Sarnesfield (National Grid ref. SO374508) is a civil parish and village in Herefordshire, eleven miles northwest of Hereford.

Descent of the manor

De Lacy

Sarnesfield was granted by

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 ...

Roger de Lacy Roger de Lacy (died after 1106) was an Anglo-Norman nobleman, a Marcher Lord on the Welsh border. Roger was a castle builder, particularly at Ludlow Castle. Lands and titles From Walter de Lacy (died 1085) he inherited Castle Frome, Herefor ...

De Sarnesfield

The remains of a moat at Little Sarnesfield - geograph

Philip de Sarnesfield held one and a half hides from Hugh de Lacy in 1109. An early lord of the manor was Nicholas de Sarnesfield, a member of the retinue of the

Black Prince Edward of Woodstock, known to history as the Black Prince (15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376), was the eldest son of King Edward III of England, and the heir apparent to the English throne. He died before his father and so his son, Richard II, suc ...

and created a

Knight of the Garter The Most Noble Order of the Garter is an order of chivalry founded by Edward III of England in 1348. It is the most senior order of knighthood in the British honours system, outranked in precedence only by the Victoria Cross and the George ...

in 1386 by

King Richard II Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father d ...

to whom he was standard bearer and an eminent diplomat. He died in 1394, leaving his two daughters co-heiresses, the eldest of whom married Hugh de Moynton or Monington. The younger daughter married Walter Bromwich of Sarnesfield Coffyn, now Little Sarnesfield Farm. The manor was split into two moieties, with Greater Sarnesfield passing to the Monington family, and Sarnesfield Coffyn (also known as Little Sarnesfield) to Bromwich. The latter was held by John Bromwich in 1532. Subsequently the two moieties seem to have been re-united into one manor. Sarnesfield was held by the Monington family until 1781.

Monington

In St Mary's Church is the following marble wall tablet:

"Sacred to the Memory of ANN TERESA MONINGTON. She was born the 21st Novr 1735, at SARNESFIELD COURT the Seat of her Ancestors where She resided many Years in the exercise of every social vertue, and in hospitality to her neighbours and benevolence to the Poor, surpassed by none. On the 2nd Febry 1780, She took the Veil in the FRANCISCAN CONVENT of English Ladies at BRUGES in FLANDERS - driven from thence by the French Revolution in 1794, with them retired to the Abbey-house in WINCHESTER where She died on the 24th Novr following, and her Remains are deposited Through Life revered in Death regretted. On her embracing a Religious State She renounced all her Worldly possessions, and generously gave up her Estates in this County, to her Kinsman, JOHN WEBB WESTON, Esqr who in grateful remembrance, has caused this Tablet to be erected, R.I.P."

John Webbe-Weston was the heir of

Sutton Place, Surrey Sutton Place, north-east of Guildford in Surrey, is a Grade I listed Tudor manor house built c. 1525 by Sir Richard Weston (d. 1541), courtier of Henry VIII. It is of great importance to art history in showing some of the earliest traces of ...

. In 1837 Thomas Monington of Sarnesfield was

High Sheriff of Herefordshire This is a list of Sheriffs and, since 1998, High Sheriffs of Herefordshire The position of Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in each county, but over the centurie ...

Marshall

In 1891 Sarnesfield Court was bought by George William Marshall (1839–1905),

York Herald York Herald of Arms in Ordinary is an officer of arms at the College of Arms. The first York Herald is believed to have been an officer to Edmund of Langley, Duke of York around the year 1385, but the first completely reliable reference to such a ...

, who did much to restore the church to its original condition, removing later additions. He was buried in the parish on 16 Sept. 1905.

St Mary's Church

Fragments of 13th- or 14th-century floriated crosses are visible in the church. One apparently from the 14th century in the south-east corner of the south chapel commemorates Isabel De Sarnesfield.

Sarnesfield Court

Sarnesfield Court was demolished in 1955.

Sources

*www.genuki.org.uk

References

{{authority control Villages in Herefordshire Civil parishes in Herefordshire