Wednesday 22 April 2026 

The Friends of the RWA are delighted to present a Spring day full of art and history at St Mary’s Kempley and Hellens Manor on the Gloucestershire-Herefordshire border. 

Full Costs 

Come with us to the church of St Mary’s Kempley with its original Norman doors and the oldest timber roof in England.  Most remarkably, it contains some of the best-preserved medieval wall paintings in Britain. Those in the chancel, from the early 12th century, are the most complete set of Romanesque frescoes in Europe.  The paintings showed the illiterate congregation Bible stories, the lives of the saints, and terrifying visions of demons and eternal damnation.  

From St Mary’s we go to Hellen's Manor: a living monument to much of England’s history. After lunch (included), there is a guided tour of the house.  

Hellen's offers a unique blend of architectural styles, from its 12th century foundations to later Tudor, Jacobean and Georgian additions, and a history of links with rulers and power brokers. It is a private home rather than a museum, and while its collections contain items associated with Ann Boleyn, Mary Tudor, and Elizabeth 1,  they also reflect the tastes and fortunes of the families who lived at the Manor. There are pictures by Van Dyck, Hogarth and Gainsborough, as well as miniatures by Nicolas Hilliard and Samuel Cooper.  Highlights include the painted bedchamber prepared for Mary Tudor and the panelled music room with its English Renaissance frieze, as well as “Hetty Walwyn’s Room”, named after a girl whose mother confined her there until her death following a failed elopement.  

After the tour, you will be free to visit the gardens, which include a knot garden, a yew labyrinth, a physic garden and a 17th century octagonal dovecote. There is also a shop selling juices, jams, chutneys and honey from the estate. 

Please note that there is wheelchair access only to parts of the ground floor.