Cusop History Group

A visit to St. Mary’s Church, Cusop, today shows a typical small rural church of the Welsh Borders, situated within trees, in a large churchyard on a hill. It is listed as Grade II* which is allocated to particularly important buildings of more than special interest.  A number of the trees are ancient yews and the churchyard is round, these two facts suggesting that Cusop was a Pre-Christian site.  A measurement of the largest yew shows a girth of over thirty feet. Experts allow thirty five annual rings to the inch of radius, using this formula thirty feet equals over two thousand years of growth, and puts our yews back into pagan times. The nearness of Wales (the other side of the Dulas Brook) makes it possible that this was a Druid site; it is known that Druids favoured circular sites on hills and associated yew trees with fertility, death and the afterlife.  Whilst this is highly speculative, it is pretty certain that the site at Cusop was in use before Christ and long before the present building. The original dedication of the church was to the sixth century Celtic saint, Saint Cewydd. Very little is known of his life due to the scarcity of records in the early Dark Ages in Wales, however ten churches are associated with him including Aberedw and Disserth. Cewydd is the Welsh ‘Rain Saint’ and, like Saint Swithin, his day is 15 July when if it rains on that day it will continue for 40 days.  In fact the name Cusop is derived from Cewydd. Cewydd was the son of Caw of Prydyn (Pict Land) whose family, having been expelled from their territory in North Britain, sought refuge in Wales. 

Cusop church was given to Llantony Priory by Ranulp de Baskerville before 1141

Features of the original Norman Church can still be seen. There is Norman carving on the chancel arch and the small window to the west side of the main door is Norman. The north door is blocked but can easily be seen from outside, at the back of the church. There was once a rood loft and screen, in front of the chancel arch, but all that remains is the built-in doorway above the war memorial.
 
The font may date as far back as the 14th century. It is made of a single massive stone decorated with saltire crosses.

The roof of the church was constructed in the 14th century and timbers in the chancel are thought by experts to be older than this. 

Between 1853 and 1858 the curate Rev. Kearsey Thomas mobilised the community, donations were promised and money granted from the Church Building Society.  Mr St. Aubin was appointed architect and work began. Prior to restoration outside, the church was covered many coats deep with Reformation whitewash, while inside, a lath and plaster ceiling covered the whole church.  At restoration the outside whitewash was scraped away, disclosing the walled-up priests’ doorway in the north wall of the nave, the floor was raised, flagstones were laid, old pews removed, there was work on the windows and the old belfry from above the porch removed and a new porch built. A vestry was constructed on the north side of the church. However this work did remove much of the original character of the church.

The Woolhope Naturalists Field Club Visit to Cusop in 1899 contains detailed information on the character of the church prior to the restoration of Cusop Church and on Seward the Matyr's Grave. 

In 1922 a plaque was erected to remember those who gave their lives in the 1914-1918 War. This included two brothers Ronald and Eric Carwright from Rothbury, Cusop. For more details click here.

In 1961 a new bellcote was erected with six new bells. In the year 2000 a new Millennium window was designed by Nicola Hopwood and installed in the east window.
 

Treasures

Cusop Church has many treasures including registers going back to 1698 and a Welsh Prayer Book of 1664 which is fascinating when one considers that the English Prayer Book was printed in 1662. It also indicates that Welsh was probably the predominant language in Cusop Church at that time. The Prayer book is now in the Herefordshire Archives. Two centuries later, a brass plate was given to the church by the Revd Andrew Pope, who was mentioned in the famous diaries  of Revd Francis Kilvert. On the wall of the nave is a memorial dedicated to William Seward. He was a friend of the Wesleys and a lay preacher, speaking to large crowds in the open air. On one occasion in 1740, he spoke to a crowd in Hay who became so hostile that Seward had to withdraw.  Although  Miss Isabella Thomas says that he was stoned to death on Black Lion Green in the Woolhope paper of 1899,  evidence exists that William Seward did not die then but had a further wound added to those already inflicted in South Wales.  He died some days later at Broadmeadow Farm in Cusop.  Interestingly,  in the paper the paragraph at the end says that Miss Thomas'  father had the stone on Seward's grave restored and re-lettered. The date on the grave of 1742 is incorrect as Seward died in 1740.  Was this an original error or one made in 1857 when the lettering was re-cut?  His grave lies on the south side of the church under a magnificent yew tree. 

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This is a downloadable version of  The Story of Cusop  and a further document called Cusop Church - Through The Front Door  which contains many interesting extracts from the Cusop Parish Magazines from 1900-1950.  The original Cusop Parish magazines are held at the Herefordshire Archive Records Centre. 

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For more details on the History of Cusop Church, compiled  in 2019 by John Wilks, former Church Warden, including the Rectors and Curates click here.

 

To see a downloadable version of St Mary's Parish Church, Cusop - A brief guide compiled by Jackie Morris in May 1995 click here. 

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More information on the contents of the Churchwardens of Cusop Chest can be seen by clicking here.   For more details on the Church see the village website.

 

For more information on the ancient YEW trees see http://www.ancient-yew.org/userfiles/file/Cusop%20December%202014.pdf

The author Tim Hills can be contacted at tim@ancient-yew.org