Dormington
| Dormingtom | |
| Herefordshire | |
|---|---|
 St Peter's Church and Dormington House | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SO583401 |
| Location: | 52°3’30"N, 2°36’33"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | Hereford |
| Postcode: | HR1 |
| Dialling code: | 01432 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Herefordshire |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Hereford and South Herefordshire |
Dormington is a village in Herefordshire, five miles east of the city centre of Hereford, the county town, and eight miles west of Ledbury.
The parish is a significant traditional centre for hop growing.
History
In the Domesday Book, Dormington is listed as "Dermentune", and it is recorded as containing two households, with one smallholder and a serf. The Lord of the manor in 1066 was Estan the canon, who was only associated with this one manor at the time. The lordship in 1086 was transferred to Walter, with the canons of St Guthlac's Priory in Hereford becoming Tenant-in-chief to the King..[1]
Dormington was recorded as 'Dorminton' in 1206, being an estate associated with a person name deriving from the Old English Deormod or Deormund with 'ing' or 'tūn'.[2]
In 1911 a Roman pavement and a Roman key were found at Dormington House, the parsonage next to St Peter's Church; a further investigation in 1951 revealed no evidence of such.[3] In 1942, at the southeast of Perton Quarry within Dormington were found Romano-British fragments of pottery.[4]
Two sets of mediæval strip lynchets, agricultural earth terraces, exist 1,000 yards to the east of the village.[5]
In the 19th century, Dormington ecclesiastical parish included the chapelry and township of Bartestree. It was recorded that the village was on the Hereford, Ledbury and Worcester section of the Great Western Railway. The Bartestree part of the ecclesiastical parish included the Church of St James, rebuilt in 1877. A Roman Catholic Convent of Our Lady of Charity and Refuge was established in Bartestree in 1863, to the designs of E. W. Pugin with later additions, to conduct the "reformation of fallen women", its funding derived from the revenues of the convent's foundation and from inmates' laundry work and underclothing manufacture.. Attached to the convent was a pre-Reformation chapel (Longworth Roman Catholic Chapel), physically transferred from Longworth and re-erected in 1870.[6][7]
In 1851 there were 128 inhabitants of Dormington, plus 61 in Bartestree township, with Lady Emily Foley as lady of the manor and chief landowner.[8][9]
In 1909, the Lord of the manor and chief landowner was Paul Henry Foley of Stoke Edith Park in Stoke Edith parish. It was reported that there were "several extensive hop grounds", which is reflected in Kelley’s Commercial Directory for the time, as several farmers around the parish grew hops.[6] Hops are stil a major crop in the parish.
Parish church
The parish church is the Church of St Peter, which stands in the heart of the village. It is a Grade II* listed building.
The church is of the late 13th-century and built in the Decorated Gothic style, comprising a nave and chancel, with roofs dating to at least the 17th century. A vestry, south porch, and bell turret with broach spire were added under an 1877 restoration. The chancel contains windows dating to the 14th century, and the nave windows dating to the 13th;[10][11]
About the village
Dormington House, immediately adjacent to the church at its west, is a three-storey late 18th or early 19th-century house, formerly the parsonage, built in 1764, today with a whitewashed front facade.[12][13]
To the east of the church is Dormington Court, a 17th-century part timber framed, part brick two-storey country house with 18th-century additions. Its original associated farm buildings included a racing stable block, were all removed to allow the development of the present residential estate to its north-east.[14][15][16]
Today's farmhouse at Backberry Hill Farm, 400 yards south-east of the church, is listed as Prospect Farmhouse, a timber framed house, of part one storey and part two, with attics, and an external stair to the loft, dating to the early 16th century with later additions up to the 18th. Northeast and adjacent to the farmhouse is a late 18th or early 19th-century "barn with attached stables and cart-shed".[17][18]
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At the south of the parish near the border with Mordiford and on a hill between Prior's Court Wood and Cockshoot Wood, are the earthwork remains of Backbury Camp (called Ethelbert's Camp before 1926), an Iron Age promontory hillfort with a triple rampart and defensive ditches, covering an area of eight acres.[19]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Dormington) |
References
- ↑ Dormington in the Domesday Book
- ↑ Mills, Anthony David (2003); A Dictionary of British Place Names, Oxford University Press, revised edition (2011), p.156. ISBN 019960908X
- ↑ National Monuments Record: No. 110531
- ↑ National Monuments Record: No. 110048
- ↑ National Monuments Record: No. 110502
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Kelly's Directory of Herefordshire 1901, p.54, 55
- ↑ Littlebury's Directory and Gazetteer of Herefordshire, 1876
- ↑ Lascelles & Co.'s Directory & gazetteer of Herefordshire, 1851, p.156
- ↑ The Post Office Directory of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, and the City of Bristol 1863, p.513
- ↑ National Heritage List 1099882: Church of St Peter
- ↑ "St Peter, Dormington, Herefordshire", The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland.Retrieved 1 February 2019
- ↑ National Heritage List 1099883: Dormington House
- ↑ "Dormington House, Vicarage, Dormington", Herefordshire Through Time, Herefordshire Council. Retrieved 1 February 2019
- ↑ National Heritage List 1179010: Dormington Court
- ↑ Dormington Court History: Herefordshire Past. Retrieved 1 February 2019
- ↑ National Heritage List 1179010: Dormington Court
- ↑ National Heritage List 1257992: Prospect Farmhouse
- ↑ National Heritage List 1257994: Barn Immediately North East of Prospect Farmhouse
- ↑ National Monuments Record: No. 110051 – Backbury Camp