Almeley, Herefordshire Family History Guide

Almeley is an Ancient Parish in the county of Herefordshire.

The hamlet of Woonton is 1¾ miles from the church. The other hamlets are Logaston and Houghton or Wootton half a mile north on the road from Hereford to Kington Hopley’s Green is 1 mile north north east. Logaston is 1 mile east. Upcott Cross half a mile south. Meer Common 2 miles north east and the Stocks 1½ north east.

Parish church: St. Mary

Parish registers begin: 1595

Nonconformists include: Primitive Methodist and Society of Friends/Quaker.

There is a Primitive Methodist chapel at Wootton, built in 1870; a Friends meeting house with a burial ground attached, and another Friends meeting house at Woonton built in 1888.

The soil is clayey subsoil red sandstone marl with gravel in some parts. The chief crops wheat barley oats and turnips. The area of the is 3,441 acres of land and 8 of water rateable value 4.612 population in 1901 500.

Parishes adjacent to Almeley

Historical Descriptions

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

ALMELEY, or Almerley, a parish in Weobly district, Hereford; on Kington railway, 4½ miles SE of Kington. It includes the township of Hopley’s Green and Logarston. Post Town, Weobley. Acres, 3,352. Real property, £3,922. Pop., 637. Houses, 140. The property is much subdivided. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Hereford. Value, £254. Patron, the Bishop of Worcester. The church is ancient, had once a chantry, and was recently restored.

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

Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales 1850

Almeley, 13 m. S.W. Leominster. P. 642.

Source: Leonard’s Gazetteer of England and Wales; Second Edition; C. W. Leonard, London; 1850.

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

ALMELEY (St. Mary), a parish, partly in the hundred of Wolphy, but chiefly in that of Stretford, union of Weobley, county of Hereford, 4½ miles (S. E.) from Kington, near the road to Hereford; containing 642 inhabitants. It comprises 3352 acres, of which 1500 are meadow and pasture, 1300 arable, and 552 woodland; the surface is undulated and extensively wooded, and the soil, for the most part, is a sandy loam, having a wet sub-soil of marl and clay. A tram railway for the conveyance of coal from Brecon to Kington, passes through the parish. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king’s books at £6. 17. 11.; patron and appropriator, the Bishop of Hereford. The great tithes have been commuted for £300, and the vicarial for £207. 10.; the appropriate glebe contains 19, and the vicarial 55, acres. The church is partly Norman, and partly in the English style. About three-quarters of a mile north-west of it, was probably once a castle; part of the ditch, &c., being traceable, and the farm there called Old Castle. Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, executed in 1417 for his attachment to the Lollards, was a native of the parish.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848

Directories

Almeley Kelly’s Directory of Herefordshire 1909 – Google Books

Almeley Kellys Herefordshire Directory 1863

Almeley is a parish and village, 10 miles north-west from Hereford, 5 from Kington (polling town), and 4 from Weobley (petty sessional town), in Stretford and Wolphy hundreds, Weobley union and rural deanery, Kington county court district, and Hereford archdeaconry and bishopric; it is situated on the Brecon and Kington tram-road. The church of St. Mary is an old stone building in the Gothic style, restored by cleaning the stone pillars and bringing out the handsome old oak ceiling about 1843; it has a nave, aisles, miniature transepts, porch, chancel, organ, vestry, mid tower with 5 bells and a clock. The register dates from 1595. The living is a vicarage, worth £207 10s. yearly, with residence and 59a. 3r. 8p. of glebe land, in the gift of the Bishop of Worcester; the Rev. William Edwards, M.A., of Christ College, Cambridge, is the Incumbent. There is a National school for 60 children, supported by yearly subscriptions. There are vestiges of a camp near the church, also a barrow. The population in 1861 was 637; the area is 3,352a. 2r. 21p., including the whole parish with all townships. The soil is clayey; the subsoil, red sandstone, marl, with gravel in some parts. Richard Foley Onslow, Esq., is lord of the manor; and Richard Foley Onslow, Esq., Edward Southall, Esq., T. Downes, Esq., and R. S. Cox, Esq., are chief landowners. The villages are Woonton, about 1 mile from the church, and Almeley, surrounding the church. The hamlets are Hopley’s Green and Logaston, and Houghton or Wootton; but none of these have any separate officers.

Hopley’s Green is a hamlet, 1 mile north-north-east, in Wolphy hundred. The area Is about 400 acres. Miss Elizabeth Foley is lady of the manor; Miss Elizabeth Foley and F. Downes, Esq., are chief landowners.

Logaston is a hamlet, 1 mile east, in Wolphy hundred. The area is about 200 acres. Miss E. Foley is lady of the manor; and Miss E. Foley, Mrs. Onslow, and Miss Pember are chief landowners. Newport House is the residence of Richard Foley Onslow, Esq., J.P.

Upcott Cross, Meer Common, and The Stocks are places are.

Parish Clerk, John Harper

Edwards Rev, William, M.A., J.P. The Vicarage

Onslow Richd. Foley, esq. J.P. Newprt. ho

Williams Henry Hunter, esq

COMMERCIAL.

Baird Henry, beer retailer

Ball Thomas, farmer, New house

Bowcott John, boot & shoe maker

Dnvies John, farmer, Ahneley Wootton

Ford James, farmer, Bridge

Foster Thomas, farmer, Old Castle

Griffiths Thomas, Buck inn, Wootton

Hankins Joseph, farmer, Woonton

Hankins Richard, farmer, Upcott

Harper John, wheelwright, Woonton

Jenkins Wm. farmer, Hopley’s green

Jones Edward, farmer & cattle dealer, The Stocks

Lilwall William, farmer, Woonton

Lloyd Thomas, cooper & shopkeeper

Mainwaring James, farmer, Upcott

Michael William, tailor

Ovens John, farmer, Meer common

Price John, blacksmith, Woonton

Pritchard Ann (Mrs.), farmer, Logaston

Prosser Thomas, shopkeeper, Wootton

Russell Joseph, Plough, Woonton

Shears James, farmer, Lower Wootton

Smith Samuel, farmer, Lower Wootton

Sneade John, farmer

Stimson James, farmer

Vale John, carpenter

Vaughan William, shopkeeper

Wall William, farmer, Hopley’s green

Williams Thomas, Bell, & blacksmith

Williams Thomas, carpenter

Post Office, Wootton. — Mrs. Isabella Treherne, postmistress. Letters arrive from Hereford at 8.30 a.m.; dispatched at 3.30 p.m. The nearest money order office is at Eardisley.

National School (mixed), John Miller, master; Mrs. Martha Miller, mistress

Source: Post Office Directory of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire and the City of Bristol, Printed and Published by Kelly and Co., Old Boswell Court, St. Clement’s, Strand, London. 1863.

Administration

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