Moccas
| Moccas | |
| Herefordshire | |
|---|---|
 St Michael's parish church in Moccas | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SO361431 |
| Location: | 52°4’60"N, 2°55’60"W |
| Data | |
| Postcode: | HR2 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Herefordshire |
Moccas is a village in Herefordshire, located 14 miles west of Hereford, the county town. The population of the wider civil parish at the 2011 census was 105.
The parish is mainly farmland with a number of woods, including Woodbury Hill Wood and the Moccas Park Deer Park (though mostly in Dorstone parish).
The name 'Moccas' is believed to derive from the Welsh Moch-rhos, meaning 'pig land'.
Church
The Church of England parish church is St Michael and All Angels.[1]
The church is built on the site of the very early Welsh monastery, known to historians as Moccas Monastery, founded by Saint Dubricius, or Dyfrig, in the 6th century and recorded in the Book of Llandaff.[2]
According to legend, an angel told Dyfrig to establish a monastery where he would find a white sow with her piglets, and he named it Mochros, meaning 'moor of the swine'. Moccas Abbey was laid to waste by the Saxons and a plague by the year 600 and only a church is noted in later charters. That church was built in 1130.[1]
The church has a notable monument to the de Fresnes family, lords of the manor in the 14th century.[3]
About the village
Moccas Court, north of the village, replaced the old manor house which once stood next to the church. It is a fine Georgian country house, now a hotel, built between 1776 and 1783 for the Cornewall family by the architect Anthony Keck.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Moccas) |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Moccas Church
- ↑ Elizabeth Rees (2003). An essential guide to Celtic sites and their saints. Continuum International Publishing Group. pp. 169–170. ISBN 0-86012-318-9.
- ↑ Peter R. Coss (2010). The foundations of gentry life: the Multons of Frampton and their world, 1270-1370. Past & present. Oxford University Press. pp. 166–167. ISBN 0-19-956000-5.
- Nikolaus Pevsner: The Buildings of England: Herefordshire, 1963; 2012 Penguin Books ISBN 978-0-300-12575-7pages 253–254