WIGMORE, a parish in the hundred of WIGMORE,
county of HEREFORD, 10 miles (N.W. by N.) from Leominster,
containing, with the township of Limebrook,
429 inhabitants. The living is a discharged vicarage,
in the archdeaconry and diocese of Hereford, rated in
the king's books at £8, endowed with £400 royal
bounty, and in the patronage of the Bishop of Hereford.
The church is dedicated to St. James. . Limestone
abounds here, and it is supposed that coal may be
obtained in the neighbourhood. A court leet is occasionally
held; and there are fairs for cattle, sheep,
&c.,. on May 6th and August 5th. On a commanding
elevation, a little to the westward of the village, are
the ivy-mantled ruins of Wigmore castle, the outer works
of which are the most perfect: the massive fragments
of the keep occupy the summit of a lofty artificial
rnound, and present an appearance highly grand and
picturesque: the founder of this once stately ediface
is now unknown, but it is recorded that Edward the
Elder caused it to be repaired. It was taken trom
Edric, Earl of Shrewsbury, by Ranulph de.Mortimer,
who came over with the Conqueror, aad made it nis
principal seat. The same nobleman, in 1100, established
in the parish church a small college of three prebendaries,
which continued till 1179, when his son
Hugh founded, in honour of St. James, a noble abbey
for monks of the order of St. Augustine, about one
mile distant from the castle, and endowed it so amply
that, at the dissolution, its revenue was estimated at
£302. 12. 3. An Alien priory, a cell to that of Aveney
in Normandy, is said to have existed, at an early period,
at Limebrook in this parish; but it is more certain that
a priory of nuns of the order of St. Augustine was
founded there by the Mortimers, some time in the
reign of Richard I., which at the suppression was valued
at £23. 17. 8. In the neighbourhood are traces
of a Danish camp.