Leysters or Laysters is a civil parish in north-east Herefordshire, England, and approximately north-northeast from the city and county town of Hereford. The nearest towns are the market towns of Leominster to the south-west, and Tenbury Wells in Worcestershire, miles to the north-east. Within Letton is the Grade I listed Church of St Andrew.
History Laysters in the Domesday Book is written as "Last", in 1228 as "Lastes", and in 1242 and 1257 as "Lastres".Ekwall, Eilert (1936); The Concise Oxfordshire Dictionary of English Place-names, Oxford University Press, 4th ed. (1960), p.291, The parish hamlet of Woonton, in Domesday is written as "Wenetone". Domesday shows that Laysters was in the Hundred of Wolfhay, under three owners, and described as 'waste'. The first manor had in 1066 belonged to Arngrim of Womerton and Arnketil, lordship transferred in 1086 to Roger of Mussegros, who was also tenant-in-chief to king William I. The second, in 1066, belonged to Godric, transferred to Bernard in 1086 under the tenants-in-chief Durand of Gloucester, and Walter son of Roger. The third, in 1066, belonged to Eadric the Wild under the overlordship of King Edward, in 1086 remaining with Edric who was also tenant-in-chief in chief to William I."Layster", Open Domesday. Retrieved 8 April 2023"Place name: Woonton, Laysters, Herefordshire Folio: 184r", The National Archives. Retrieved 11 April 2023"St Andrew, Leysters, Herefordshire", The Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain & Ireland. Retrieved 11 April 2023
In the reign of king John (1199 to 1216), Laysters belonged to the lords of Kilpeck Castle. Part of the manor was passed to Ralph Botyler, through his wife, Kilpeck co-heiress Lady Maud Pantulf, during the reign of Edward IV (1442 – 1483), with a further part to the Devereux family. Then both parts of the manor came into the hands of the Delamere family, who sold it to a Thomas Whitgreave, Receiver to Richard, Duke of York. Whitgreave's daughter married Thomas Barneby of Ludlow, Shropshire, the Treasurer to Edward IV. Part of Laysters was sold in 1653 to a John Clark, who was the receiver to Charterhouse; his granddaughter in 1675 bringing it to John Powel of Whyle. The other part of the manor remained with the Barneby family until 1795.Robinson, Charles John; "Laysters"+-wikipedia&pg=PA166&printsec=frontcover "Laysters" in A History of the Mansions and Manors of Herefordshire, Longmans and Co., 1873, p. 166Bond, Rodney, Baron Ralph le Boteler & Lady Maud Pantulf. Retrieved 12 March 2023Burke, John, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry, volume iV, London Henry Colburn, 1838, "Barneby of Brockhampton", p.2
The church at Laysters was historically a chapel to Tenbury Priory, but was appropriated by Sheen Priory under Henry V. Laysters was part of the rectory of Tenbury, but at the dissolution of monasteries the parish was leased to a Thomas Acton and his descendants.
19th century
In the 1850s and 1860s Laysters is described as a parish near the Leominster to Tenbury road and in the Wolphy hundred and the Leominster Union—poor relief and joint parish workhouse provision set up under the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834— that included the township, later in the 1890s the hamlet, of Woonton (), at the south-west of the parish. The ecclesiastical parish (as Leysters), was in the Shropshire archdeaconry, and Hereford bishopric. The church of St Andrew is described as an "old stone building of massive character, but not possessing sufficient architectural features to mark the style". The church, repaired in the early 1830s, comprises a tower, nave, and chancel, and contains "several" plain mural tablets. The living is a perpetual curracy—office supported by stipend rather than tithes or glebe—worth £250 yearly, with about of glebe, the area of land used to support the parish church and priest. There were parish charities of a £16 10s. yearly value. At south from the church is a tumulus, which might have been an ancient burial mound. The population in 1851 was 210 in 43 inhabited houses. Post was processed through Leominster, which was also the nearest money order office. Commercial traders and residents included between ten and twelve farmers, the parish clerk (who was also a farm steward, parish constable, and agent to the National Live Stock Insurance Co.), a boot & shoe maker, a carpenter, and the mistress of the parochial school. An 1814-built school at Bockleton, to the south-east, also accepted labourers’ children of Laysters for no fee. Parish area in the 1850s was about , the soil being "clayey" over a subsoil of clay and marl, with some cornstone [mottled red and green limestone], rock outcrops. Crops grown were grain, cabbage, mangold wurtzel and swedes. Swedes averaged thirty tons an acre, with all crops of "splendid growth", indicating the "application of at least some of the improvements in modern agricultural science". Rosedale (), a property at the south of the parish is described in the 1850s as a "genteel residence, sheltered by plantations, and pleasantly situated on a sloping eminence which is terminated by a small stream and fish pond". Woonton House, today Woonton Court (), was the home of a doctor who practiced at Leominster. Within the house was reported an inscribed poem:
In 1795 the estates comprising the lordships of Heath (), a further Laysters' settlement of the time, and Woonton, had been purchased by "… Hulton the celebrated antiquarian and historian". His descendants in the 1850s resided on the property.Bockleton in Billing's Directory & Gazetteer of Worcestershire, 1855, p. 107Laysters in the "Post Office Directory of Herefordshire", 1856, p.69Laysters in the History, Topography & Directory of Herefordshire, 1858, pp. 220-221Laysters in Slater's Directory of Glos, Herefs, Mon, Shrops, & Wales, 1859, p.H40Laysters in Slater's Directory of Glos, Herefs, Mon, Shrops, & Wales, 1868, p.H46
By the 1870s Laysters, with the union, was also in the petty sessional division, and county court district of Leominster, and in Docklow polling district. The population in 1861 was 283, and in 1871 was 279 people in 54 houses, as families or as 60 separate occupiers. Parish area was refined to , at a yearly ratable value of £2,261. There were five chief landowners, three of whom lived outside the parish: Bockleton, Cheltenham, and Yockleton near Shrewsbury. The parish was now in the Ludlow archdeaconry and the Burford West rural deanery. The living was now a vicarage, with a value, £256 13s., with a residence (at Little Laysters, , south-west from the church), and , of glebe. Reported was a £600 cost for the 1830s partial restoration of the church, and a further approximately £350 restoration in 1871 described as the "roof being laid open, the timber varnished, and the church repewed". The ecclesiastical of parish of St Michael and all Angels, described as being at Old Wood, Laysters, and formed in 1856, combined parts of the parishes of Laysters, Middleton on the Hill, and part of the mother parish of Tenbury in Worcestershire. Endowed charities in the 1870s then amounted to £41 12s. yearly. The parish school at Little Laysters (), was a public Elementary School for boys and girls with an average attendance of about 46. Resident at Laysters was the schoolmaster and the teacher at the day school. Commercial traders included the proprietors of Laysters' brick and tile works, a carpenter, a wheelwright, a thrashing machine proprietor who was also a carpenter, a shopkeeper, and the parish clerk. Listed were also ten farmers, three also a hop grower, and another a steward for the Norfolk Farmers' live stock insurance company, and for the Lancashire fire and life insurance office, and a farm bailiff.Laysters in Littlebury's Directory and Gazetteer of Herefordshire, 1876-7Extracted from Laysters, Grid Reference Finder. Retrieved 12 April 2023Laysters' school image,Laysters, Herefordshire, Google Street View (image date April 2009). Retrieved 12 April 2023Laysters' vicarage image,Laysters, Herefordshire, Google Street View (image date April 2009). Retrieved 12 April 2023
By the 1880s Laysters is described as being in the Northern division of the county, and south-east from Easton Court station on the Tenbury branch of the Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway. The church of St Andrew is now described as being of Norman style, of chancel, nave, south porch, and a western tower containing three bells, with east and south windows of stained glass. The parish register dates to 1703. The ecclesiastical parish living was still a vicarage, with a tithe rent charge—typically one-tenth of the produce or profits of the land given to the rector for his services—of £254, but still with 90 acres of glebe, in the gift of Bockleton Court, outside the civil parish. In 1885 a Wesleyan chapel was being erected. The parish charities were then valued at £37 l0s. yearly. The two principal landowners lived at Bockelton and Pendleton, Lancashire. Chief crops were now listed as wheat, beans, oats, hops and apples. Population in 1881 was 238 in 53 inhabited houses, with 58 families or separate occupiers. By now, letters were collected from a letter box, with post processed through Tenbury which was then the nearest money order & telegraph office. The parochial school, for boys and girls, which was built in 1869, included a master's house, and accommodated and had an average attendance of 47 pupils. The school was then run by a schoolmistress, as was a further day school. In 1885 parish residents included the church vicar, at the vicarage, and the church curate. Commercial residents included a carpenter, two related female shopkeepers, seven farmers, and a farm bailiff. By 1890 the parish was in the now Docklow and Kimbolton polling district and electoral division of the county council. Listings now state that St Andrew's church, described as a "massive stone edifice", was restored in 1842, and again in 1870. The school was now a National School, accommodating 48, with an average attendance of 44. Tenbury, Brimfield and Leominster were the nearest money order offices, with letters collected from a letter box and processed through Tenbury, the nearest money order telegraph office and post town, and delivered by messenger. Residents in 1890s included the parish vicar at the vicarage, the parish clerk, two churchwardens, Wesleyan chapel ministers, and the schoolmaster who was also the Poor Law assistant overseer and parish clerk, and the schoolmistress. The school, with an attendance of 36, was at this time stated as being built in 1869. Commercial traders included the two shopkeepers, twelve farmers, two of whom were also a hop grower, and a farm bailiff. Population in 1891 was 200.Laysters in Kelly's Directory of Herefordshire 1885 p. 1190Laysters in Jakeman & Carver's Directory of Herefordshire, 1890, pp. 460 – 461Laysters in Kelly's Directory of Herefordshire & Shropshire, Part 1, Herefordshire, 1895, p. 114
In 1913 the parish is described as being miles from Fencote station on the Leominster and Bromyard section of the Great Western Railway, and about 5 miles south-east from Easton Court station on the Tenbury and Bewdley branch of the Great Western Railway. Population in 1911 was 177 in the civil and 167 in the ecclesiastical parish. There was by then a post office just to the north from the parish at Laysters Pole in Middleton on the Hill. At Laysters Pole a carrier—transporter of trade goods, with sometimes people, between different settlements—connected the parish to Leominster. The schoolmaster's house had been rebuilt in 1898. The school now housed 60 pupils with an average attendance of 39. Commercial listings included a grocer at Laysters Pole post office, and twelve farmers, two of whom were also hop growers.Laysters in Kelly's Directory of Herefordshire, 1913, p. 130