Willersley and Winforton is a civil parish in west Herefordshire, England, and is approximately west-northwest from the city and county town of Hereford. The parish contains the village of Winforton and the farming hamlet of Willersley. The nearest towns are the market towns of Hay-on-Wye to the south-west, and Kington to the north. The physicist Sir Thomas Ralph Merton KBE, DSc, FRS, lived at Winforton during the Second World War.
History According to A Dictionary of British Place Names, Willersley derives from probably "a woodland clearing of a man called Wiglāff", from the Old English person name with 'lēah', and in the Domesday Book written as "Willaveslege". Winforton derives from probably a "farmstead or estate of a man called Winefrith" or "Winfrip", from the Old English person name with 'tūn', and in the Domesday Book written as "Widferdestune", and in 1265 as "Wynfreton".Mills, Anthony David (2003); A Dictionary of British Place Names, Oxford University Press, revised edition (2011), pp. 499, 500. Ekwall, Eilert (1936); The Concise Oxfordshire Dictionary of English Place-names, Oxford University Press, 4th ed. (1960), p. 519. Thomas Blount, the antiquarian, described Willersley as very small, consisting of one house, but "standing very much on its antiquity, being reputed to pretend to a seniority before all, next the Minster of Hereford". The parish was given by the 8th-century Bishop Egwin of Evesham, to the monastery of Evesham.Jakeman & Carver's Directory of Herefordshire (1890), pp. 472–473
Willersley and Winforton, as two separate but correlated manors, are listed in the Domesday Book within the hundred of Elsdon and the county of Herefordshire. Both manors in 1086 were part of the lands of Ralph of Tosny (1027 - 1102), of the Tosny family, and of Clifford Castle to the west, who had fought with William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings, was his standard-bearer, and supported him during the Norman Conquest. Ralph became Willersley and Winforton's manorial lord and William's tenant-in-chief, taking the manors from Earl Harold, the 1066 lord. Earl Harold's earlier fiefdom also included the adjacent manors of Eardisley, Kington, Lyonshall, Pembridge, and Titley, as part of his wider ownership of Herefordshire. Combined in the post-Conquest Willersley and Winforton manors were 3 freemen, 17 smallholders (middle level of serf owning about of land, being below and with less land than villager), and 8 slaves, in 4 hides, otherwise ploughland defined by 4 lord's and 6 men's plough teams. One of the hides was held by a Welshman, who may have occupied a hermitage at Winforton."Winforton", Open Domesday. Retrieved 12 October 2022"Willersley", Open Domesday. Retrieved 12 October 2022Elsdon: Willersley and Winforton", The Land of Nigel the doctor In Greytree Hundred, Folio 183, Herefordshire, in 1066 A Medieval Mosaic. Retrieved 12 October 2022
The Tosnys later alienated their Winforton lands to the Muscegros family, this in the early 12th century, with Walter Muscegros holding the land, and later Miles Muscegros (Milo de Mucegros), who was Sheriff of Herefordshire in 1182. Walter Muscegros cleared land (assarted), for "a new chapel with other gifts, three loaves from his alms-basket whenever he was staying at Winforton, pasture for three cows, and keep for a palfrey". Walter Muscegros later gave lands to Alexander de Monyton, and a license to "brew in his own boiler".The possible religious site at Winforton at the time of Hugh Foliot, (bishop from 1219 to 1234), was affirmed by "Walter, a Canon regular of Wormsley Priory, [who] 'betook himself to a hermetical life in a little island in the River Wye within the manor' of Winforton. A chapel to the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Kenedred (), was built by Friar Walter; by the 17th century its foundations which remained on the north bank of the River Wye had been "grubbed up", the spot marked by a yew tree, and today indicated by a rectangular cropmark. After Friar Walter's death, Walter de Clifford (died 1263), the son to Walter de Clifford (died 1221), granted land and common pasture to the Isle of Winforton hermitage and its then friar Stephen, from the manor of Middlewood (), today in the parish of Clifford. Miles Muscegros' son, another Walter, gave to the chapel further land, woods, a mill, moorland and pasture, in return for performance of divine service. This benefice was augmented with similar gifts by Robert Whitney, the lord of Whitney and reaffirmed by his successor Sir Eustace Whitney. Winforton lord Walter Muscegros in the 1264–1267 Barons' War opposed Simon de Montfort in de Montfort's 1264 attack on Hereford, which led for some time to the Muscegros' loss of Winforton, which Walter Muscegros later gave to Alexander de Monyton, son to Roger Monnington (or Monyton), with a license to "brew in his own boiler". Alexander's brother, John (styled John Lestrange and lord of Monnington and Winforton), "granted the hermitage of Winforton (Wynfreton), with the consent of Stephen the Hermit to Wormesley priory (the church of St Leonard), in return for them celebrating divine service for the souls of Walter Muscegros (died before 2 December 1264) and his own."Remfry, Paul Martin (1995), "Examination of an 'Earthwork' at Winforton", Anglo-Norman Castles Paul Martin Remfry. Retrieved 20 October 2022
In the mid-19th century both Willesley and Winforton were reported as townships, and both in the hundred of Huntington, the Kington Union—poor relief and joint parish workhouse provision set up under the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834—and the archdeaconry and bishopric of Hereford. The main road from Hereford, through Hay-on-Wye, to Brecon ran through both parishes and villages. Each civil parish had its own parish church: St Mary Magdalene at Willesley and St Michael at Winforton, in their own ecclesiastical parish. St Mary's is described as an "old stone building", with a nave, chancel, and a wooden turret containing one bell, and is described as an "old stone building" and in "good repair", with a nave, a north transept, chancel, a part-wood tower, and contains an organ and five bells. The church parish register dates to 1764. It was restored in 1877. Both church parishes were rectories, in the gift of the Blisset and Domville families, which also provided the parish priests, and were lords of the manor and major parish landowners. Willersley parish area was , and Winforton, about , the soil mainly alluvial over a subsoil of gravel and clay. Nicholas Common, at the north from Winforton village, is listed as a significant landmark. The population of Willersley in 1851 was ten; Winforton, 159. Residing and trading in Winforton included the parish rector, a blacksmith, a carpenter, a boot and shoe maker who was also a shopkeeper, and five farmers, one of whom was also a maltster, another the licensee of The Sun Inn public house. Mail was serviced through the Hay-on-Wye post office which was the nearest money order office.Post Office Directory of Herefordshire (1856), pp. 101–102History, Topography & Directory of Herefordshire, Edward Cassey & Co. (1858), pp. 337–338Kelly's Directory of Herefordshire (1885) pp. 1246–1247
In 1864 the Hereford, Hay and Brecon Railway, a branch of the Midland Railway, was complete which ran at the north of Winforton, the nearest line-stop at Eardisley railway station, just over to the north-east. In 1812, before the railway was built, the Brecon to Eardisley Tramroad, a wide wagonway, (today shown on maps as the 'Old Tramway'), was instituted by an act of Parliament, and constructed through Winforton to Eardisley by 1818. The tramway, which ran locally from a crossing on the River Wye at the west between Clifford and Whitney-on-Wye, and laid with L-section plates to accommodate horse and waggon, brought coal and other goods from the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal at Brecon, via Hay-on-Wye. Remnants of the tramway still exist, running through Nicholas Common and north-east, over Winforton Common Road, on to a now metalled road section ().Perkins, T. R.; "Railways in the Wye Valley - I", in The Railway Magazine, September 1938Clinker, C. R.; "Railways to Brecon - 2", in The Railway Magazine, June 1960Barrie, D. S. M.; A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain: volume 12: South Wales, (revised Peter Baughan), David St John Thomas, Nairn, 1994, Simmons, Jack; British Railway History (1997), Oxford University Press "Hay Tram Road Co.", Herefordshire Through Time, Field names and landowners results, Herefordshire Council. Retrieved 18 October 2022"Brecon to Eardislaey Tramroad", Coflein, National Monuments Record of Wales (NMRW). Retrieved 20 October 2022
From the 1870s Both Willersley and Winforton were listed as part of the Kington county court district, Eardisley polling district, and the Bredwardine petty sessional division. Both ecclesiastical parishes were then listed as being in the rural deanery of Weobley. The Winforton parish living included a residence and of glebe, an area of land used to support the parish church and priest. St Michael's parish register dates to 1690. The population of Willersley in 1861 was 13; and in 1871, 9 who were the inhabitants of one house. The population of Winforton in 1861 was 162; and in 1871, 150 who were the inhabitants of 34 houses or separate occupiers. Willersley parish soil in the 1870s was described as loamy, on which was grown wheat, barley, roots, beans, and pasture, and Winforton, wheat, barley, roots, and fruit. Directory listed at Willersley was a farmer and landowner at Willersley Court. Residents at Winforton included the parish rector, parish churchwarden, the parish clerk, a school mistress, six farmers one who is the licensee of the Sun Inn, one who is the sub-postmaster, a cottage farmer who also a beer retailer and grocer, a farm bailiff, a blacksmith, a carpenter who is also a wheelwright, and a gardener. In 1872 a mixed parochial school for 30 pupils was erected at Winforton "at the joint expense of the parish church patron and the parishioners", which had an average attendance of 20; the parish rector and his family also ran a Sunday school. Mail for both parishes was serviced through Eardisley railway sub-office (R.S.O.), which was the closest money order and telegraph office,Willersley in Littlebury's Directory and Gazetteer of Herefordshire (1876)Winforton in Littlebury's Directory and Gazetteer of Herefordshire (1876)
By the 1880s both parishes were described as in the Northern division of Herefordshire, and now in the petty sessional division of Hay-on-Wye. Willersley parish area had increased to through the addition of two detached parts of Eardisley parish in 1884, under the Divided Parishes Act. Winforton area remained as previously. In Willersley grew wheat, barley, peas and swedes; in Winforton, wheat, barley, swedes and apples. Willersley population in 1881 was 8, and included the parish clerk and the Willersley Court farmer. Winforton population in 1881 was 120, in 32 inhabited houses, families or separate occupiers, which included the school mistress, the parish priest living at Winforton House, and another at the parish rectory, and six farmers, one of whom ran the post office at the Railway Sub-Office (R.S.O.), one the licensee of The Sun Inn, and one operating at Nicholas Common. Directory listing shows Winforton's church [as St Mary's, actually St Michael's], containing "at the back of the clerk's pew is some carving, dated 1613", and having a churchyard with "several fine yew trees", and that a John Freeman from Letton, in 1791, left to the church a gift of £350, providing a dividend, and rent from "Poor's Land" of 2 acres 3 rood 6 perch, approximately . These gifts supported poor people of Winforton at Christmas who were not eligible for parish relief. A late John Freeman provided an endowment of £12 yearly for the parish mixed school which had a master's house attached.