Eardisley () is a village and
civil parish in
Herefordshire about south of the centre of
Kington. Eardisley is in the
Wye valley in the northwest of the county, close to the border with
Wales.
The village is part of the "
Black and white village trail", having many
timber-framed buildings along its high street. Recent
dendrochronology
Dendrochronology (or tree-ring dating) is the scientific method of dating tree rings (also called growth rings) to the exact year they were formed. As well as dating them, this can give data for dendroclimatology, the study of climate and atmos ...
dating work on timbers in these buildings has revealed that some parts date back to the 14th century.
History
Eardisley Park estate includes the site of
Eardisley Castle. The manor house built during the Georgian period burned down in 1999 and was replaced with a replica in 2003.
Churches
St Mary Magdalene
The
Church of England parish church
A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...
of St.
Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to crucifixion of Jesus, his cru ...
is a 12th-century building noted for its
font
In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design.
In mod ...
, carved in about 1150.
[Pevsner, 1963, page 121] It is a
Norman work of the
Herefordshire School
The Herefordshire School is the name of a hypothetical group of master masons working in Herefordshire and Worcestershire (in England) during the 12th century. The name was coined by Polish-English scholar George Zarnecki. Their distinctive Roman ...
and bears some resemblance to the carvings at
Kilpeck in south Herefordshire.
[ It combines intricate Celtic knotwork patterns with dramatic scenes, including the Harrowing of Hell and two knights fighting.][ It is a grade I listed building.
The south aisle windows were renewed by the ]Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
architect Ewan Christian in 1863.[
George Coke, ]Bishop of Hereford
The Bishop of Hereford is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Hereford in the Province of Canterbury.
The episcopal see is centred in the Hereford, City of Hereford where the bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is in the Hereford Cathedr ...
, was buried here. The churchyard extension contains the Commonwealth war graves
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states whose principal function is to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations mi ...
of a Herefordshire Regiment soldier of World War I and a Royal Engineers
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...
soldier and a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse of World War II.
Eardisley Methodist Church
Eardisley Methodist Church in Woodseaves Road is in the Shropshire and Marches Methodist Circuit. It opened in 1867 as Eardisley Primitive Methodist Church.
Hay Railway
The Hay Railway was an early narrow gauge horse tramway that connected Eardisley with Watton Wharf on the Brecknock and Abergavenny Canal in Brecon. From 1 May 1820, the Hay Railway was joined at its Eardisley terminus, in an end-on junction, by the Kington Tramway
The Kington Tramway was an early narrow gauge horse-drawn tramway that linked limestone quarries at Burlinjobb near New Radnor in Radnorshire, Wales, to Eardisley in Herefordshire, England.
Parliamentary authorisation, construction and opening
...
. Together, the two lines totalled in length, comprising the longest continuous plateway to be completed in the United Kingdom. The Hay railway operated through rural areas on the borders of England and Wales and was built to transport goods and freight. Passengers were not carried on any official basis. The Hay Railway was absorbed into the Hereford, Hay and Brecon Railway in 1860 and the line was converted to standard gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
for operation by steam locomotives.
Amenities
Eardisley has two public houses, the Tram Inn and The New Strand.
The New Strand is the headquarters for the North West Herefordshire Pool League which incorporates the Eardisley Summer Pool League and the Portway Winter Pool League.
The New Strand is also headquarters to the Hay and District Darts League & the Weobley and District Darts League.
The parish has a Women's Institute. The village holds the annual Eardisley Flower Show on August Bank Holiday each year.
Notes
Sources
*
External links
www.eardisley.com Village websiteGENUKI(tm) pageGeograph: photos of Eardisley and surrounding area
*
{{authority control
Civil parishes in Herefordshire
Villages in Herefordshire