Place:Holmer, Herefordshire, England

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

source: Family History Library Catalog

Since 1932 Holmer has been a civil parish located immediately north of the City of Hereford. In the 19th century it covered a much greater area as is described in John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales quoted below. Much of the original parish was absorbed into Hereford Municipal Borough in 1884. This section was named Holmer Within. The section outside the municipal borough was renamed Holmer and Shelwick, Shelwith being a village in the northeast of the parish.

Huntington (near Hereford) covered the western part of Holmer parish. It was also absorbed into Hereford.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Holmer from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"HOLMER, a village, a township, and a parish, in the [registration] district and county of Hereford. The village stands near the Shrewsbury and Hereford railway, 2 miles N of Hereford; and has a post office under Hereford.

"The township includes Shelwick hamlet, and bears the name of Holmer and Shelwick. Real property: £7,504. Population in 1851: 618; in 1861: 1,083. Houses: 213.

"The parish contains also the township of Huntington; and comprises 3,069 acres. Real property: £8,778. Population in 1851: 747; in 1861: 1,237. Houses, 242. The increase of population arose mainly from the operations of a Freehold Land society. The property of Holmer and Shelwick township is much subdivided; and that of Huntington is divided among three. Holmer Lodge, Westfield House, and Copelands are chief residences. The living is a vicarage, united with the [perpetual] curacy of Huntington, in the diocese of Hereford. Value: £220. Patrons: the Dean and Chapter of Hereford. The parochial church is ancient; comprises merely nave and chancel, with a tower; and looks to be early English, but wants distinctive features. The tower was recently in need of repair. The church of Huntington is modern and neat. Charities £11."

Research Tips

• Herefordshire Archive and Records Centre, Fir Tree Lane, Rotherwas, Hereford HR2 6LA is where paper and microfilm copies of all records for Herefordshire are stored. The Archives Centre has a website where the index to the archives (and also the wills catalog) can be searched. One item in the catalog is List of all Herefordshire parish register and bishops transcripts holdings which is a PDF file with information provided in an old version of Excel.

Online sources which may also be helpful:

• GENUKI gives pointers to other archive sources as well as providing some details on each parish in the county. The emphasis here is on ecclesiastical parishes (useful before 1837)
• A listing of all the Registration Districts in England and Wales since their introduction in 1837 and tables of the parishes that were part of each district and the time period covered with detailed notes on changes of parish name, mergers, etc. Do respect the copyright on this material.
• The FamilySearch Wiki for Herefordshire provides a similar but not identical series of webpages to that provided by GENUKI
• A Vision of Britain through Time has a group of pages of statistical facts for almost every parish in the county
• Unfortunately, only one volume on Herefordshire has been published in the Victoria County History series. British History Online have produced a series of Ordnance Survey first edition maps for the county which may be helpful for mid-nineteenth century inquiries
• Ancestry.co.uk lists its collections of Herefordshire genealogical material.
• FindMyPast collections of historical records can be searched for Herefordshire. They have collections of parish records for the pre-1837 period.