Home News Project Info History The River Wye Links Holme Lacy Herefordshire   Holme Lacy is just Hamme in Domesday, from Old English hamm - land in a river bend. It was an estate of the Bishop of Hereford and held of him by Roger de Lacy. It had been wrongfully held by Harold Godwinson (King of England in 1066). Many estates in the country were said to be held wrongfully by Earl Godwin and his sons. Godwin's wife had refused to eat food from estates which he had stolen from the church. William had returned Hamme to Bishop Walter and in 1086 its population included 16 villeins, 4 bordars, a reeve, 1 male and 2 female slaves, a priest and a Frenchman who between them had 20½ ploughs. The priest implies the existence of a church at Holme Lacy. There were also two ploughs in lordship. St Cuthbert's church, Holme Lacy and deserted village Photograph © Chris Musson & the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club   Earthwork near Holme Lacy church. These may be associated with the former village of Home Lacy which is believed to have been in the area of the church. The modern Holme Lacy is on the main road. The de Lacys connection gave the place the second part of its name. Walter de Lacy had been a member the household of William fitz Osbern’s who had been made Earl of Hereford after the Conquest. Walter’s holdings included a swathe of land in the south-west of Herefordshire which was Welsh at the time of the Conquest.  This area was known as Ewyas Lacy and probably had its main stronghold at Pont Hendre Castle, near Longtown.  Also in this area is the village of Walterstone, which may have been named after him.  Walter died in 1085, falling from St Peter’s Church in Hereford, during its construction, and his lands passed to his son, Roger de Lacy. Other de Lacy estates were at Weobley, Bodenham, Eardisley, Stoke Lacy and Tarrington. In Domesday Roger held 14 demesne and 50 tenants’ manors in Herefordshire and had large holdings elsewhere. Holme Lacy Loop and Bridge Photograph © Chris Musson & the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club       Collecting the toll between the wars     In 1362 the Prior of Llanthony Abbey with other monks, a number of named Englishmen and a 'great multitude of Welshmen' entered the priest Adam Esegar's manor of Holme Lacy 'broke the doors and windows of his houses there, carried away his goods, broke a weir of his newly erected in the water of Wye there and at Fownhope and the sluices of his mill at Hommelacy, and cut the timber of the sluices into little pieces. The wealth of Holme Lacy was assessed in 1523 as follows   Thomas Bromwich 8 pounds   Rees Bennett 266 shillings 8 pence   John Galesburg 100 shillings   Thomas Morgan 6 pounds   Richard Howlit 4 pounds   Richard Barrel 8 pounds   James Coke 6 pounds   Philip Barrel 7 pounds   James Davies 33  shillings 4 pence   Richard Tailor 40  shillings   John Church 40  shillings   John Gwyn 40  shillings   David Gitto 40 shillings   William Wyttard 20 shillings   Richard Pegyn 3 pounds   Thomas Pegyn 20 shillings   William Gave 20 shillings   Richard Tailor 6 pounds   Thomas Purser 20 shillings   Henry Partridge 40 shillings   Philip Eynon 20 shillings   Thomas servant of Philip Barrel 20 shillings   Thomas Griffith 40 shillings   Ludovic Davies 40 shillings   Marion Kenven 3 pounds   Richard Andrew 6 pounds   David Meyrick 53 shillings 4 pence   Philip Griffith 20 shillings   Ieuan Dee 20 shillings   William Terold 20 shillings   William Tailor 20 shillings   Richard Glasebury 40 shillings   Thomas Glasebury ?   William Gaule 6 pounds   Thomas Cook 6 pounds   George Wood 20 pounds   John Caldecott 10 pounds   John Eynon 20 shillings Tax assessment from Herefordshire Taxes in the Reign of Henry VIII edited by M A Faraday: Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club, Herefordshire, 2005 Holme Lacy became part of the estates of the Scudamore family. At the time of the dissolution of the monasteries Joan Scudamore was prioress of the convent at nearby Aconbury. Ex monks and nuns were given pensions. Joan, aged 60 in 1554 and living at Holme Lacy, as an ex prioress was given the not inconsiderable sum of £9 per annum. Holme Lacy House Photograph © Chris Musson & the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club    An old part of Holme Lacy House Image from A History of the Mansion and Manors of Herefordshire, Rev Charles Robinson, 1872     Holme Lacy House in the 18th century   John Scudamore was born in 1600 and succeeded his grandfather to the estates of Holme Lacy. He was an MP for the county in 1621 and became a friend of George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham. When Buckingham was assassinated in 1628 Scudamore, now Viscount Scudamore of Sligo, returned to Holme Lacy for some years before being appointed ambassador to the court of Louis XIII in 1635. After four years in France Scudamore returned to Holme Lacy in January 1639. There would only be a short time for him to enjoy his estates before the outbreak of the Civil War. Scudamore was one of the county's leading Royalists. 'In 1641, horseman’s petronels, brought from Caradoc, (another Scudamore property) near Ross, to Holme Lacy, were put in order. But from June to September, 1642, his preparations of arms and ammunition were of a more serious kind. Arms were sent for from Llanthony, his seat near Gloucester, and powder in considerable quantity from the latter place. Armourers and saddlers were set to work for several days. Muskets, rests, and bandileers, a carbine, and a petronel, the great saddles, and the coats of mail were fitted up and repaired: a pistol, spanner, and belt, and a bit with a gilt boss were added to the list of equipments.' Webb's Memorials concerning the Civil War in Herefordshire [a petronel is a firearm for horsemen] In 1643 parliamentary soldiers destroyed almost all the furniture in Holme Lacy House and cut down many of the trees in the park. Holme Lacy House is now a hotel.   Marble monument in St Cuthbert's Church to James, son of the John, the first Lord Scudamore. James died in 1668. James is dressed in Roman costume and is leaning on a cushion.           The Home Lacy Earthquake On 9th November 1852 at 26 minutes past 4 am, an earthquake was felt particularly strongly at Holme Lacy. At the time the Hereford and Gloucester Railway was being constructed through the parish. One of the temporary buildings erected by the company housed horses in the middle, the horse-keeper and his wife at one end, and labourers at the other end. The keeper and his wife were nearly shaken out of bed by the force of the quake and rushed towards the other end of the building to the aid of the labourers, imagining that they must have been injured. Fortunately they met the other group half way, coming in turn, to the couple's rescue. St Cuthbert's church, Holme Lacy Image courtesy of Hereford City Library   Billingsley This was Bylgeslege in 1055 and means 'clearing in a bag-shaped hollow. In that year Harold Godwinson held truce talks here with Gruffydd ap Llywelyn and Earl Aelgar who had recently attacked and taken the city of Hereford.   Click to view walk around Holme Lacy, Bloody Meadow and Ramsden Coppice May 2006     Click to view walk around Holme Lacy, the river and the old railway February 2006     Holme Lacy GENUKI pages Archaeological records from Holme Lacy are held on Historic Herefordshire On Line Back to TOP

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