Stoke Edith
| Stoke Edith | |
| Herefordshire | |
|---|---|
 Stoke Edith | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SO603406 |
| Location: | 52°3’45"N, 2°34’46"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | Hereford |
| Postcode: | HR1 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Herefordshire |
Stoke Edith is a little village in Herefordshire, on the A438 road between Hereford and Ledbury.
The main sights of the village are the parish church, St Mary's, and the manor house, Stoke Edith House which, however, is not the grand house of that name which dominated the village for centuries before its destruction.
In 1801, the population of Stoke Edith parish was recorded as 332.[1]
Parish church
The 14th-century church of St Mary is a grade I listed building. It has an immaculate needle spire set behind a parapet recess.
The Foleys of Stoke Edith House rebuilt the entire church brick by brick in 1740. It has five bay arcades in the nave ended by large Tuscan columns. It is unusual in being privately owned. The church has a communion rail, pews and font dating from the rebuilding, and an impressive wooden pulpit in three decks. There remains an alabaster image of a 15th-century noblewoman with a distinctive headress.
A monument dated 1699 stands in the church, to Paul Foley, the first of the family to move here from Great Witley, and who was active in political life, being co-leader of the Tory Party and Country Whigs. There are tablets too to a Henry Wolstenholme and his wife.[2]
Stoke Edith House
The estate and the manor house known as Stoke Edith House belonged formerly to the Wallwynes, Milwaters and Lingen families. It was the principal estate of Sir Henry Lingen, a Royalist officer in the Civil War, who was buried in the church in 1662. His widow sold the estate in 1670 to Thomas Foley.
Foley settled the estate on his second son Paul, famed as an entrepreneur 'ironmaster'. Paul obtained a licence from King James II to empark up to 500 acres at Stoke Edith. In 1695, under William III, he became Speaker of the House of Commons and from that year he rebuilt the timber-framed mansion of Stoke Court.[3] The house, renamed Stoke Park, remained in the family until the death of Thomas Lord Foley who, having inherited the Great Witley estate from his distant cousin Thomas 2nd Baron Foley, settled Stoke Edith on his second son Edward Foley (1747–1803). Many of the family were members of Parliament.
Stoke Park remained the family's principal residence until it was burnt down in 1927.[4]
The building currently known as 'Stoke Edith House' was previously the Rectory and this, together with the park and extensive agricultural and woodlands, remain in the ownership of the Foley family.
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Stoke Edith) |
References
- ↑ The Post Office Directory of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, and the City of Bristol, with maps engraved expressly for the work. 1863. p. 580. https://books.google.com/books?id=vuYNAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA580. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
- ↑ Church of St Mary, Stoke Edith - British Listed Buildings
- ↑ Roy Peacock, The Seventeenth Century Foleys: iron wealth and vision 1580–1716 (Black Country Society, 2011), 131-2 143 154-5.
- ↑ The Estate - Stoke Edith Shoot
