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Churchstoke - From 'A Topographical Dictionary of Wales' (1849)
CHURCHSTOKE, a parish, in the incorporation of Forden, partly in the Lower division of the hundred of Cawrse, and partly in that of the hundred of Montgomery, county of Montgomery, North Wales, and comprising the townships of Brompton and Riston (which support their poor separately from the rest of the parish) in the hundred of Chirbury, county of Salop, England, 4 miles (E. S. E.) from Montgomery; containing 1527 inhabitants, of whom 593 are in Churchstoke township. The parish is situated on the road from Bishop'sCastle to Montgomery, and is bounded on the north by Chirbury, in Shropshire; on the south by the Clun forest, which runs nearly parallel with the boundary of the county; on the east by Hyssington, and on the west by Kerry, &c. It comprises 10,071 acres, of which 8665 are inclosed and cultivated, and the remainder chiefly rough sheep-pastures, or land just inclosed. Of the former portion about one-third is arable, and the rest, with the exception of a little woodland, meadow and pasture, the soil of the whole of which is slightly clayey, but in general rich and fertile, especially in the valleys, which afford fine pasture, and are well wooded with oak and ash. The land under tillage produces good wheat, barley, and oats, and the sheep and cattle which here traverse the mountains, are of good average breed. The surface consists of hill and dale, valleys and mountains; and the scenery is frequently striking and beautiful: from some of the high grounds are fine views, extending over the vales of Churchstoke and Montgomery, with the surrounding hills, and comprehending a rich variety of scenery. The parish is distributed into several manors, the principal of which are, Overyoether, comprising the townships of Bachelden and Weston Madoc; Chirbury, in which are the townships of Brompton and Riston; Halcetor, in which are the townships of Churchstoke and Hurdley; and parts of Hopton, Mellington, and Bishop's Tiertref. The chief gentlemen's seats are Pentrenant, Mellington, Broadway, and those of T. Wollaston, and Thomas Jones, Esqrs. Considerable quantities of lead-ore have been found in the parish; and on the Churchstoke hills are evident traces of mines, which are supposed to have been worked by the Romans. The village, in which is a post-office, is situated near the confluence of the river Caebitra with the Camlet, which, after passing along the romantic dingle of Marrington, falls into the Severn near Forden: from the flatness of the ground above it, and the contracted channel of the Camlet, the adjacent meadows are subject to inundation, and during the winter have been frequently entirely covered with water.
The living is a perpetual curacy, endowed with a rent-charge of £20 per annum, and £600 private benefaction, £1000 royal bounty, £600 parliamentary grant, and a further augmentation of £1200 from the bounty commissioners; net income, £151, with a glebe-house; patron, the Earl of Powis. The impropriate tithes of the townships of Churchstoke and Hurdley have been commuted for a rent-charge of £254. 18., with a glebe of one acre. The church, dedicated to St. Nicholas, and formerly dependent on the priory of Chirbury, is a plain neat edifice, with a square embattled tower surmounted by a spire, and contains about 600 sittings. The body was taken down and rebuilt, at an expense of £2500, in 1815, previously to which the porch and other parts of the structure exhibited indications of the damage it sustained from an attack during the parliamentary war, by the men of Montgomery Castle, in order to seize a party of royalists, commanded by Sir John Watts, which had taken refuge in the church, and which after an obstinate resistance was obliged to surrender. A school-house, consisting of two rooms, has been erected on land belonging to the Earl of Powis; the expenses, amounting to £500, being defrayed by the parishioners: the master receives the interest of an endowment of £60, and is otherwise supported by school-fees, and subscription. A Sunday school is held in the same building.
The principal benefactions of the parish are invested in two mortgages of £200 and £60 from the corporation of the guardians of the poor in the parishes of Montgomery, Pool, &c., producing an interest of £11. 10., of which £2. 14. are paid to the schoolmaster, as already mentioned, under the grant of certain donors for the purpose, and the remaining £8. 16. are distributed among the poor in small sums. The contributors for the endowment of the school were, Andrew Griffith, who in 1776 left £10; George Morris, who in 1776 bequeathed £40, half of which was for the relief of the poor, and the other half for teaching children; and Thomas Morris, of Pentre Nant, who bequeathed £60, and made a similar distribution. The bequests for the general relief of the poor, besides the two by George and Thomas Morris, just noticed, are, a grant of £40 by Thomas Dunne, in 1720; another of £30 by Charles Evans, in 1754; another of £10 by John Roberts, in 1756; and a similar sum given by Edward Baxter in 1773, by Judith James in 1720, and by Mrs. Barbara Downes in 1780. Independently of these, which are all included in the mortgages, is a yearly rent-charge of £2 distributed in bread monthly, arising from a grant of £40 by Andrew Myddelton, in 1775, charged on the Swan public-house; and a few other charities and small rent-charges have been either lost by change of ownership in the lands charged with them, or were rendered void under the statute of mortmain.
On the summit of a prominent rock, in the vale of Churchstoke, are the remains of Symond's Castle, an ancient fortification; and on Llanvawr Hill, a craggy and precipitous eminence, are the remains of an encampment, the origin of which has not been ascertained. On Churchstoke Hill are vestiges of a Roman camp, and on the declivity called Todleth are the remains of old walls, and a piece of water named the Churchpool, probably belonging to some religious house, near the site of which, according to an absurd popular tradition, the church was originally to have been erected. There are remains of British encampments on the Aldres farm, Pentre wood, and at Galet-y-din, or Coldtown, in this parish, in which also is included the greater part of Corndon Hill. Near Offa's Dyke, which passes through the parish, are several tumuli, one of which was opened many years since: the bottom of the tumulus, sunk about a foot below the level of the surrounding land, was paved, and the sides were formed with flag-stones, on one of which was an inscription, very much obliterated; within was only some black dust, with a coin bearing a legend quite unintelligible. At a place on Offa's Dyke, called the Three Jacks, a coin of Agricola was found, about thirty years since.
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