Church Recording for St Andrew and St Mary, How Caple (in the diocese of Hereford)
The NADFAS Record of Church Furnishings 2015 by the ROSS-ON-WYE CHURCH RECORDERS' GROUP, commenced in 2012 during the incumbency of the Reverend Anne Knight and was completed in 2015.
The parish church of St. Andrew and St. Mary is situated above the east bank of the River Wye approximately 5½ miles upstream of Ross-on-Wye. The first church on this site may have been erected during the dark ages but little remains to be identified. However the parish is mentioned in the Domesday Book as being part of the property of the Canons of Hereford Cathedral and being in the "Greitreu Hundred" (Greytree Hundred).
In 1210, parts of the present church were erected. In 1310 in an ancient register of the See of Hereford, William Caple, Lord of Caple owed homage to the Bishop of Hereford as payment for a Knight's fee at the Royal Court. The Caple family over the next 100 years refurbished the church and added the porch.
In 1677 Sir William Gregory, at the time MP and Speaker for the House Of Commons, purchased the estate and church from the Caples. In 1691 he refurbished the church, rebuilding the nave, fitting the fine screen and adding the tower, and south transept.
The benefice was united in 1743 with Sollars Hope. In 1885 the church was closed for restoration by Thomas Nicholson (the diocesan architect) who had the walls scraped of plaster, the wooden ceilings exposed, and the floor resurfaced with wooden blocks and tiles. It was reopened in 1887.
The church deteriorated quickly and in 1901 the estate was bought by Lennox Bertram Lee, who started to carry out many improvements to the church. These included excellent 20th century glass and woodwork. Lennox B. Lee wrote an extensive history of the church and the Lee family still retain the estate and support the Church in many ways.
The Record has been sponsored by The Arts Society Ross-on-Wye (previously the Ross-on-Wye Decorative and Fine Arts Society).
Interior Looking East
Church Plan