Aymestrey, Herefordshire Family History Guide

Aymestrey is an Ancient Parish in the county of Herefordshire.

Other places in the parish include: Conhope, Covenhope, Mortimer's Cross, Yatton, Over Lye, Shirley, and Nether Lye.

Parish church: St. John and St. Alkmund

Parish registers begin: 1568

Nonconformists include: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Primitive Methodist, and Wesleyan Methodist.

Parishes adjacent to Aymestrey

• Byton
• Leinthall Earles
• Kinsham
• Shobdon
• Kingsland

Historical Descriptions

Aymestrey

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

AYMESTREY, a township and a parish in Leominster district, Hereford. The township lies on the river Lug, 3½ miles NNW of Kingsland r. station, and 7 NW of Leominster. The village in it is pleasant; the neighbouring banks of the Lug are singularly rich and beautiful; and a circumjacent limestone formation is famous for fossils picked up either in quarries or on the public road. Real property, £1,893. The parish includes also the townships of Leinthall-Earls, Nether-Lye, Over-Lye, Yatton, Shirley, and Covenhope or Conhope; and its Post Town is Kingsland, Herefordshire. Acres, 6,349. Real property, with Elton and Leinthall-Starkes, £8,324. Pop., 855. Houses, 178. The property is much sub divided. Traces of Roman and British camps are near the village. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Hereford. Value, £249. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church is good. The p. curacy of Leinthall-Earls is a separate charge. Two endowed schools, an almshouse, and other charities, have aggregately an income of £50.

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

The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales 1851

Aymestrey, or Aylmistree, a parish partly in the hund, of Stretford, and partly in that of Wigmore, union of Leominster, county of Hereford; 8 miles north-west from Leominster. It comprises the townships of Conhope, Aymestrey, and Over Lye. Living, a discharged vicarage in the archd. and dio. of Heretord; rated at £7 14s. 2d.; gross income £253; in the patronage of the Crown. There are a charity school here, with an endowment of about £14 per annum, now in connection with the National school society, and two other daily schools. Other charities connected with the parish produce about £19 per annum. The river Lugg runs through this parish, and its banks here are singularly rich and beautful. Near the village are traces of Roman and British camps. Pop., in 1801, 779; in 1831, 1,006. Houses 195. Acres 7,070. A. P. £5,020. Poor rates, in 1837, £482.

Source: The Parliamentary Gazetteer of England and Wales; A Fullarton & Co. Glasgow; 1851.

Leonard's Gazetteer of England and Wales 1850

Aymestry, 10 miles S.W. Ludlow. P. 958

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

A Topographical Dictionary of England Herefordshire 1845

Aymestrey (St. John and St. Alkmund), a parish, in the union of Leominster, consisting of the townships of Conhope and Over Lye, in the hundred of Stretford, and the townships of Aymestrey, Mortimer's-Cross, Nether Lye, Shirley, and Yatton, and the chapelry of Leinthall-Earls, in the hundred of Wigmore, county of Hereford, 8 miles (N. W.) from Leominster; containing 958 inhabitants. This parish, which is intersected by the river Lugg, comprises by computation 5721 acres, of which 1926 are arable, 2355 meadow and pasture, 1405 woodland, and about 35 garden ground: limestone abounds in the vicinity. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the King's books at £7. 14. 2., and in the patronage of the Crown; net income, £249; impropriators, Bishop of Hereford and Mrs. Lewis. There is a chapel of ease at Leinthall-Earls, a very ancient structure. Here are two schools, with small endowments. Traces of Roman and British camps are discernible near the village.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis Fifth Edition Published London; by S. Lewis and Co., 13, Finsbury Place, South. M. DCCC. XLV.

Yatton

Lewis Topographical Dictionary of England 1845

Yatton, a township, in the parish of Aymestrey, union of Leominster, hundred of Wigmore, county of Hereford; containing 214 inhabitants.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis Fifth Edition Published London; by S. Lewis and Co., 13, Finsbury Place, South. M. DCCC. XLV.

Directories

Aymestrey Kellys Herefordshire Directory 1863

Aymestrey is a parish, comprising the townships of Aymestrey, Covenhope, Leinthall Earles, Lye, and Yatton; the village is distant 7½ miles north-west from Leominster (its post, railway, poor-law union, market and polling town), 2½ from Wigmore (at which place petty sessions are held), and 18 from Hereford (the county town), in the Leominster division of Wigmore hundred and partly in Stretford hundred, Leominster union and rural deanery of Leominster, North Herefordshire, Hereford archdeaconry and bishopric; it is situated on the Great Watling Street turnpike road, and on the river Lug, which is famous for its trout and grayling fishing. The church of St. John is an old stone building in the Early English style; it has a square tower containing 6 bells, an ancient monument (supposed to be to the memory of the founder and his wife), font, clock, and old register, and on the south side of the chancel is a fine specimen of herringbone masonry. The living is a vicarage, worth £400 yearly, including residence and about 30 acres of glebe land, in the gift of the Lord Chancellor; the Rev. John Rogers, M.A., of St. John's College, Cambridge, is the incumbent, and the Rev. J. J. Peglar, B.A., curate.

There is an Endowed school for boys and girls, and there is a Sunday school held at the school-room. Yatton Court, the property of Mrs. Lewis, is a modern stone building, pleasantly situated on the banks of the river Lug. There are quarries of limestone in the neighbourhood, possessing the peculiar strata for which Aymestrey is noted, and in the stone fossils are found. The population in 1861 was 855; the soil is loose gravelly land; the subsoil is limestone. T. Dunne, Esq., Sir Thomas Hastings, Lady Langdale, Lord Bateman, and Mrs. Lewis, are chief landowners. The chief crops are wheat and barley.

Covenhope is a township, about 1 mile from the village.

Leintiiall Earles is a township and chapelry, 2 miles from the village.

Lye is a township, 2 miles from the village.

Yatton is a township, almost adjoining the village.

Shirley, Woodhampton, Old Shop, Haven, and Mortimer's Cross are places in Aymestrey parish.

Parish Clerk, Francis Wall.

Aymestrey.

Edwards George, esq

Peglar Rev. John J. B.A. [curate]

Rogers Rev. John, M.A., J. P. [vicar], Vicarage

Woodhouse Thomas, esq

Bradford John, Mortimer's Cross inn

Butler William, Crown inn

Childe Samuel, farmer, Old shop

Davies John Hunt, farmer, Shirley

Freeman John, carpenter

Hopton Timothy, farmer

Norris John, shopkeeper

Powell James, wheelwright

Stephens Francis, farmer, Aymestrey ct

Stokes Richard, boot & shoe maker & beer retailer

Thomas Richard, farmer

Webster Anthony, farmer

Wynde John, blacksmith

Letters are received through Leominster, which is the nearest money order office

Covenhope.

Beven Thomas, wheelwright

Price William, farmer

Lye.

Bounds Edward, farmer, Upper Lye

Crump ltichard, farmer, Lower Lye

Morgan Thomas, farmer, Upper Lye

Oliver James, farmer, Lower Lye

Preece Richard, farmer. Lower Lye

Price Richard, farmer, Lower Lye

Thomas Edward, farmer, Upper Lye

Yatton.

Lewis Mrs. Yatton court

Faulkner William, blacksmith

Griffiths Abraham, farmer

Hopton William, farmer

James John, farmer

Low James, farmer

Mason Thomas, farmer

Payne Thomas, mason

Pheasant John, shoemaker

Thompson John, miller

Endowed School, William Low, master; Mrs. Ellen Low, 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: Leominster
• Probate Court: Court of the Bishop of Hereford (Episcopal Consistory)
• Diocese: Hereford
• Rural Deanery: Leominster
• Poor Law Union: Leominster
• Hundred: Stretford
• Province: Canterbury