Eardisley or Erdesley, Herefordshire

Historical Description

Eardisley or Erdesley, a village and a parish in Herefordshire. The village stands on an affluent of the river Wye, 5 miles S by E of Kington. It has a station at the junction between the Kington and Eardisley branch of the G.W.R., and the Swansea, Brecon, and Hereford branch of the M.R., and a post, money order, and telegraph office (R.S.O.) A fair is held on 15 May. There is a church institute and reading-room, and a home for orphan and destitute boys. The parish also includes the hamlets of Upper Spond, Lower Welson, and Woodseaves. Acreage, 4566; population, 746. The family of Baskerville was seated here from Domesday till 1640, and they had a strong castle here, some small remains of which still exist. Coke, Bishop of Hereford, ejected at the Commonwealth, resided and died here at his seat of Lower Moor. An oak tree about half a mile from the church covers a surface of 324 feet in circuit, and has a trunk 30 feet in girth and 18 feet high. The living is a rectory, with Bollingham chapel of case annexed, in the diocese of Hereford; net value, £319 with residence. The church is Norman and Early English, and was restored in 1863; it contains a curiously-sculptured Norman font. There is a chapel of ease at Bollingham, and Primitive and Calvin-istic Methodist chapels.

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.

Civil Registration

For general information about Civil Registration (births, marriages and deaths) see the Civil Registration page.

Directories & Gazetteers

We have transcribed the entry for Eardisley or Erdesley from the following:

• Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Eardisley (St. Mary Magdalene))

Land and Property

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

Maps

Online maps of Eardisley or Erdesley 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