Richards Castle Herefordshire and Shropshire Family History

Richard’s Castle is an Ancient Parish partly in Herefordshire and partly in Shropshire.

Other places in the parish include: Moor and Batchcott, Overton, Woofferton, Woolferton.

Parish church: St. Bartholomew

Parish registers begin: 1559

Nonconformists include: Primitive Methodist, Roman Catholic, and Wesleyan Methodist Association.

Parishes adjacent to Richard’s Castle

Historical Descriptions

Richard’s Castle

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

RICHARDS-CASTLE, a village in Hereford, and a parish partly also in Salop, but all in the district of Ludlow. The village stands adjacent to the boundary with Salop, 1¾ mile W N W of Woofferton r. station, and 3½ S S W of Ludlow; and was once a market-town. The parish includes the townships of Woofferton, Overton, Moor, and Batchcott; and its post town is Ludlow. Acres of the Hereford portion, 2,446. Real property, £2,365. Pop., 313. Houses, 67. Acres of the Salop portion, 2, 425. Real property, £4, 169. Pop., 397. Houses, 76. The property is all in one estate. A castle was built here, before the Norman conquest, by Richard Scrope; and has left some traces. The royalists were routed, in the vicinity, in 1645, by Col. Birch. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Hereford. Value, £745. Patron, the Bishop of Worcester. The church is old but good, and has a detached tower.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

RICHARD’S-CASTLE (St. Bartholomew), a parish, in the union of Ludlow, partly in the hundred of Wolphy, county of Hereford, and partly in the hundred of Munslow, S. division of Salop, 4 miles (S. S. W.) from Ludlow, on the road to Leominster; containing 656 inhabitants, of whom 343 are in Salop. The parish comprises 4829 acres, of which 2000 are arable, 1500 pasture, 898 woodland, and 183 common or waste: good limestone is quarried. The river Teme separates the lower part from Woolferton; and the Leominster canal passes on the south-east. The higher part of Haye Park runs up to the High Vinealls, which commands most extensive prospects, including the Wrekin to the north, the Black mountains and the Sugar-Loaf on the south-west, the Gloucestershire hills, the Malvern hills, Abberley hills, Clee hills, and the beautiful and rich champagne of Herefordshire and Worcestershire. A charter for a market and a fair was granted by King John, but both have been long disused. The living is a rectory, valued in the king’s books at £15. 1. 3., and in the gift of the Bishop of Worcester: the tithes have been commuted for £650, and there are 109½ acres of glebe. The church, situated in the county of Hereford, is a fine old structure with some beautiful remains of stained glass, and had formerly a spire, which was burned down several years since. A school is supported by the gentry of the parish. Some remains exist of the keep and walls of a castle built by Richard Scrope, in the reign of Edward the Confessor, but they are so embosomed in wood as to be scarcely perceptible: on the declivity of its mount, 2000 royalists under Sir Thomas Dundesford were defeated in the civil war, by an inferior force headed by Col. Birch. A spring in the parish, called Boney well, is remarkable for casting up small fish or frog bones in spring and autumn.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848

SHROPSHIRE GAZETTEER 1824

Richard’s Castle. A parish partly in Wolfy hundred, in the county of Hereford, partly in the hundred of Munslow. The entire parish contains 490 inhabitants. The Shropshire part including the townships of Moor, with Batchcott, Overton and Woolverton, 51 houses, 261 inhabitants. 4 miles south-west of Ludlow.

Source: The Shropshire Gazetteer, with an Appendix, including a Survey of the County and Valuable Miscellaneous Information, with Plates. Printed and Published by T. Gregory, Wem, 1824

Batchcott

Gregory Shropshire Gazetteer 1824

Batchcott. A township in the parish of Richard’s Castle, (which parish is mostly in the county of Hereford) and in the hundred of Munslow. 2 ½ miles south-west by west of Ludlow. 29 houses.

Source: The Shropshire Gazetteer, with an Appendix, including a Survey of the County and Valuable Miscellaneous Information, with Plates. Printed and Published by T. Gregory, Wem, 1824

Moor with Batchcot

SHROPSHIRE GAZETTEER 1824

Moor with Batchcot. A township in the parish of Richard’s Castle, and in the hundred of Munslow. 2 ½ miles south-west of Ludlow.

Source: The Shropshire Gazetteer, with an Appendix, including a Survey of the County and Valuable Miscellaneous Information, with Plates. Printed and Published by T. Gregory, Wem, 1824

Overton

SHROPSHIRE GAZETTEER 1824

Overton. A township in the parish of Richard’s Castle, and in the hundred of Munslow. 12 houses.

Source: The Shropshire Gazetteer, with an Appendix, including a Survey of the County and Valuable Miscellaneous Information, with Plates. Printed and Published by T. Gregory, Wem, 1824

Woolferton

A TOPOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF ENGLAND 1831

WOOLFERTON, a township in that part of the parish of Richard’s Castle which is in the hundred of Munslow, county of Salop, 3 miles (S. E.) from Ludlow. The population is returned with the parish. The Stourport canal passes through the township.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1831

Administration

  • County: Shropshire
  • Civil Registration District: Ludlow
  • Probate Court: Court of the Bishop of Hereford (Episcopal Consistory)
  • Diocese: Hereford
  • Rural Deanery: Ludlow
  • Poor Law Union: Ludlow
  • Hundred: Munslow
  • Province: Canterbury