St Cuthbert, Holme Lacy

Prettily located on a bend in the River Wye, this delightful church is well worth a visit just to enjoy its rich collection of monuments, mainly of the wealthy Scudamore family, patrons of the church from the early 15th to the 20th century, and of the Lucas-Tooth family who bought the estate in 1909. Among the earliest are the reclining alabaster effigies of John Scudamore (died 1571) and his wife Sibell, with exquisite detail in his armour and her clothes. A large white and grey marble monument to a later Scudamore, James (died 1668) may be the work of Grinling Gibbons, and is lavishly decorated with garlands and cherubs. A Victorian monument to a naval captain shows a fleet of fully rigged ships. A later monument is a striking bronze figure to Edwyn Scudamore-Stanhope, who died in 1933. There is good stained glass, much of the 19th and 20th centuries though the chancel window is made up of fragments of medieval glass. Other treasures include the unusual 17th century font with its elegant stem and richly decorated bowl, and the carvings on the medieval stalls, showing angels, men, a horned demon and a dog.

A part of the Churches Conservation Trust.