Holmer, Herefordshire
Description from Littlebury's Directory and Gazetteer of
Herefordshire, 1876-7
Transcription by Rosemary Lockie © 2004
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HOLMER,
WITH HUNTINGTON AND SHELWICK.
HOLMER is
an extensive parish, consisting of the places above named, situated on the main
road from Hereford to Leominster, and intersected by the Great Western railway
and the Hereford and Gloucester canal. It is distant 1½ miles N. of Hereford,
and 11 miles S. of Leominster; is in Grimsworth hundred, Hereford union, county
court district, polling district, and petty sessional division. A part of this
parish is included in the municipal and parliamentary limits of the city of
Hereford. The population of the entire parish in 1861 was 1,237 - viz., Holmer
and Shelwick civil parish, 1,083, and Huntington township, 154; in 1871 the
total population was 2,021-viz., Holmer and Shelwick, 1,905, and Huntington,
116. The inhabited houses number 395 in Holmer and Shelwick and 24 in Huntington
- total, 419. The families or separate occupiers number 508 in Holmer and
Shelwick and 34 in Huntington - total, 542. The increase of population in the
civil parish of Holmer and Shelwick is attributed to the facility afforded for
the erection of houses, allotments of land being easily obtained. The area of
Holmer and Shelwick is 2,411 acres, and the rateable value £13,843. The area of
Huntington is 540 acres, and the rateable value £1,349. Richard Hereford, Esq.,
who is lord of the manor, Sir Henry Geers Cotterell, Bart., and the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners, are the chief landowners. The soil is light;
subsoil, gravel and clay; produce, wheat, barley, hops, fruit, &c. Bricks and
tiles are manufactured here. Holmer is in the diocese, archdeaconry, and rural
deanery of Hereford; living, a vicarage, with the chapelry of Huntington
annexed; value, £278, with residence and 12 acres of glebe; patrons, the Dean
and Chapter of Hereford; vicar, Rev. Edward Arthur Evans, B.A., of Trinity
College, Cambridge, who was instituted in 1869. The Rev. George F. Bulmer, M.A.,
of St. John's College, Cambridge, is the curate. In 1865 the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners granted £120 to be added to Holmer living, subject to the
employment of a curate. The church (St.
Bartholomew's)
is an ancient structure in the Gothic style of architecture, with nave, chancel,
and a detached tower on the south side, which was restored about ten years ago.
The church had been previously restored at a cost of £700. It is not improbable
that the tower, like others in this and the adjoining counties, detached from
the rest of the church, was intended for purposes of defence against the Welsh;
that after the upper part had been destroyed, a short spire was erected on the
remaining portion; which was removed, and the present timber work erected at the
end of the 16th century, to make room for the five bells - the earliest bearing
date 1609, and the inscription "God bless our noball King Jamese". The tenor
bearing "My roaring sovnd doth warning give That men cannot here alwayes live.
1626". Three lancet windows in the chancel were filled with rich glass in 1865,
by Hardman, of Birmingham, in memory of the late Charles Bulmer, Esq., who for
many years was an extensive landowner in this parish. Divine service is
conducted at 11 a.m. and 6.30 p.m. in summer, and at 4 p.m. in winter. An
additional piece of ground for burials was consecrated by the Lord Bishop on
October 23rd, 1873. The parish registers begin with the year 1712. New national
schools have been recently erected at Widemarsh in this parish, to accommodate
about 160 children. The cost was £1,100, exclusive of the value of the site.
There are several charities belonging to the parish. The extensive works of the
Herefordshire and South Wales Agricultural Manure Company, Limited, are situated
in this parish, about a mile and a half from the centre of the city of Hereford,
and contiguous to the Great Western railway and the Gloucester canal. The works
occupy about an acre and a half of land; the general plan is nearly square; the
north side is devoted entirely to the manufacture of sulphuric acid and oil of
vitriol, these corrosive liquids being used in large quantities in the making of
the various manures; the west and part of the south sides are occupied with a
powerful steam engine, various mills, and machinery necessary for grinding and
pulverising bones and other phosphatic materials from which the different
manures are made. The flues from the various furnaces, boilers, &c., all radiate
to the centre of the works, where the smoke ascends a shaft upwards of 200 feet
high; this shaft, forming a graceful column, is seen for many miles round, and
is a most pleasing feature in the landscape. The great demand for the manure
manufactured by the company, has already necessitated an extension of their
commodious buildings and machinery. There are several handsome residences in
this parish: Holmer
Park (Captain
J. A. F. Suter), Munstone
House (Captain
T. W. J. Downes), Copelands (Henry,
J. Jenkins, Esq.), and The
Laurels (Daniel
G. Secretan James Woodhouse, Esq.) Huntington is
a township and chapelry, distant about 1 mile S.W. of Holmer church, and 2 miles
N.W. of the city of Hereford. The Midland railway (Hereford, Hay, and Brecon
branch) runs through a portion of the township, and the main road from Hereford
to Hay and Kington forms the southern boundary. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners
are lords of the manor and chief owners of the soil. Miss. Bulmer, R. Hereford,
Esq., C. Watkins, Esq., and J. Walker, Esq., are also landowners. The chapel of
ease is a neat stone building, rebuilt in 1850 at a cost of £800. Divine service
is conducted as at the parish church. The living is united to Holmer vicarage.
The great tithes, amounting to £74 5s., are held by the Dean and Chapter of
Hereford; and the small tithes, amounting to £55 10s., by the Rev. E. A. Evans,
B.A. Huntington
Court is
the residence of John Lloyd, Esq., J.P. for Brecknockshire, and a conservator of
the Wye fishery. (The population, acreage, and other statistics, are given under
the head of Holmer.) At the angle of the road, about 1 mile to the N.W. of
Hereford, is a stone cross, called the White
Cross,
the base of which consists of an hexagonal flight of seven steps, gradually
decreasing as they ascend; the height of the remaining stage of the shaft is 6
feet, and the breadth of each face 2 feet, exclusive of a pillar between each,
which is surmounted, with an embattled parapet. It has been repaired and pointed
at the expense of the Right Hon. and Ven. Archdeacon Lord Saye and Sele, D.C.L.
The erection of this cross is, by tradition, ascribed to Bishop Cantilupe, who
is said to have been returning from his palace at Sugwas to Hereford, when the
bells of his cathedral began ringing without any apparent human agency, and that
in commemoration of such a miraculous event he erected a cross on the spot where
the sounds had first attracted his notice. Mr. Duncumbe, in his "History of
Hereford", thus describes it, giving a much more probable reason for its
construction: "In the year 1347 an infectious disorder ravaged the whole county
of Hereford, and, as usual, displayed the greatest malignity in the places most
numerously inhabited; this created a necessity for removing the markets from
Hereford, and the spot of waste ground on which the cross now stands was applied
to that purpose; in memory of this event, Dr. Lewis, Charlton, who was
consecrated Bishop of Hereford a few years afterwards, caused this cross to be
erected." Shelwick is
a township distant 1 mile N.E. of Holmer, and about 2 miles N.N.E. of Hereford.
It is intersected by the Great Western railway and the Gloucester canal. The
Burcott is
the property and residence of Charles Croose, Esq.
POSTAL REGULATIONS.-Miss Julia Griffiths, Sub-Postmistress,
2 Holmer terrace. Letters arrive from Hereford at 7.50 a.m.; despatched thereto
at 5:35 p.m. Hereford is the nearest money order and telegraph office and post
town.
Parish Church (St. Bartholomew's).-Rev. Edward Arthur Evans, B.A., Vicar;
Rev. George F. Bulmer, M.A., Curate; Messrs. Elijah Jones
and Wm. E. Haines, Churchwardens; John Preece, Parish
Clerk and Sexton.
Huntington Chapel of Ease.-Rev. Edward Arthur Evans, B.A., Vicar;
Mr. John Morris, Chapel Warden.
National School, Widemarsh.-Mr. Josiah Evans, Master;
Miss Evans, Sewing Mistress; Miss Sarah Manton, Mistress
of Infants.
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[Transcribed by Rosemary Lockie in April 2004 from scanned images of an
original edition
in Hereford Central Library. See Herefordshire
GENUKI Service Providers for contact details]