Knill, Herefordshire - Kelly's Directory, 1905

Extract from Kelly's Directory of Herefordshire, 1905

KNILL.

KNILL is a parish on the borders of Radnorshire, 5 miles north from Kington Station and 3½ south from Presteign (Radnor) terminal station on the Leominster and Kington branch of the Great Western Railway and 23 north-west from Hereford, in the Northern division of the county, Wigmore hundred, Kington union and petty Sessional division, Presteign county court district, rural deanery of Kington and archdeaconry and diocese of Hereford. The neighbourhood is very picturesque and the Hindwell Brook runs through the parish. The church of St. Michael is an ancient building of stone, consisting of chancel, nave, south porch and an embattled western tower containing 3 bells: here was buried Sir Samuel Romilly Kt. Solicitor General 1806-7, who died 2 NOV 1818: the church was thoroughly restored in 1876, at a cost of about £1,000: three stained windows have been inserted, and in 1883 a pulpit of carved oak was erected by Miss Mell, of Northumberland, in memory of the Rev. Prebendary Charles Walsham M. A. d. 18 JAN 1882. The register dates from the year 1585. the living is a rectory, net yearly value £50, including 18 acres of glebe, with residence, in the gift of Sir John Walsham bart. And held since 1896 by the Rev. John Luck Lic.Theol. of Durham University. The Rectory House was restored and enlarged in 1873 and occupied for the first time, after a lapse of nearly 100 years, by the Rev. H. T. Moggridge, late rector. Knill Court, a handsome Elizabethan mansion, now occupied by Col. John Heap, is the property of Sir John Walsham, Bart. Who is lord of the manor and entire owner of the parish, with the exception of 12 acres: he is the lineal descendent and heir of Sir John De Knill knt. Lord of Knill in the 12^th century. The soil is loamy; subsoil stony. The chief crops are wheat, barley, turnips and a considerable quantity of pasture. The area is 812 acres of land and 7 of water; rateable value, £771; population in 1901, 43.

   Letters through Kington. Presteign is the nearest money order & telegraph office, 3½ miles distant.

   Wall letterbox cleared at 4.30 p.m. week days only.

   Public Elementary School (mixed), rebuilt in 1875, for 40 children; average attendance, 20; Miss Henrietta Clifton, mistress

Clifton Henrietta (Miss), schoolmistress	Heap Col. John, Knill Court
Davies William, farmer, Knill Farm	Luck Rev. John, L.Th. (rector)

[Transcribed by Richard Lane in January 2003
from a copy of Kelly's Directory of Herefordshire, 1905 in Hereford Central Library]