Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for PRESTEIGNE

PRESTEIGNE, a town in Radnorshire, and a parish, a sub-district, and a district, partly also in Herefordshire, but all registrationally in Radnorshire. The town stands on the river Lugg, at the terminus of the Lugg Valley railway, 6½ miles E N E of New Radnor; connects with Herefordshire by a three-arched bridge over the Lugg; is known to the Welsh as Llanandras; is a borough by prescription, and practically the capital of Radnorshire; unites with New Radnor, Knighton, Rhayader, Knucklas, and Cefnllys in sending a member to parliament; is a seat of assizes, sessions, and county courts, and a polling-place; had formerly a castle, on an elevated spot, called the Warden; consists chiefly of two good streets, with pleasant outskirts and environs; and has a head post-office, †designated Presteigne, Radnorshire, a banking office, ahotel, a town hall, a shire-hall built in 1829, a countyjail, a church, two dissenting chapels, a grammar school, and charities £174. The railway goes to the Central Wales line at Llangunllo, was authorized in 1865, and is10¾ miles long. The Warden, where the castle stood, isto the W of the town; commands very fine views; and isdisposed in pleasant walks. The county jail was built in 1820, and has capacity for 24 male and 5 female prisoners. The church is later English, large, and good; consists of nave, aisles, and chancel, with embattled tower; and contains some interesting tapestry, a good brass, and severalmonuments. The grammar school was founded in the time of Elizabeth, and has £139 a year from endowment. A weekly market is held on Saturday; fairs are held on the Saturday before 13 Feb., 9 May, 20 June, 12 and 13 Oct., and 11 Dec.; and some trade is carried on in malt and timber. The town consists of two wards, compris ingjointly 2, 831 acres; but the borough includes also Dis-coed township in Radnorshire, and part of Stapletontownship in Herefordshire. Real property of the town, £6, 704. Pop., 1, 603. Houses, 349. Pop. of the borough, 1, 743. Houses, 378.

The parish contains the town of P., the township of Discoed, and part of the township of Litton and Cascobin Radnorshire, and the townships of Stapleton, Willey, Combe, Lower Kinsham, and Rodd, Nash, and Little Brampton in Herefordshire. Acres, 11, 126. Pop. in 1851, 2, 207; in 1861, 2, 383. Houses, 511. The property is much subdivided. The manor belongs to the Earl of Oxford. Bowltibrook is the seat of Sir H. Brydges, Bart.; and Evenjobb, of the Harley family. Nash Scar is a bold rock of Upper Silurian limestone, altered by plutonian heat into a sub-crystalline mass; and a stalactitic cave was discovered within it in 1833. Offa's dyke traverses the W; and Wapley-Hill camp, formed by the Romans, and occupied by Caractacus, is in the S E. The living is a rectory, united with the chapelry of Discoed, in the diocese of Hereford. Value, £1, 380.* Patron, Lady Langdale. Lucas the theologianwas a native.—The sub-district contains also the parishes of Pilleth, Whitton, Norton, and part of Cascob in Radnorshire, and the parishes of Upper Kinsham, by ton, and Lingen in Herefordshire. Acres, 25, 534. Pop., 3, 741. Houses, 777. The district comprehends also the sub-district of Brilley, containing the parishes of Newchurch and Michael church-on-Arrow in Radnor, and the parishes of Brilley, Huntington, Eardisley, Willersley, and Winforton in Hereford; the sub-district of King-ton, containing the parishes of Kington, Lyonshall, Pembridge, Stanton-upon-Arrow, and Titley, all in Hereford; and the sub-district of Radnor, containing the parishes of Glascomb, Colva, Gladestry, Llanfihangel-nant-Mellan, Llandegley, New Radnor, and Old Radnor, all, exceptone township of the last, in Radnorshire. Acres, 104, 963. Poor-rates in 1863, £8, 476. Pop. in 1851, 15, 149; in 1861, 15, 671. Houses, 3, 211. Marriages in 1863, 127; births, 523, of which 36 were illegitimate; deaths, 357, of which 117 were at ages under 5 years, and 18 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 1,091; births, 4, 576; deaths, 2, 917. The places of worship, in 1851, were 33 of the Church of England, with 6, 894 sittings; 4 of Independents, with 642 s.; 5 of Baptists, with1, 357 s.; 2 of Quakers, with 20 s.; 8 of Wesleyans, with1,090 s.; 14 of Primitive Methodists, with 1,045 s.; and 7 of Calvinistic Methodists, with 848 s. The schools were 20 public day-schools, with 865 scholars; 24 private day-schools, with 441 s.; 26 Sunday schools, with 1, 205s.; and 1 evening school for adults, with 9 s. The work-house is in Kington; and, at the census of 1861, had 74inmates.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Herefordshire AncC       Radnorshire AncC
Place names: LLANANDRAS     |     PRESTEIGNE
Place: Presteign

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