Visit Marstow Places

Welcome to Visit Marstow Places
The Walkfo guide to things to do & explore in Marstow

  

Marstow Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Marstow

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Marstow history

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Marstow at c.1130 was written as “Lann Martin”, and in 1291 as “Martinstow”. The name derives from the saint’s name [Martin], with the Old English ‘stōw’ “replacing [the] Welsh “Llan in the early form”, and producing the “Church or holy place of St Martin”. In 1831 the parish was a division of the Wormelow Hundred of Hereford, with a population of 132. The then St Martin’s ecclesiastical parish living was a perpetual curracy annexed to the vicarage of Sellack (5 miles (8 km) to the north). The vicar at Sellack held a royal bounty endowment of £400 with which to support the incumbency of Marstow. In 1868 the nearest railway station was at Ross-on-Wye, which was also Marstow’s post town. The parish was described as small, on the Garron Brook tributary of the River Wye, and included the hamlet of Pencraig. The Ross to Monmouth road ran through the parish. The land was of “sand and loam upon a subsoil of red sandstone and rock”. Parish tithes – typically one-tenth of the produce or profits of the land given to the rector for his services – had been commuted and substituted with a £202 10s yearly rent-charge payment [under the 1836 Tithe Commutation Act]. The vicar at Sellack still held the church patronage, to the value of £269, which then included the annexed perpetual curacy of Pencoyd [St Denys] (6 miles (10 km) to the north-east of Marstow). The church of St Martin [demolished in 1855] is described as “an ancient stone structure, with a small tower containing two bells”, whose “churchyard is frequently inundated by the overflowing of the river”. The subsequent St Matthew’s Church at Brelston Green, built in the same year, cost £750. There was a school in Marstow for children of both sexes. John Marius Wilson in 1870 adds parish land area as 809 acres (327 hectares) with a population of 142 within 27 dwellings. The rateable value of the land was £2,052. Between 1885 and 1890 the parish remained in the same hundred and deaconry as previously, was in the manor of Wilton-on-Wye, the Ross county court district, the Harewood End petty sessional division and the Whitchurch polling district and electoral division of the county council. The nearest railway station was at Kerne Bridge, 6 miles (10 km) east on the Ross and Monmouth branch of the Great Western Railway. The patronage of the church living was now in the joint gift of Sellack and King’s Caple (6 miles (10 km) to the north), and still annexed to Pencoyd. The living didn’t include a priest’s residence. The new church, now St Matthew, was in the hamlet of Brelston Green, its register dating to 1701. Further notable buildings recorded were Fairfield House, Pengraig Court, Glewstone Court, Trbandy House, and Mount Craig. One of the three principal landowners was Lord Tredegar. There was a Primitive Methodist meeting house, and a Congregationalist chapel with 80 sittings that was erected in 1872 at Pencraig. The rateable value of the now 1,910 acres (770 hectares) of land was £3,505, on which were grown chiefly wheat, barley, root crops and vegetables, and some pasture, with an 1871 parish population of 161 and 1881 of 143. In 1890 there were 29 inhabited houses with 33 families or separate occupiers, and a land area of 1,935 acres (783 hectares) with an annual rateable value of £3,046. After the Divided Parishes Act, on 25 March 1884 the hamlets of Brelston Green, Pengraig and Glewstone had been alienated from their former neighbouring parishes; further land was at the time alienated at from Bridstow and Peterstow. After the redrawing of boundaries Marston population rose to 383. There were two post offices, one each at Glewstone and Pencraig. A district school was built at Glewstone in 1873 for £400, with a residence for a schoolmistress, and which accommodated 60 children and had an average attendance on 45; the school also provided for the outlying portions of the parishes of Goodrich, Peterstow, Bridstow and Hentland. Occupation listings for the period living in the parish included a farm bailiff, a water miller at Tuck mill, a schoolmistress, and a grocer & beer retailer who was also a sub-postmaster. A shopkeeper, carpenter, gardener, and blacksmith traded at Glewstone, and a further blacksmith at Brelston Green who in 1890 was also an assistant overseer. In 1885 there were fifteen farmers, with one each at Brelston Green and Glewstone, and two at Pencraig. By 1890 farmers increased to seventeen. In 1913 the administrative, religious, geographical, and historical aspects of the parish remained as before. There was listed an extra 40 acres (16 hectares) of glebe, an area of land used to support the parish priest. Land rateable value of £2,763, and an expanse of 22 acres (8.9 hectares) of water was recorded. Population in 1911 was 341 for the civil parish, and 120 for the ecclesiastical. The school at Glewstone was now a Public Elementary School for mixed pupils and infants. Occupations included ten farmers, one of whom worked at Brelston Green, a poultry farmer at Tuck mill. At Glewstone was a carpenter, and a shopkeeper, and at Pengraig a carpenter & beer retailer, a blacksmith, and a farmer. Between 1974 and 1998 Marstow was in the South Herefordshire district of Hereford and Worcester.

Marstow landmarks

Marstow parish contains 32 listed buildings and structures. The Grade II parish church of St Matthew is in the hamlet of Brelston Green. It was built in 1855 from sandstone rubble with limestone to designs by Thomas Nicholson.

Marstow geography / climate

The hamlet of Marstow is 14 miles (23 km) south from the city and county town of Hereford. It is 4 miles south-west from the market town of Ross-on-Wye, the nearest large town. The A40 runs for 1.5 miles (2 km) through the parish at the east.

You can visit Marstow places with Walkfo Marstow to hear history at Marstow’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Marstow has 25 places to visit in our interactive Marstow map, with amazing history, culture & travel facts you can explore the same way you would at a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout Marstow, being in the moment, without digital distraction or limits to a specific walking route. Our historic audio walks, National Trust interactive audio experiences, digital tour guides for English Heritage locations are available at Marstow places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Marstow & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 25 audio facts unique to Marstow places in an interactive Marstow map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Marstow Places Map
25 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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Marstow historic spots	Marstow tourist destinations	Marstow plaques	Marstow geographic features
Walkfo Marstow tourism map key: places to see & visit like National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top tourist destinations in Marstow

  

Best Marstow places to visit

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Marstow has places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are a selection of the varied Marstow’s destinations you can visit with additional content available at the Walkfo Marstow’s information audio spots:

Llangrove Llangrove is a small village in the civil parish of Llangarron in southwest Herefordshire. It is within seven miles of Ross-on-Wye (Herefordshire, England) and Monmouth (Monmouthshire, Wales) The village has a pub, The Royal Arms, a school, a village hall, and a church, Christ Church.

Llangarron Llangarron is a small village in southwest Herefordshire. The name refers to the Garron Brook, a tributary of the River Wye. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 1,053. The church is dedicated to St. Deinst (a Celtic saint who died in c584)

Goodrich, Herefordshire Goodrich is a village in south Herefordshire close to Gloucestershire and the Forest of Dean. It is known for its Norman and mediaeval castle built with Old Red Sandstone. The population of the Civil Parish at the 2011 census was 550.

Visit Marstow plaques