Wigmore

"WIGMORE, a parish in the hundred of WIGMORE, county of HEREFORD, 10 miles (N.W. by N.) from Leominster, containing, with the township of Limebrook, 429 inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Hereford, rated in the king's books at £8, endowed with £400 royal bounty, and in the patronage of the Bishop of Hereford. The church is dedicated to St. James. . Limestone abounds here, and it is supposed that coal may be obtained in the neighbourhood. A court leet is occasionally held; and there are fairs for cattle, sheep, &c.,. on May 6th and August 5th. On a commanding elevation, a little to the westward of the village, are the ivy-mantled ruins of Wigmore castle,  ...  It was taken trom Edric, Earl of Shrewsbury, by Ranulph de.Mortimer, who came over with the Conqueror, aad made it his principal seat. The same nobleman, in 1100, established in the parish church a small college of three prebendaries, which continued till 1179, when his son Hugh founded, in honour of St. James, a noble abbey for monks of the order of St. Augustine,  ... An Alien priory, a cell to that of Aveney in Normandy, is said to have existed, at an early period, at Limebrook in this parish; but it is more certain that a priory of nuns of the order of St. Augustine was founded there by the Mortimers, some time in the reign of Richard I.,  ... "  [From Samuel Lewis A Topographical Dictionary of England  (1831) ©Mel Lockie]