Yarpole Community

There has been a settlement in Yarpole since Celtic times; there is evidence of lynchets visible in some field patterns. These form due to the methods of ploughing practiced in early times. There are remains of Celtic farmsteads on Bircher common; as well as the massive Iron Age Hill Fort of Croft Ambrey; home to 500 people until approximately AD50 when it was abandoned. The Anglo-Saxon meaning of

Yarpole (Yarpol or Iarpol) is fish pool or fish dam to create a pool. The village is recorded in the Domesday Book. The majority of the land was owned by the Priory at Leominster until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1536 by Henry VIII. The Bell Tower at St Leonard's Church is one of four separate Bell Towers in the county. Recent dendrochronological dating has established that it is the oldest. The oak trees used in its construction were felled during the winter of 1195/96. The trees were already 200 years old. Bircher is a small village one and a half miles from Yarpole where there is a pub and village shop. It is five miles from the market town of Leominster. Bircher Common. Bircher Common is a medieval common land with a number of features including several Iron Age enclosures and some later house platforms. It lies south-east of Croft Ambrey Hill Fort. Bicton is a small hamlet on the south eastern edge of the Parish. Lucton. The village of Lucton lies to the West side of the parish and is close to the site of the Battle of Mortimer's Cross which took place during the War of the Roses. Croft Castle & Estate. Croft Castle is now a lavish country mansion but it started life as a Norman stronghold on the border of Wales.