than the south doorway. Its carved figures are said to have been inspired by those on the "Puerta de las Platerias" at Santiago de Compostela. Both Pevsner and Jenkins suggest Ferrara Cathedral as a closer inspiration. The ceiling boss or keystone of the apse depicts four lions' heads. There is a massive baptismal font of polished conglomerate, a curious holy water stoup, shaped like a fat, tightly girdled torso (brought from a chapel near Wormbridge), and a rare Romanesque font-stopper. Jenkins suggests that the stoup represents a woman in pregnancy. A very simple belfry now rises from the roof; although its design is in keeping with that of the rest of the church, it is a 19th-century addition. Elsewhere too, the restoration and necessary modernization of the church have conserved it well. The church is a Grade I listed building. Churchyard The churchyard contains the war grave of a World War II King's Shropshire Light Infantry officer, west of the church. In literature The church is the subject of the short story Sheela-na-Gig by British poet, novelist and filmmaker B. S. Johnson. Jeff Nuttall, in his 1954 unpublished Masters thesis, The Church of St. Mary & St. David Kilpeck, concluded that: "My intended detachment was completely destroyed. The building refused to be seen as an arrangement in stone, as the key to a time and a tradition, or as a piece in the jig-saw puzzle of art history. It stood unavoidably as a work of art, the timeless expression of a vision experienced under that same sun which now winked at me through the deep yew tree." References Sources Bailey, James. The parish church of St Mary and St David at Kilpeck. 2000. A booklet, available within the church, that describes the church. No publisher is specified. Lewis, G[eorge] R. "Illustrations of Kilpeck church, Herefordshire." 1979. Pamphlet derived from a book of 1842. Further reading St Mary and St David, Kilpeck, Herefordshire. A description of the architecture, sculpture and history of Kilpeck church, published by The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland. External links Church services at Kilpeck Kilpeck Church group on Flickr Churches completed in 1140 12th-century church buildings in England Church of England church buildings in Herefordshire Diocese of Hereford Grade I listed churches in Herefordshire English churches with Norman architecture