Moccas, Herefordshire

Historical Description

Moccas, a village and a parish in Herefordshire, on the river Wye, 5 miles SW by W of Moorhampton station on the Hereford, Hay, and Brecon branch of the M.R., and 8 SSW of Weobly. Post town, Staunton-on-Wye, under Hereford. Acreage, 1190; population, 188. The manor, with Moccas Court and much of the land, belonged formerly to the Vaughans, and belongs now to the Comewall family. Moccas Court stands on an easy ascent near the Wye, and has a finely wooded park containing the largest weeping oak in England. A large and peculiar cromlech, called King Arthur's Stone, is on an eminence adjoining the park; includes a main stone of elliptical form, 38 feet long, 9 broad, and 2 thick, now broken in the middle; and originally had eleven supporting stones, some of which have fallen. A small mound is near the cromlech. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Hereford; gross value, £320 with residence. The church is ancient, supposed to be the oldest in the county; presents a curious and primitive appearance; has a circular apse and a small tower; and contains monuments and stained windows to the De Fresnes and tablets to the Cornewall and Hanbury families, and a Norman font.

Administration

The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.

Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Moccas from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Moccas (St. Michael))

Land and Property

The Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Herefordshire is available to browse.

Maps

Online maps of Moccas are available from a number of sites:

• Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• Google Streetview.
• National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
• OpenStreetMap.
• old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
• Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
• A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)

Newspapers and Periodicals

The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Herefordshire newspapers online:

• Hereford Journal
• Hereford Times