Songs For A Summer Evening With ‘Timeless The Choir’
An Evening of Opera at Eastnor Castle 11 September 2025
Wild Arts Summer Season 2025
An Evening of Opera
At Eastnor Castle
Thursday 11th September
Doors open 6pm
Performance 7pm
Wild Arts returns to Herefordshire with an evening of operatic and musical hits in the wonderful surroundings of the Great Hall in Eastnor Castle. Follow our characters as they travel through 75 minutes of music, telling a story full of dramatic intrigue, jealously, comedy, idealism, and more.
Semi-staged by director James Hurley, the performance includes music from Handel, Mozart, Rossini, Puccini, Verdi, George Gershwin, Stephen Sondheim and more.
Enjoy a complementary glass of Prosecco before the performance, and soak up the atmosphere. An opportunity to dress up, and revel in the power of storytelling through music.
Tickets available HERE
Thanksgiving service for God’s creation with the blessing of animals 4 July 2025
led by Rev Joan Wakeling
4 July 2025 – The Woodshed Eastnor Deer Park, Ledbury
Blessing service starts at 6pm and this will last approximately 30 minutes
Café and Pizzeria open until 8pm
Parking and toilets are available on site
Important pet information: Pets of all shapes and sizes welcome. Please bring small pets in carry baskets or similar dogs, horses, goats and simmer must be on the lead and always.
Animal Waste: Please bring waste bags. There will be bins, buckets, and shovels on site for your use.
Seating: None. Standing only or bring your own chair.
Where: The Woodshed Eastnor Deer Park, Ledbury HR8 1RA
Donations to support Eastnor Church and the Anglican Society for the Welfare of Animals.
Eastnor Church Tower Appeal Committee End of Phase 1
The Eastnor Church Tower Appeal Committee was formed in November 2017 with the formidable task of fundraising, organising and overseeing the restoration of the 13th Century Tower, building an extension on the north side the church and the restoration of the bells.
With generous support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Herefordshire Historic Churches Trust, as well as a number of local charities and community fundraising, the committee has achieved its goals.
The extension has provided much needed toilet facilities and a store room, together with a beautiful oak servery at the back of the north aisle where hot refreshments are served after each service.
The committee has also installed a flat-screen TV and Wi-Fi in the church. These enable us to present videos about the history of the Church and allow access to the heritage materials that were catalogued and compiled as part of the project. The Wi-Fi connection has also enabled installation of a card reader giving terminal.
The final stage of this project was the installation of a new boiler and glass doors in the main entrance porch in November 2024, with latin cross manifestations on each door. The new boiler and glass doors will help us to heat the church more efficiently and control heat loss when the main door is opened.
The original oak benches were removed to allow the installation of the glass doors and will be modified and reinstalled in the front part of the porch.
This will provide a larger area behind the glass doors for people to gather before the main door is opened.
The projects which were planned in 2017 have now been completed. This has taken an incredible amount of work by the committee over a seven year period, raising funds and navigating obstacles with professional efficiency during the very difficult times of COVID and lockdown.
We see first hand the benefits which these improvements have brought to the church. The extension and servery in particular enable us to be more welcoming. This was significantly compromised before. With our growing church family, more stay after the service to chat with a hot drink and with the reassurance of facilities nearby should they be needed. The improvement in fellowship which this has brought is most evident in the atmosphere and friendships that are forged during and after the services. The enhanced facilities enable the village Primary School to continue regular use of the church and make it more appealing for weddings and community events.
These improvements have collectively enhanced the life of the church and we look forward to 2025 and beyond with the church very much at the centre of our local community. For this we are very grateful to all those individuals and institutions that have supported the renovation and extension project.
Project nears Completion
Work on Phase 2 of the Eastnor Church Renovation project is nearing completion. The extension to house the new toilet is nearly finished and the pictures below show the external cladding being installed by Jason and Jacob from Loxstone ltd
A new path is being laid with the assistance of church supporters, Humphey Brittan-Johnson and Max Hawkins.
The internal renovations are also nearing completion with the installation of a new servery and new doors to access the toilet area.
Phase 2 continues
Work is continuing on the next phase of the Eastnor Church renovation scheme. The erection of new toilet facilities accessible from the North Door was a key element of the second phase. The archaeological survey of the northern area was completed at the end of March and the wooden outline of the new extension can now be seen.
Return of The Bells
On Monday 14 March 2022, the bells were returned to Eastnor Church. The Reverend Joan Wakeling was there to bless the bells on their return. Over the following two days, new bell wheels were fitted by Alan Bagworth and the Revd Barney Bell. The original tenor bell will go into the Belfry and may be used as part of the clock strike.
Work has also started on the next phase of the renovation with an archaeological excavation of the area by the North Door where a new WC will be built. Archaeologist Elizabeth Connelly was hard at work in the spring sunshine.
Casting the new Tenor Bell
Six members of the bell ringing team led by Alan Bagworth went to John Taylor’s in Loughborough on Thursday 24 February to see the new Eastnor Tenor Bell being cast.
The mould for the bell is buried in sand for safety reasons and the molten metal is poured in through a 1″ hole! The team are hoping that the bells will be back for Easter.
Refurbishing the Eastnor Church Bells
Eastnor Church has a peal of 6 bells, the oldest bell dating back to 1689. However, the tenor bell has not been rung for two years as the headgear had failed. As part of the larger Tower Renovation project, it was agreed that all the bells should be removed for refurbishment this year.
In April 2021, a team of bell ringers and other helpers were assembled to firstly remove the wheels and clappers from the bells before the bells were lowered 70ft to the ground from the Tower. Whites of Appleton, a company specialising in bell repairs, were on hand to supervise the removal of the bells from the tower and their onward transfer to the Whites workshop where they will be retuned and refitted.
The bells were last lowered to the ground in 1926 and their refurbishment is well overdue. A seventh bell known as the Sanctus bell will also be refitted.
An excellent video made by Tim Keyes shows the process of the bells being lowered and then moved to the churchyard where children from Eastnor School were able to look at them. Alan Bagworth, the Ringing Master was on hand to answer questions about the bells and the renovation project.
Tower Renovation – Phase 1 complete
The scaffolding around the tower came down at the beginning of September. The stonemasons led by Ian Bishop under the supervision of our architect, John Middleton have now completed the external work to the tower. The clock face has been refurbished and the weather vane is now gleaming in the sunshine with a new layer of gold leaf.
Ian Stainburn, retired architect and advisor to the tower renovation committee, made the following remarks on completion, “I was able to pay them the ultimate compliment, I cannot see what you have done! The work has been well conceived and undertaken”.
An application for approval for a new servery and toilet facilities has now been made to the diocesan committee for church buildings with the work scheduled to begin in 2021.