Bishops Castle Church
Before his death on 22 April 1148, Bishop Robert Bethune of Hereford granted Bishops Castle church to Shobdon priory. This was later transferred to Wigmore abbey on the suppression of Shobdon. In 1155 the monks fought the new bishop of Hereford over possession of the church while King Henry II waged war against their patron, Hugh Mortimer of Wigmore (d.1181). However it is possible that the church of Lydbury North is the church referred to in the medieval text.
Bishops
Castle church was almost totally rebuilt
in 1860, leaving only the impressive tower from the Mortimer era,
although this itself had been heavily rebuilt in the seventeenth
century. A Georgian crypt was recently excavated under the current
chancel. The font appears to be twelfth century, while the old south doorway
of the medieval church survives rebuilt in the garden wall behind the
church.
Copyright©2013 Paul Martin Remfry