Kenchester Herefordshire Family History Guide

Status: Ancient Parish

Parish church: St. Michael

Parish registers begin:

Parish registers: 1757
Bishop’s Transcripts: 1663

Nonconformists include:

Adjacent Parishes

Historical Descriptions

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

KENCHESTER, a parish in the district and county of Hereford; on the Hereford and Brecon railway, 1 mile W by N of Credenhill r. station, and 5½ WNW of Hereford. Post town, Bishopstone, under Hereford. Acres, 533. Real property, £1,136. Pop., 100. Houses, 23. The property is divided among a few. A Roman station was here, called Magna Castra by Antonine, Kenceastre by the Saxons, and Ariconinm by Camden; and Roman roads went hence to Worcester and Wroxeter. The station occupied upwards of fifty acres; was of irregularly hexagonal outline; and had two openings to the W, and two to the N. Traces exist of small portions of the walls, of a temple at the E, and of a niche of Roman brick and mortar, called “the chair;” and vaults, a hypocaust, an altar, tesselated pavements, urns, coins, and other Roman relics have been found. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Hereford. Value, £182. Patron, the Lord Chancellor. The church is ancient, and measures only 50 feet by 17.

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

A Topographical Dictionary of England 1848

KENCHESTER (St. Michael), a parish, in the hundred of Grimsworth, union and county of Hereford, 5 miles (W. N. W.) from Hereford; containing 99 inhabitants. The parish is situated on the left bank of the river Wye, and intersected by the road from Hereford to Kington; and consists of 509 acres. The living is a discharged rectory, valued in the king’s books at £6. 5. 7., and in the patronage of the Crown; net income, £182. According to Camden, this place was the Ariconium, but Dr. Horsley considers it as the Magna, of the Romans. The form of the station is an irregular hexagon: the remains principally consist of fragments of a temple at the eastern end, with a niche of Roman brick and mortar, called the Chair; around this are foundations and holes, similar to vaults. At different periods large vaults, tessellated pavements, a fine Mosaic floor, relics of pottery, urns, and large bones, have been discovered. An hypocaust, about seven feet square, with the leaden pipes entire, and those of brick measuring a foot in length and three inches square, was found in 1670; and at the close of the last century, a stone altar was dug up from the foundation of the northern wall of the station, bearing an inscription implying its dedication to the Emperor Cæsar Marcus Aurelius.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis 1848