Wigmore (St. James)

WIGMORE (St. James), a parish, in the union of Ludlow, hundred of Wigmore, county of Hereford, 8 miles (S. W.) from Ludlow; containing, with the township of Limebrook, 506 inhabitants, of whom 328 are in Wigmore township. This parish, which gives name to the hundred, contains 3450 acres, mostly arable and well-wooded; and is crossed nearly at right angles by the roads from Leominster to Knighton, and from Ludlow to Presteign. Thin beds of limestone occur here, in which various kinds of fossils are to be found. Petty-sessions are held monthly. There are fairs for cattle, sheep, &c, on May 6th and August 5th. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £8; patron and appropriator, the Bishop of Hereford: the great tithes have been commuted for £172, the small tithes for £155, and the vicar has an acre and a half of glebe. On a commanding elevation, a little westward of the village, are the ivy-mantled ruins of Wigmore Castle, the outer works of which are the most perfect; the massive fragments of the keep occupy the summit of a lofty artificial mound, and present a grand appearance. The founder of this once stately edifice is unknown, but it is recorded that Edward the Elder caused it to be repaired. It was taken from Edric, Earl of Shrewsbury, by Ranulph de Mortimer, who came over with the Conqueror, and made it his principal seat. The same nobleman, in 1100, established in the parochial church a college of three prebendaries, which continued till 1179, when his son Hugh founded a noble abbey in honour of St. James, for monks of the order of St. Augustine, about one mile distant from the castle, and endowed it so amply that, at the Dissolution, its revenue was estimated at £302. 12. 3. An alien priory, a cell to that of Aveney, in Normandy, is said to have existed at an early period, at Limebrook; and a nunnery of the order of St. Augustine was founded there by the Mortimers, some time in the reign of Richard I.: at the suppression the latter was valued at £23. 17. 8. In the neighbourhood are traces of several British encampments, attributed to Caractacus; and some Roman encampments.