Almeley

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Almeley is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England.

1 Location
2 Land Use
3 History
4 Demography
5 Sundry

[edit] Location

Almeley is in the west of the county, about 18 miles north-west of Hereford, 13 miles south-west of Leominster and 7 miles from the border with Wales (map).

[edit] Land Use

Its agriculture is largely based around sheep, pasture and cider orchards.

[edit] History

It is mentioned as a small village in the Domesday Book of 1086 [1] and also in 14th century land records "feet of fines". There is an entry for it in Lewis' Topographical Dictionary of England in 1848 [2]. It has a largely fourteenth-century church, and is notable as the birthplace of Sir John Oldcastle, a Lollard sympathizer who was eventually executed for treason in 1417; he is presumed to be the basis for Shakespeare's character of Falstaff.

One of the early Quaker meeting houses is to be found in Almeley Wootton, a hamlet about half a mile north of Almeley village, but within the parish. It was given to the Quakers in 1672 by its owner, Roger Prichard, and is still in use by Quakers today. Two of the Quakers who worshipped there (Roger's son, Edward Prichard, and Edward's brother-in-law, John Eckley) were involved with William Penn in setting up the colony of Pennsylvania in 1682 Almeley Quakers' website.

[edit] Demography

United Kingdom census data show that the population of Almeley has fallen overall by about 30% from 1801 to 1971 (from 753 to 521) [3] but the ratio of males to females has remained at 1:1 over the same period[4]. As a rural parish, it is not surprising that its population density has remained low (at about 1 person per five acres) from 1850 to 1950. During this 100 year period the national average rose from approximately 2 people per four acres to about 5 people per 4 acres [5]