Eardisley, Herefordshire

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 Calvinistic Methodist chapels.