Tarrington is a small village in Herefordshire, England located halfway between Ledbury and Hereford on the
A438 road.
The village
The village has approximately 225 residences and a population, according to the 2001 census, of 506. The village has three main meeting places, the Lady Emily Community Hall, St. Philip and
St. James Church, and the
public house
A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and wa ...
, the Tarrington Arms (formerly Foley Arms).
Mentioned in Domesday
The
Domesday Book
Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...
of 1086, contains the earliest written record of Tarrington, where it is recorded as ''Tatintune'', or ''Tatintyne''. At this time, the manor of Tarrington was held by
Roger de Laci, and under him by Ansfrid de Cormeilles, who came to England with
William the Conqueror
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first House of Normandy, Norman List of English monarchs#House of Norman ...
.A wee cottage was also mentioned,
Norman connections
Through marriage to a niece of the
de Lacy family, Ansfrid gained 20 manors in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire, including Tarrington. The manor of Stoke Edith, which included parts of Little Tarrington, was given to
Ralph de Todeni, William's standard bearer at the
Battle of Hastings
The Battle of Hastings nrf, Batâle dé Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William, the Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson, beginning the Norman Conque ...
.
In 1350, the manor of Tarrington was owned by Edmund de la Barre, from whom the name "Barrs Court" derives. The manor then passed through the
Bodenham
Bodenham is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England, and on a bend in the River Lugg, about seven miles south of Leominster. According to the 2001 census, it had a population of 1,024, reducing to 998 at the 2011 census.
The vill ...
family to the
Lingen
Lingen (), officially Lingen (Ems), is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. In 2008, its population was 52,353, and in addition there were about 5,000 people who registered the city as their secondary residence. Lingen, specifically "Lingen (Ems)" is ...
s, who also owned the manor of
Stoke Edith.
The English Civil War
Henry Lingen, a Catholic, became a
Royalist
A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governm ...
Colonel in the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
, and was knighted by
Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
in 1645. The following year, Sir Henry made a heroic, though unsuccessful, defence of
Goodrich Castle
Goodrich Castle is a Norman medieval castle ruin north of the village of Goodrich in Herefordshire, England, controlling a key location between Monmouth and Ross-on-Wye. It was praised by William Wordsworth as the "noblest ruin in Herefordshi ...
against the
Roundhead
Roundheads were the supporters of the Parliament of England during the English Civil War (1642–1651). Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I of England and his supporters, known as the Cavaliers or Royalists, who ...
s, and as a result, the Stoke Edith Estate, which now included large parts of Tarrington, was heavily fined and effectively confiscated by the Commonwealth Government under
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three K ...
. It was returned to the family at the restoration of
Charles II in 1660. Henry Lingen later became Member of Parliament for Herefordshire in 1661, but died of smallpox the following year.
Ironmasters
In 1670,
Thomas Foley (1616-1677)
Thomas Foley (1617–1677) was an English ironmaster and politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1659 and 1677.
Life
Foley was the eldest son of Richard Foley and his second wife Alice Brindley, herself the daugh ...
, a highly successful
ironmaster
An ironmaster is the manager, and usually owner, of a forge or blast furnace for the processing of iron. It is a term mainly associated with the period of the Industrial Revolution, especially in Great Britain.
The ironmaster was usually a large ...
from Stourbridge, bought the Stoke Edith Estate. The Foley family had benefited from the Civil War by supplying charcoal and iron needed for making cannon to the Roundheads, and, later, to the Restoration Government. Thomas Foley's son,
Paul
Paul may refer to:
*Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name)
* Paul (surname), a list of people
People
Christianity
*Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...
, built a new house on the Estate and continued to expand it into Tarrington, he became
Speaker of the House of Commons Speaker of the House of Commons is a political leadership position found in countries that have a House of Commons, where the membership of the body elects a speaker to lead its proceedings.
Systems that have such a position include:
* Speaker of ...
in 1694.
19th century
According to the 1851 census, the population of Tarrington was 534, including 11 farmers, 2 masons, 2 wheelwrights, a blacksmith, a Cooper, 2 shoemakers, a builder, a rate-collector, a plumber and glazier, a butcher, 2 shopkeepers, a publican, a schoolmaster and schoolmistress, a doctor and the vicar.
Charles Mason, Steward to Lady Emily Foley, lived at The Vine, and William Wallace, her Bailiff, lived at The Lays.
20th century
In 1919, due to the depression in farming and the agricultural economy, parts of the Stoke Edith Estate in Tarrington and the surrounding parishes were auctioned at the Green Dragon Hotel in Hereford. The auction included the Foley Arms, Tarrington House, Tan House Farm, Free Town and many other farms and cottages. In all, 3,370 acres (1,364 hectares) of land in Tarrington and beyond were made available and passed back into individual ownership. However, a substantial part of the estate was retained by the family.
References
External links
Tarrington Website
{{authority control
Villages in Herefordshire