from the west end is of retreating arches with zigzag mouldings. The stone is tufa limestone, almost pumice. In the centre of the chancel lies the star of the show, an effigy of a medieval knight. His legs are crossed and there is a dog at his feet, the first wrongly supposed to indicate a crusader, the second that he died in his bed, He lies with light shining on him from the chancel windows. Winter evenings must be eerie events, as if the congregation was summoned to await the knight’s resurrection and admonition , like Don Giovanni’s Commendatore.
George Gilbert Scott Junior’s jolly organ case fills the west end of the church, recognising the role that colour once played in medieval architecture”.

Text kindly provided by Doctor Rachel Jenkins

Jenkins S., 1999. England’s Thousand Best Churches. Allen Lane. Penguin Press.
Gethyn-Jones E 1979. The Dymock School of Sculpture. Phillimore. Chichester.
Keyser C.E., 1904. A List of Norman Tympana and Lintels. Elliot Stock. London.
Leonard J., 2000. Churches of Herefordshire and their Treasures. Herefordshire: Logaston Press
Pevsner N., 1963. The Buildings of England: Herefordshire. Penguin

I am grateful to Richard Perkins for his detailed help in deciphering the Moccas tympana.