Weobley

"WEOBLEY, a parish and market-town and borough (unincorporated), in the hundred of STRETFORD, county of HEREFORD, 12 miles (N.W.) from Hereford, and 145 (W. N. W.) from London, containing 739 inhabitants.; This ancient town consists of one principal street on the main road from Hereford to Knighton. The market is on Thursday; and fairs are held on Holy Thursday and three weeks after. A manorial court is held annually in October, the jurisdiction of which extends to the recovery of debts under 40s. The petty sessions for the hundred take place here.  ...  The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Hereford, rated in the king's books at £9. 1., endowed with £200 private benefaction, and £200 royal bounty, and,in the patronage of the Bishop of Hereford. The church, is dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul. The free grammar school was founded in 1655, by William Crother, citizen of London, for the education of children bom in the parishes of Weobley, Wormesley, and in the village of Wooton, in the parish of King's Pion, and endowed with £20 per annum for the master, chargeable on Wormesly Grange and another estate in the township of Wooton, in the parish of King's Pion, county of Hereford; he likewise bequeathed £100 to build a school-house. A National school for boys and girls is supported principally by voluntary contributions. On the south side of the town are the remains of an ancient castle, which was taken by Stephen in the war between him and the Empress Matilda, for whom it had been kept by William Talbot."  [From Samuel Lewis A Topographical Dictionary of England  (1831) ©Mel Lockie]