All bookings must be made via Eventbrite please. This is not a drop in event – only visitors with tickets via Eventbrite may attend.
During house improvements and redecoration in 2018, the home owners of Church House Farm uncovered paintings which had been hidden by lathe and plaster, covered by woodchip wall paper and doubtless festooned with teenage posters. Unbeknownst to generations of the different families who lived in Church House Farm, an upper room was adorned with paintings dating from the Elizabethan era, covering wall and timber frame alike. What was revealed was an incredible piece of historical art indicating the status of the family living in the house at the time and the connection of Wellington with national and international decorative styles.
A report by Historic England states: The pattern of columns dividing the main bays of the decorative scheme rises as far as a large frieze which runs along the length of the east elevation. This has strapwork cartouches running along it, in various degrees of survival, alternating smaller panels with longer ones. The longer panels appear to have originally borne religious text. One to the south survives intact and states simply ‘Love God’. The cartouches are of a bare plaster colour, with shadowing picked out in grey and some pale green colouring. The background to the frieze is a pale orange colour. At the base of the wall is a decorative skirted pattern formed of geometric shapes, although only fragments of this survive.
Specially for Herefordshire Histories Festival, the home owner will be welcoming visitors to the house to see the decorated room, and giving an enthusiastic explanation and interpretation around the wall paintings.
You can reach Wellington via the 492 bus. If you are driving, there is parking at Wellington Community Centre, besides the school HR4 8AZ. Church House Farm is a few yards away, across the road from the car park and school.
Please be aware that the room with the wall paintings is upstairs. There is a sturdy banister and the raise on the stairs is not too high. The floor upstairs is a little uneven.