GARWAY : CHURCH OF ST MICHAEL (HEREFORDSHIRE)
Church Post Code HR2 8RL
Open to visitors
Visited March 2026
It was a bright and sunny afternoon in March 2026, and we were part way through what had been a churchcrawl in to Herefordshire and Worcestershire; with the primary destination being the fabulous Norman church at Kilpeck. We headed briefly in to Wales, visiting the churches at Grosmont and Skenfrith. These were the first churches that I had visited out of England; popping across the border for a brief while in order to claim, in my mind, a title of international churchcrawler!
It was in the second of these churches, the church of St Bridget at Skenfrith, that I met a fellow churchcrawler who passed on his local knowledge and gave us three churches to visit on the way home; the second of these being the church of St Michael at Garway which he described as being a very important Knights Templar church.
The village of Garway can be found on a hillside above the River Morrow, some 11 miles east of Ross on Wye, where we were to visit later, and 13 miles south of Hereford; the population of the parish as a whole including a few scattered hamlets being 450 at the time of the census of 2021. The border between England and Wales is a very short distance away to the west and we were back on the English side of it.
In terms of history; this is a remarkable place! It is thought that there has been a church here for more than 1400 years, with an original wooden structure built as far back as 600AD. The structure that we see today was built by the Knights Templars around 1180 on land given to them by King Henry II.
The Knights Templars were a medieval Christian order, formed around 1119 to protect pilgrims travelling to the Holy Lands. They combined monastic vows of poverty and chastity with military force. They became rich and powerful bankers before being dissolved in 1312; primarily due to King Philip IV of Frances who was heavily in debt to the Templars following wars with England. By having them arrested on false charges, with the organisation dissolved; the debt was cancelled. . The church here was passed on to the Knights of St John, the Knights Hospitallers in 1326.
The church that the Templars built at Garway is one of most intact surviving Templar churches, with other major survivals being the Temple Church in London, the Holy Sepulchre (Round Church) in Cambridge, the Temple Church at Bristol and Temple Balsall in Warwickshire. Those with an interest in the Templars might like to know that there is a page on this site for Temple Bruer in Lincolnshire; the second wealthiest Templar property in England, which has a fascinating surviving tower, covered in graffiti.
The church that we see today consists of tower, which is offset to the north west and which stands at an angle to the rest of the building, nave, chancel and south chapel. Templar churches were noted for rounded naves, with their churches being modelled directly after the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. That was the case here with excavations in 1927 uncovering the foundation of a rounded wall line to the north.
Approaching the church from the west, the visitor is immediately struck by the sheer size of the tower. This was originally built for defensive purposes at the start of the 13th century and stood free from the rest of the church; only being connected to nave during the 15th century. This tower acted as a safe refuge in case of border disputes with the Welsh in what were turbulent times.
It is interesting to see the symbol of a fortified structure used on some Doom paintings. On the remarkable preserved Doom at the church of St Peter at Wenhaston in Suffolk those deemed to be righteous on the Day of Judgement are taken off to Heaven, which is depicted in the form of a fortified building. In war like times this would be a symbol which people would identify with and indicates the hostile nature of the day. To be fair, times haven’t changed much but I suspect that a single tower would be less secure now that it was then!
The church itself is quite basic with no aisles or clerestories, with a bricked in doorway and window to the north in the area of the excavated circular foundations. This opens up to a fairly large chancel and south chapel. Looking at the church from the east there is a fair sized gradient from south to north.
Looking around the exterior there are some interesting carvings. We see the Dextera Dei, the hand of God, which emerges from a cloud. We also see the Agnus Dei, the Lamb of God and a winged dragon.
A short guide directs the onlooker to a series of carved crosses on the exterior walls, which interestingly includes a Swastika. Those seeing a Swastika will immediately think of Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers Party. However, this symbol was adopted by Hitler in 1920 and has a history dating back more than 6000 years. The swastika was a Christian symbol, known as a Gammadion Cross, taking the form of a normal cross with each arm bent over at a 90 degree angle.
It is interesting to see the attitude shown today to symbols whose meaning has altered over the centuries. On a tour of a Lincolnshire Abbey some years back, a knowledgeable entertaining and thorough guide gave a fascinating tour of the church. She avoided mentioning a pentagram when noting some other graffiti. At the end I asked her why she had not mentioned this, “It shouldn’t be here was her reply”. Today the pentagram is associated with the occult but when it was carved it was seen as a Christian symbol symbolising the five wounds of Christ. On that basis it should have been there.
Among the carvings we also see a Cross Potent, which is a cross which has arms ending in a ‘T’ shape. These were associated with the Roman Catholic Church; which is right and proper given that the country was Roman Catholic at the time that this would have been carved. This symbol is also associated with the Crusades; which again is more than reasonable given that this is a Knights Templar church. There is also a Maltese Cross which is a symbol that is more associated with the Knights Hospitallers.
A selection of carvings from the exterior. From left to right the Hand of God, the Swastika, the Cross Potent and Maltese Cross.
There are five bells in the ring here, with four of the ring being attributed to Abraham I Rudhall who worked out of Gloucester with the third of the ring cast in 1904 by Llewellins and James of Bristol in 1904. I am assuming that Rudhall re-cast existing bells in 1710 but I have not found any information of the bells pre 1710 or any information on the inscriptions on the current bells.
It was peaceful and calm, the sun was shining and the daffodils were in full bloom; there was a little warmth in the air for the first time. A day out of the daily grind, looking at something beautiful and historic! We were a long way from home, just over 150 miles according to Google Maps; was it worth making the journey? Heck yes!
The church was open to visitors; like every other church visited so far that day. Moving inside it is immediately obvious that this is a very historic church, albeit with the work of the Victorian restorers evident. It was bright and welcoming inside with the lack of stained glass windows helping in that respect.
Taking an initial look we see that the nave has a barrel roof with two tie beams. Looking to the east we see a fine 12th century semi-circular chancel arch, of three orders, with the outer two orders featuring a chevron design. The inner order is of a flat faced design in Islamic style. The capitals are carved with a water leaf design but one carving to the south resembles a Green Man but is almost cat like in appearance.
To the north of the chancel arch is the doorway which would have led out on to the rood loft, where the rood itself would have stood; a carving of the crucifixion with Mary the Mother of Jesus and John standing alongside the cross. These were a staple part of pre reformation churches until the reformers deemed them idolatrous; worshiping the image rather than God, being taken down and destroyed accordingly.
The sanctuary is plain and simple. The stone altar is furnished with a cross and candlesticks with a close look showing some carvings of crosses. There is no reredos, no sedilia or piscina against the south wall with there being a bay instead which leads in to the south chapel.
Standing at the chancel and looking west it was great to see a flight of uncovered steps which would have led up to the rood loft; a slight amount of wear of some of the steps suggesting many thousands of pairs of feet using them over hundreds of years.
Steps such as these are usually enclosed and it was great to see these. I stood a few moments and as always tried to visualise what things must have been like here back in medieval times. The hustle and bustle of a medieval church; the sounds of prayers chanted, the prayers of the Knights being lifted up towards Heaven in the clouds of billowing incense.
My goodness, what tales these stones could tell! I was in a church to the west of Peterborough once and the church warden said to me that the church there resounded with the prayers of getting on for 900 years. Well, that is definitely the case here!
The south chapel was rebuilt during the 16th century and there is a very interesting piscina against the south wall. This dates from the 13th century and has some interesting carvings; with a fish to the left as we look at it and a serpent to the right, both looking upwards to a central image which is a winged cross which appears to be on top of a stand of some kind. A little internet research shows that each of these symbols was associated with both the Templars and the Hospitallers. Interesting though to see that the carvings around the piscina looked to be lightly scratched in to the wall and perhaps they might have been added later than the piscina was positioned. Perhaps we see an addition after the church passed in to the Hospitallers’ hands?
The octagonal font I have seen described as dating from the 12th, 13th or 14th centuries, with one further site suggesting that it is modern and made by Freemasons! I have gone with the official listing which suggests 14th century with a serpent wrapped around a cross.
The church grounds are maintained to encourage wildlife and a sign list those species which make their home there. Wildlife aside, there is nothing of any great interest in the church grounds. There are though the bases of two medieval churchyard crosses, each of which have a more modern top. Two chest tombs and a few late 17th century gravestones have their own Grade II Listing but nothing of any great interest.
It had been an early start and it was going to be a late finish and it was time to hit the road again. The trip had started out to be a visit simply to Kilpeck and Ross On Wye, where we heading towards next. It turned out to be a seven church crawl with three of those courtesy of the churchcrawler at Skenfrith who was kind enough to share his local knowledge. All seven churches on the day were open and it was a very good churchcrawl; possibly one of the best’ with an area that was filled with beautiful and historic buildings; it was a heck of a long way from home though!