Kingsland

"KINGSLAND, a parish in the hundred of STRETFORD, county of HEREFORD, 4 miles (N. W. by W.) from Leominster, containing 989 inhabitants. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Hereford, rated in the king's books at £31.3. 6., and in the patronage of the Rev. W. Evans. The church, dedicated to St. Michael, is a massive edifice, built in the reign of Edward I., by Edward Lord Mortimer, whose relict obtained a grant for a market and a fair, the former of which has been long discontinued, but the latter is still held on October 10th, for horses, cattle, hops, cheese, &c. A free school has been endowed with £15 per annum, by Thomas Woodhouse. Kingsland formerly comprised part of the dower of Catherine, Queen of Charles II.: and tradition relates that near the glebehouse is the site of an ancient castle, the burial-place of King Merwald. In West Field there is a pedestal, erected by the neighbouring gentry, commemorative of the celebrated battle of Mortimer's Cross, fought in 1461, in which the Earl of Pembroke was defeated by the Duke of York, afterwards Edward IV., with the loss of about four thousand men: the earl escaped, but his father, Sir Owen Tudor, was taken prisoner and immediately beheaded." [From Samuel Lewis A Topographical Dictionary of England  (1831) ©Mel Lockie]