Weobley

Weobley

Sargeants Bros bus in Weobley
Weobley
 Weobley shown within Herefordshire
Civil parishWeobley
Unitary authorityHerefordshire
Ceremonial countyHerefordshire
RegionWest Midlands
CountryEngland
Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Post town HEREFORD
Postcode district HR4
Dialling code 01544
Police West Mercia
Fire Hereford and Worcester
Ambulance West Midlands
EU Parliament West Midlands
UK ParliamentNorth Herefordshire
List of places
UK
England
Herefordshire

Coordinates: 52°09′32″N 2°52′23″W / 52.159°N 2.873°W

Weobley is a large village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England. Formerly a market town, it is today one of the county's black and white villages.

The name possibly derives from 'Wibba's Ley', a ley being a woodland glade and Wibba being a local Saxon landowner. In the Domesday Book the village name was transcribed as Wibelai. It is still pronounced as "Web-ley" (the spelling being similar to nearby Leominster which also does not pronounce the letter 'o' in its name).

In the Saxon period it is known that brewing and glove-making were carried out in the village.

The village has an historic church, the Church of St Peter and St Paul, with a Norman south doorway, a 13th-century chancel and 14th-century tower and a spire that is the second-tallest in the county; castle ruins; a high school and a primary school with a pioneering system of heating.

In the village is 'the Throne', a large 400 year old box - King Charles I spent the night here on 5 September 1645, after the Battle of Naseby during the English Civil War.

It was once incorporated as a borough, sending two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons until the Reform Act 1832, (see Weobley (UK Parliament constituency) and once had a borough corporation.

The magpie in Weobley

In 2001 the artist Walenty Pytel completed a sculpture of a magpie for the village (a magpie is the village's emblem). The sculpture was commissioned after the village won the Calor Gas/Daily Telegraph Great Britain Village of the Year in 1999.[1]

References

  1. Palmer, Mike (10 February 2001). "Taking pride of place". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 20 February 2010.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Weobley.