Sarnesfield (National Grid ref. SO374508) is a civil parish and village in Herefordshire, eleven miles north-west of
Hereford
Hereford ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of the ceremonial county of Herefordshire, England. It is on the banks of the River Wye and lies east of the border with Wales, north-west of Gloucester and south-west of Worcester. With ...
.
Descent of the manor
De Lacy
Sarnesfield was granted by
William the Conqueror
William the Conqueror (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England (as William I), reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was D ...
to
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, especially at Ludlow Castle.
Lands and titles
From his father, Walter de Lacy, he inherited Castle Frome, Here ...
.
De Sarnesfield

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 (15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376), known as the Black Prince, was the eldest son and heir apparent of King Edward III of England. He died before his father and so his son, Richard II, succeeded to the throne instead. Edward n ...
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. The most senior order of knighthood in the Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom, British honours system, it is outranked in ...
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, Prince of Wales (later known as the Black Prince), and Joan, Countess of Kent. R ...
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 large Grade I listed Tudor architecture, Tudor prodigy house built c. 1525 by Sir Richard Weston of Sutton Place, Sir Richard Weston (d. 1541), a courtier of Henry VIII.
It is of importanc ...
. 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
George William Marshall, LL.D., FSA (1839–1905) was an English officer of arms, serving as Rouge Dragon Pursuivant from 1887 to 1904, and as York Herald from 1904 to 1905.
He served as High Sheriff of Herefordshire for 1902, and was the same ...
(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 ...
, 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
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Villages in Herefordshire
Civil parishes in Herefordshire