Lucton (St. Peter)

LUCTON (St. Peter), a parish, in the union of Leominster, hundred of Wolphy, county of Hereford, 5 miles (N. W.) from Leominster; containing 183 inhabitants. The parish is situated on the left bank of the river Lug, and intersected by the road from Ludlow to Presteign. It comprises by measurement 1011 acres, of which about one-third is woodland, and the rest nearly equally divided between arable and pasture; the soil is partly clay and partly loam, and limestone is quarried. The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Governors of Lucton Free Grammar School (the impropriators), with a net income of £88: the tithes have been commuted for £135. The free school was founded in 1708, by John Pierrepont, Esq., a native of the place, who endowed it with land and tithes producing an income which, in 1835, amounted to £1736. By appointment of the founder, eight individuals holding official situations in London are constituted governors of the school, viz.: the preacher of Gray's Inn, the preacher and the head master of the Charter-House, the head master of Merchant-Tailors' school, the president of Sion College, the rector of Bishopsgate, the rector of St. Peter's, Cornhill, and the common-sergeant. The principal gentlemen in the neighbourhood act as assistant governors (being elected by the corporation in London), and visit the school at the close of each half-year, for the purpose of examining the pupils: the head master is appointed by the governors. The course of education pursued comprises the study of the Bible; the English, Latin, Greek, and French languages; and history, geography, arithmetic, and mathematics. An exhibitioner is annually chosen from among those scholars who are qualified to proceed to the university; he is allowed by the statutes to reside at any college in Oxford or Cambridge, and has fifty guineas per annum for four years. The exhibitions are open to all the master's boarders after two years' residence in the house, provided they enter the school before their sixteenth birthday; the number of boarders is limited to twenty-five. The Rev. Charles Collyns Walkey is the present head master. Twenty acres of land here belong to the school.