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St Mary's Church (formerly St James),
off B4203,
Tedstone Wafer, Herefordshire.

Cemeteries

This Church had a graveyard.

Note: any church within an urban environment may have had its graveyard closed after the Burial Act of 1853. Any new church built after that is unlikely to have had a graveyard at all.

Church History

This Place of Worship was founded in the 11th century, but we understand it was closed in 1970.

The Church at Tedstone Wafer shared its dedication originally with that at Tedstone Delamere, and both are Victorian replacements for earlier churches. According to Littlebury's Directory of 1876, St James, Tedstone Wafer was dedicated the same day as nearby Edvin Loach's new church, October 28th, 1873. At some point since then it was rededicated to St Mary, possibly to avoid confusion with that at Tedstone Delamere.

Littlebury's describes it in glowing terms: "the chancel is raised by five steps from the nave, which is separated from it by a low screen of Bath stone, having insertions of variegated marble at intervals. The east window has shafts of black marble, and the chancel has a beautifully sculptured stone screen in the south transept". Pevsner is not so complimentary of the outside - he says "it looks as if it were made of old-fashioned children's building bricks", and has a "very tall roof of red and blue tiles (and) oversized bellcote".

Nevertheless it is a Listed Building (Grade C) - see the British Listed Buildings website for details.

At the time of Pevsner's visit (before 1963), the west and part of the north walls of the original (early Norman) church were still standing. According to Old Maps, this was slightly to the west of the present church; however the "new" church was closed in 1970, and has since converted to a private residence, so the ruins may no longer survive. [Source: The Herefordshire Village Book, Federation of Women's Institutes (1989)]

Denomination

Now or formerly Church of England.

If more than one congregation has worshipped here, or its congregation has united with others, in most cases this will record its original dedication.

Maps

This Church was located at OS grid reference SO6768959051. You can see this on various mapping systems. Note all links open in a new window:

• St Mary's Church (formerly St James), Tedstone Wafer shown on a Google Map.
• Places of Worship in Tedstone Wafer shown on a Google Map.
• Streetmap.co.uk (arrow on map shows the Place of Worship's location) (verified 2018-10-15)
• Bing (Ordnance Survey option) (verified 2018-10-13)
• Bing Maps ('Bird's Eye' View) (verified 2018-10-15)
• Ordnance Survey "getamap" (NB some of the 'Change Map' options may require a subscription) (verified 2018-10-15)
• OpenStreetMap (Maps © OpenStreetMap contributors, CC-BY-SA) (verified 2018-10-15)
• A Vision of Britain Through Time - useful for Boundary Changes (verified 2018-10-15)
• www.magic.gov.uk (Modern Maps with various overlays) (verified 2018-10-15)

Resources

I have found many websites of use whilst compiling the information for this database. Here are some which deserve mention as being of special interest for Tedstone Wafer, and perhaps to Local History and Places of Worship as a whole.

• Learn more about Buildings of special or historical interest on the British Listed Buildings (null) (verified 2018-09-19)

The above links were selected and reviewed at the time I prepared the information, but please be aware their content may vary, or disappear entirely. These factors are outside my control.