Welsh Bicknor
Encyclopedia
Welsh Bicknor is an area of Herefordshire
Herefordshire
Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. Despite its name, it is not currently in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

, but was historically a detached parish (exclave) of the county of Monmouthshire
Monmouthshire (historic)
Monmouthshire , also known as the County of Monmouth , is one of thirteen ancient counties of Wales and a former administrative county....

.

Courtfield, the manor house
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...

 of Welsh Bicknor was originally known as Greyfield or Greenfield, the name altered after King Henry V of England
Henry V of England
Henry V was King of England from 1413 until his death at the age of 35 in 1422. He was the second monarch belonging to the House of Lancaster....

 had lived there as a young child of eight, following the death of his mother Mary de Bohun
Mary de Bohun
Mary de Bohun was the first wife of King Henry IV of England and the mother of King Henry V. Mary was never queen, as she died before her husband came to the throne.-Early life:...

, under the care of Lady Margaret Montacute, wife of Sir John Montacute, 3rd Earl of Salisbury
John Montacute, 3rd Earl of Salisbury
`John Montacute, 3rd Earl of Salisbury and 5th and 2nd Baron Montacute, KG was an English nobleman, one of the few who remained loyal to Richard II after Henry IV became king.-Early life:...

 long before his father, King Henry IV
Henry IV of England
Henry IV was King of England and Lord of Ireland . He was the ninth King of England of the House of Plantagenet and also asserted his grandfather's claim to the title King of France. He was born at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire, hence his other name, Henry Bolingbroke...

 was to usurp the throne of King Richard II. An effigy
Effigy
An effigy is a representation of a person, especially in the form of sculpture or some other three-dimensional form.The term is usually associated with full-length figures of a deceased person depicted in stone or wood on church monuments. These most often lie supine with hands together in prayer,...

 of Lady Margaret Montacute can be seen in Welsh Bicknor church and her plain tomb is beside the altar in Goodrich
Goodrich, Herefordshire
Goodrich is a village, in south Herefordshire, England which is very close to Gloucestershire and the Forest of Dean situated near the River Wye at and is famous for its old red sandstone Norman and medieval castle.Not strictly in the Forest of Dean but close enough to count Goodrich is a small...

 church.

As its name suggests, Welsh Bicknor has close ties with Wales, having been a detached parish of Monmouthshire, although adjacent to English Bicknor
English Bicknor
English Bicknor is a village and civil parish in the Forest of Dean district of west Gloucestershire, England. According to the United Kingdom Census 2001 the population is 406. The village is close to the county border with Herefordshire, opposite which is the village of Welsh Bicknor...

 and Lydbrook
Lydbrook
Lydbrook is a civil parish in the Forest of Dean, a local government district in the English county of Gloucestershire. It comprises the districts of Lower Lydbrook, Upper Lydbrook, and Joys Green.-Introduction:...

, which are part of Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....

. The manor house and surrounding land of Welsh Bicknor belonged to the Vaughan family. However, in 1651 Richard Vaughan, who was a Catholic, had his land sequestered
Sequestration (law)
Sequestration is the act of removing, separating, or seizing anything from the possession of its owner under process of law for the benefit of creditors or the state.-Etymology:...

  and given to Phillip Nicholas of Llansoy
Llansoy
Llansoy is a small village in Monmouthshire, south east Wales, United Kingdom, located about 3 miles south east of Raglan.- History :There is an Iron Age hillfort 1 mile north west of the village, at Great House, covering an area of about 2 hectares and overlooking the River Olwy. Later, the...

, in Monmouthshire
Monmouthshire (historic)
Monmouthshire , also known as the County of Monmouth , is one of thirteen ancient counties of Wales and a former administrative county....

. This is how the rather unusual situation of the exclave occurred. It has been deemed to be part of Herefordshire
Herefordshire
Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...

 since the Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844
Counties (Detached Parts) Act 1844
The Counties Act 1844 , which came into effect on 20 October 1844, was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom which eliminated many outliers or exclaves of counties in England and Wales for civil purposes....

.

Religious dissension within the Vaughan families continued for several generations. In 1715, a John Vaughan (presumably one of Richard's descendants) refused the oath of allegiance to George I. He had estates in the several counties of Monmouthshire, Radnorshire
Radnorshire
Radnorshire is one of thirteen historic and former administrative counties of Wales. It is represented by the Radnorshire area of Powys, which according to the 2001 census, had a population of 24,805...

, Herefordshire, and Gloucestershire valued at £1,000 per annum. In 1719 he was fined for not attending church.

A later generation, in the person of Richard Vaughan, joined Prince Charles Edward Stuart
Charles Edward Stuart
Prince Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Sylvester Severino Maria Stuart commonly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie or The Young Pretender was the second Jacobite pretender to the thrones of Great Britain , and Ireland...

's army in 1745. Vaughan took part in the Battle of Culloden
Battle of Culloden
The Battle of Culloden was the final confrontation of the 1745 Jacobite Rising. Taking place on 16 April 1746, the battle pitted the Jacobite forces of Charles Edward Stuart against an army commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, loyal to the British government...

 and followed the Prince into exile. He and his brother William Vaughan were outlawed and their property seized, while they themselves fled to Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 and became officers in the army of that country. Both married Spanish Ladies and some of their descendants settled in the home of their adoption and became grandees of Spain.

Richard Vaughan died in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

 in 1795 but his son William eventually returned to Wales and obtained a restoration of the main portion of his estates, as heir to his uncle. Later, John Vaughan of Courtfield, elder brother of William took the oath of allegiance to King George III
George III of the United Kingdom
George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...

 at Monmouth
Monmouth
Monmouth is a town in southeast Wales and traditional county town of the historic county of Monmouthshire. It is situated close to the border with England, where the River Monnow meets the River Wye with bridges over both....

 in 1778. Louisa Eliza Rolls, who married John Vaughan of Courtfield in 1830, prayed that her children might have vocations to priesthood or the religious life, and six of her sons became priests (including the later Cardinal Vaughan) and four of her daughters became nuns.

Welsh Bicknor parish records are now held by Hereford Records Office.

There is currently a Youth Hostel at Welsh Bicknor, adjacent to the Church. The building had served as the Rectory
Rectory
A rectory is the residence, or former residence, of a rector, most often a Christian cleric, but in some cases an academic rector or other person with that title...

to the local Church until it was sold in the 1960s.

External links

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