Aymestrey (St. John and St. Alkmund)

AYMESTREY (St. John and St. Alkmund), a parish, in the union of Leominster, consisting of the townships of Conhope and Over Lye in the hundred of Stretford, and the townships of Aymestrey, Nether Lye, Shirley, Yatton, and Leinthall-Earls, in the hundred of Wigmore, county of Hereford, 7 miles (N. W.) from Leominster; containing 958 inhabitants. This parish, which is intersected by the river Lug, comprises by computation 5721 acres, whereof 1926 are arable, 2355 meadow and pasture, 1405 woodland, 315 common land, and about 35 garden-ground. The geological features are of considerable interest: the transition rocks from the old red-sandstone formation to the Wenlock shales, including the Upper Ludlow rock, the Aymestrey limestone, the Lower Ludlow rocks, the Wenlock limestone, and Wenlock shale, are well exhibited in the immediate neighbourhood, which abounds with the characteristic organic remains, most of which have been figured and described in Murchison's Silurian System. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £7. 14. 2., and in the patronage of the Crown: the vicarial tithes have been commuted for £341. 19. There is a chapel, a very ancient structure, at Leinthall-Earls, the living of which is in the gift of the Vicar. In the parish are two schools; one at Aymestrey, endowed by William Onneslo, in 1515; and the other at Leinthall-Earls, endowed by William Hewes, in 1634. Several small charities belong to the poor. On the north side of the village, above the inn, is the supposed site of a small Roman camp, recently used as a bowling-green; and in the township of Yatton are the sites of British and Roman camps, the former occupying the high ground called Croft Ambrey, and the latter the Pyon Grove: the embankments of both are well worth the visit of the antiquary.