The Tides of Kilpeck
A short film by Matthew-Robert Hughes
"The Tides of Kilpeck" is a visionary short film that delves into the depths of an imagined ancient history, intertwining the spirits and gods tethered to Kilpeck and the distant echoes of the older religions of our lands.
Nestled within the Hereford-Wales borderlands, with views of the Black Mountains and the Malvern Hills, Kilpeck Church stands as one of the UK's most enigmatic and mystical sacred sites. Constructed in the late 9th century, like many religious sites, it is a speculative example of the age-old tradition of erecting churches upon sites where communities have convened for rituals and gatherings since ancient times.
Today, pilgrims from around the globe embark on journeys to this hallowed ground, drawn to the intricately carved stonework of the Romanesque style by the Hereford School of Stone carvers. This Stonework adorns Kilpeck's façade. The entrance, reminiscent of a doorway from Tolkien's Rivendell, beckons with its ornate detailing, while the stone corbel table bears witness to a myriad of mythical creatures, earthly beasts, and performers who once graced local fairs.
Among the cherished carvings sits the revered Sheela-na-gig, a symbol steeped in the cycles of life — birth, fertility, death and protection. She embodies the essence of the Mother, the Maiden, the Crone, and the divine Feminine.
Standing in counterpart to the Sheela is the Green Man, etched into Kilpeck's southern doorway — a harbinger of rejuvenation and the eternal cycle of renewal. He embodies the untamed essence of nature, invoking echoes of the Horned God, Celtic Cernunnos, and Greek Pan.
In this cinematic journey, Ecclesia, a personification of the Church, emerges as a conduit to Kilpeck's mysteries — a guardian of its ancient wisdom and a bridge to nature-based religions of yore.
She calls the Sheela-na-gig, She calls The Green Man; was Kilpeck a place where they once danced under the moon, echoing tales of old loves and timeless friendship? Within Ecclesia's embrace dwell the remnants of old gods, goddesses, and mythical beings.
Carved in clay and sandstone, the mysteries of Kilpeck endure.
Supported by Arts Council Wales
Cast
Ecclesia: Isabel Jones
Sheela-na-gig: Blue Firth
Green Man: Matthew-Robert Hughes
Wyven: Martha Hand
Bear: Rachel Bowen
Written and Directed by Matthew-Robert Hughes
Director of Photography: Rebekah Lowri Llewelyn
Costumes: Her Mother the Mountain
Music: Stephen Crowe, Final Song: Isabel Jones
Voices: Isabel Jones, Stephen Crowe and Blue Firth
Hair and Makeup: Ashleigh Fisk
Editor: Rebekah Lowri Llewelyn
Ceramics: Matthew-Robert Hughes
Masks: Ashleigh Fisk & Her Mother the Mountain
Flowers: Layla Robison
Adapted from a commissioned original poem by Hannah Louise Saunders (read below)
Tides of Kilpeck Artist Editions
The Tides of Kilpeck
Ceramics
Ceramic stoneware objects made by Matthew are available as one of a kind editions, including a chalice, a plate, a vase, a jug and a candlestick.
Her Mother The Mountain
Habbits
As part of this project, Her Mother the Mountain made three beautiful habits. These are hand dyed using natural materials including iron, tea, nettle and turmeric. Motifs have been hand painted inspired by the designs and symbolism in and around Kilpeck
Commissioned Poem by Hannah Louise Saunders
A Dedicatory Incantation to Birth a Congregation of Spirit’
by Hannah Louise Saunders, 2022
ACT I
ECCLESIA
Here begins the cosmogony of one
not yet personified.
PRE-ECCLESIA
Awash with the greenness of jealous
gods.
PRE-ECCLESIA
The congregation assembles in
defiant forms.
PRE-ECCLESIA
Windows formed from the waters.
SHEELA-NA-GIG
The powers bid it the Devil’s
Gateway.
GREEN MAN
Scorning us as unsealer of that
forbidden tree.
ECCLESIA
Matter and Concepts hewn from bone.
SHEELA-NA-GIG
Adorning ourselves over tunics of
sandstone.
GREEN MAN
When Tertullian spoke of his
trinity, it is not we he envisaged.
ECCLESIA
But still we seek to birth a
congregation of spirit.
ACT 2
ECCLESIA
Ergyng; Archenfiled Moth-savaged names,
seldom uttered on the ears of our age.
ALL
Out with the ashes of an old order.
Feed them to the wyvern at the
window.
ECCLESIA
From gothic seeds at Saint-Denis
Dull minds rose to truth
through that which is material.
GREEN WOMAN
Peace, Land and Bread does not
sparkle like sardonyx.
SHEELA-NA-GIG
Porphyry does not line the bellies
of those lacking.
ECCLESIA
The moon hibernates in a chimney
pot, it’s a flighty thing,
shrinking and shaking, grease paint
smeared upon her lids,
made up in a lycanthropic shade.
GREEN WOMAN
As temperatures rise higher than
rockets,
the withering we desire is of the
state not the earth.
SHEELA-NA-GIG
From Hildegard to Hilma,
Mysticism on the pages now lap up
From the well spring.
ECCLESIA
Rooted in the red clay
The bridal chamber leaves me
chaste.
Whilst tongues ricocheted,
Round theapse as we slumbered.
GREENWOMAN
Common, moor and fen
Shall return to refuges of men
Not as‘nurseries of beggars’
But as class rooms, of class
struggle.
SHEELA-NA-GIG
No shame to be ascribed on us by
Patriarchal fiend.
Baubo, LajjāGaurī, Dilukái
At windows in my dreams.
ECCLESIA
Your likeness chiseled into me
Insedimentary strokes
Even I was brought to being
By the hammers blow
ACT III
ECCLESIA
Dubricious followed me
from Caerleon to Kilpeck.
I balance upon the dint of his tread,
there my head rests,
fits and serves like a hauberk.
GREEN WOMAN
Florid revolts
must take, not destroy,
power harbored and hoarded
True Levellers, arise!
SHEELA-NA-GIG
The apples they left me, I gorge
with delight.
ECCLESIA
The world was not turned upside
down, it capsized.
GREEN WOMAN
The waters find nourishment
from bloated masses of capital,
manifest in shapes of brutes
among the depths of the Wye.
SHEELA-NA-GIG
From the deserts of Almeria,
Indalo Man strode.
ECCLESIA
What news did he bring from the
folds of his rainbow?
GREEN WOMAN
That the language of flowers may
soon be a dead one.
SHEELA-NA-GIG
That the masses must enter the
congregation of spirit.