Church Monument of the Month - October 2021 - St Cosmas & St Damian, Stretford

The church of St Cosmas & St Damian at Stretford is one of Herefordshire’s most rural and un-spoilt. Within the church there are four effigies representing two couples; each couple is carved from the same block of red sandstone. They both lie on the floor under an ached recess in the north wall of the nave.

The knights wear basinet’s with attached aventail, hauberk with the hands bare. The coat-armour is short in the front and long at the back, which is held around the waist by a narrow belt with a circular buckle placed centrally. This type of coat-armour is rarely seen on effigies and short-lived and perceived as a transitional garment from the common long gown to the short tight-fitting examples.

One of the knights wears mail stockings whereas the second, the legs are smooth with sabatons protecting the feet. Clearly one effigy wearing stockings or hose is made to look older than the other as he is wearing more up-to-date armour; these very likely represent a father and son and probably commissioned by the son to form part of a chantry chapel that perhaps once existed in the church. They would have been made locally as the workmanship is not of quality with no undercutting having taken place and fairly flat. Both females wear a veil, wimple, tunic, and closely fitting shoes.

From the heraldry on the knights shields; a bend cotised between six martlets, they can be identified as members of the de la Bere family and can be dated c.1345/50. Robert is recorded holding the manor of Stretford in 1316 but by 1330 Richard is recorded holding it. Richard must have died sometime after 1346.

Special thanks to the Church Monuments Society for writing this blog. You can find out more about what they do here