Church Of St Matthew

BISHOPS FROME

815/0/10010 Church of St Matthew 04-SEP-02

II

Anglican church. 1877, by F R Kempson. Coursed stone rubble with ashlar dressings; plain tile roof, slate to porch; stone copings with kneelers. Single-cell nave with S porch; apsidal chancel with N vestry. Early Pointed style. Hood moulds with head stops over all openings. Apsidal chancel has four trefoil-headed lancets, which are set above roll-moulded string. Vestry has sexfoil round window above plank door with strap hinges in pointed chamfered arch; heating vestry, and set in E wall of nave, is an ashlar stack. Two-bay nave has plate tracery 2-light windows; S porch has trefoil lights set in flank walls, and buttresses flanking gable with cross at apex and pointed chamfered arch to doorway; moulded arch to inner plank door with strap hinges. W wall has cinquefoil round window above two tall trefoil-headed lancets. Belfry has columns with foliate capitals to two pointed moulded arches. Interior: Stained pine pews and choir stalls. Boarded ceilings formed to broad pointed arch with ribs. Rerearches to chancel windows, and label moulds with head stops over trefoil-headed piscina, all set above roll-moulded string with foliate stops, broken for pointed chamfered arch to vestry. Hood moulds with head stops over pointed moulded chancel arch, with inner arch set on short marble column with deep foliate capitals and springers. Stone pulpit with punched panelwork and relief frieze. Octagonal stone font has four clustered Early English columns. A fine example of a small rural church by a prolific Hereford-based architect.