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Goodrich, or Goderich (St. Giles)

GOODRICH, or GODERICH (St. Giles), a parish, in the union of Ross, Lower division of the hundred of Wormelow, county of Hereford; containing, with the townships of Glewstone and Huntisham, 738 inhabitants, of whom 490 are in the township of Goodrich, 5¼ miles (S. W. by S.) from Ross. Richard Talbot, lord of Goderich Castle, founded and endowed, in 1347, a small priory of Black canons in honour of St. John the Baptist, the revenue of which, at the Dissolution, was valued at £15. 8. 9. The parish is beautifully situated on the river Wye, and traversed by the road from Ross to Monmouth. It comprises 2421a. 3r. 30p., whereof about 100 acres are wood, 348 waste land or common, and the remainder arable and pasture in nearly equal portions; the surface is undulated, the scenery picturesque, and the soil sandy. There is a great number of cider-mills. Sandstone exists in every part of the parish, and limestone is quarried for burning into lime, and for the repair of the roads; the conglomerate called "pudding-stone" is also found. A bridge has been lately built across the Wye, at an expense of £8000, by which there is a free communication with the Forest of Dean. On a lofty and beautifully-wooded hill are the majestic remains of the old castle of the Talbots, which was destroyed by order of Oliver Cromwell; and upon an opposite eminence, is Goodrich Court, erected by Sir S. R. Meyrick, in the baronial style, and forming a prominent and interesting object in the general beauty of the scene: it contains a splendid collection of ancient armour, in the knowledge of which the learned proprietor is eminently skilled. The living is a vicarage, valued in the king's books at £8; patron and appropriator, the Bishop of Hereford: the great tithes have been commuted for £155, and the vicarial for £370; the glebe comprises 35½ acres. The Right Hon. F. J. Robinson, now Earl of Ripon, was elevated to the peerage in 1827 by the title of Viscount Goderich, an honour formerly enjoyed by his maternal ancestor, De Grey, Duke of Kent, who was proprietor of Goodrich Castle and manor after the Talbots.

Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.

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