TO CELEBRATE the 900th anniversary of its Norman nave, Leominster Priory in Herefordshire is hosting a multi-arts festival this summer, an occasion that the Team Rector, the Revd Guy Cole, describes as an effort to “reconnect people with their story through the Priory”.
The festival, which includes free and paid-for events, is on until 14 July. Schools, community groups, and churches from the surrounding areas have been invited to take part in Leominster’s programme of art exhibitions, heritage walks and talks, craft workshops, dramas, concerts, and church services.
One highlight of the festivities is an art installation including a display of eight actual-size photographic replicas of scenes in the Bayeux Tapestry. Fr Cole said that the photos were “hanging in the Norman nave at what is thought to have been the height that it would’ve originally been displayed in Bayeux Cathedral”.
One of the three women depicted in the tapestry, and the only one to be named, is Ælfgyva, who is thought to have been the last Abbess of Leominster. “So she’s rather important for us,” Fr Cole said.
Artworks inspired by the Priory’s history and created by students and staff from Hereford College of Arts and from the University of Worcester will also be on display.
The Director of Music at Leominster Priory and the project manager for the festival, Hilary Norris, said that one of her favourite events in the programme was a concert in which 250 children from ten local schools sang, danced, and performed with puppets to tell the 900 years of history. “It was jam-packed; hundreds of people were there. The kids were learning about history but also about spirituality,” she said.
“I think history is integral to faith. We have to understand who we are to understand anybody, God or anything else.”
About 280 children also took part in a pilgrimage walk to the Priory, some walking for two hours. Along the way, they visited West Eaton Nursing Home, where the children spoke with elderly residents and had refreshments. On arrival at the Priory, they were greeted by monks from Belmont Abbey, in Herefordshire.
To illustrate how the church has changed over the past 900 years, a new film, Priory Time Travel, shows the architectural elements that have been added and lost. It will run throughout the festival.
Another focus will be an exploration of the Herefordshire school of Romanesque sculpture, which is “represented in Leominster Priory by the Norman nave’s west doorway and the window above it”. These feature carvings of animals, birds, human figures, and foliage that flourished in the area in the second quarter of the 12th century. Talks by architectural historian, Robert Walker, will explore the church’s sculptures in the context of Norman influence in the region.
