Place:Kilpeck, Herefordshire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Kilpeck is a small village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England. It is about nine miles (14 km) southwest of Hereford, just south of the A465 road and Welsh Marches Line to Abergavenny, and about five miles (8 km) from the border with Wales.

The village is renowned for its small but outstanding Norman (Romanesque) church, SS Mary and David's.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Kilpck from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"KILLPECK, a parish in the [registration] district and county of Hereford; on a branch of the river Monnow, and on the Hereford and Abergavenny railway, near St. Devereux [railway] station, 8 miles SW by S of Hereford. Post town: Wormbridge, under Hereford. Acres: 2,135. Real property: £1,868. Population: 267. Houses: 54. The property is divided among a few. The manor belongs to T. G. Symonds, Esq. A castle was founded on an eminence here, about 1134, by Hugh Fitzwilliam, son of the Conqueror and ancestor of the Kilpecs; and is now represented by only scanty remains. A small Benedictine priory, a cell to Gloucester abbey, was founded about the same time, by the same person; and the church of it still stands, restored in 1848, and is a remarkably pure and interesting specimen of Norman architecture. The doorway is decorated with zigzag, nailhead, and star mouldings; the corbel table goes all round the building, and has upwards of 74 sculptures of heads, men, and beasts; much of the wall is covered with elaborate ornaments; and the chancel has the form of an apex. The living is a [perpetual] curacy in the diocese of Hereford. Value: £10. Patron: the Bishop of Worcester."

Research Tips

• Herefordshire Archive and Records Centre, Fir Tree Lane, Rotherwas, Hereford HR2 6LA is where paper and microfilm copies of all records for Herefordshire are stored. The Archives Centre has a website where the index to the archives (and also the wills catalog) can be searched. One item in the catalog is List of all Herefordshire parish register and bishops transcripts holdings which is a PDF file with information provided in an old version of Excel.

Online sources which may also be helpful:

• GENUKI gives pointers to other archive sources as well as providing some details on each parish in the county. The emphasis here is on ecclesiastical parishes (useful before 1837)
• A listing of all the Registration Districts in England and Wales since their introduction in 1837 and tables of the parishes that were part of each district and the time period covered with detailed notes on changes of parish name, mergers, etc. Do respect the copyright on this material.
• The FamilySearch Wiki for Herefordshire provides a similar but not identical series of webpages to that provided by GENUKI
• A Vision of Britain through Time has a group of pages of statistical facts for almost every parish in the county
• Unfortunately, only one volume on Herefordshire has been published in the Victoria County History series. British History Online have produced a series of Ordnance Survey first edition maps for the county which may be helpful for mid-nineteenth century inquiries
• Ancestry.co.uk lists its collections of Herefordshire genealogical material.
• FindMyPast collections of historical records can be searched for Herefordshire. They have collections of parish records for the pre-1837 period.