Pembridge History through Directories 1835-2024
With the recent formation of a new History Group in Pembridge, and looking at agriculture in the area, I came across some dusty old Herefordshire Directories that have lain in my bookshelves for many years- they have been used occasionally to turn up knowledge of various people, relatives or farms in the county.
These can now be easily obtained online but to me, it is still a pleasure to handle these books. However, I thought it would give anyone with an interest in the history of Pembridge a start.
These County directories were published as very early versions of our ‘Yellow Pages’ With a brief description of the city, town, village or parish. Then a list of notable occupants, trades people and residents with addresses and later, phone numbers. A small fee was paid by those wanting to be included. They were published by different people to begin with but taken over, as the years went by, by a company called Kelly. In the early years they were very expensive to buy with leather bound copies costing £1 -10 shillings (equivalent of £240 today!) However, they usually had a good map in the front and were well used throughout the country.
1835 Pigot Directory (from Leicester University Collection)
My first Herefordshire Directory Pembridge entry comes from the year 1835 -with King George IV on the throne and Robert Peel as Prime Minister. Thomas Telford’s last major canal was opened, and early railways were being laid. Charles Darwin arrives at the Galapagos Islands. Local authorities were given responsibility for the roads (!!!) and power to appoint police. It was only the year before that slavery had been abolished.
Pembridge had three schools; much improving education, and a list of trades that showed the self-sufficiency of the area:
With four basket or straw-hat makers; six butchers or grocers; three blacksmiths; five boot and shoemakers or tailors, three Inns and two maltsters. There must have been numerous cider and beer houses in the parish as well, but these are not recorded.
Regular horse drawn coaches and mail were travelling to and from London and surrounding towns and cities. Mail was still paid by the recipient, not the sender, this was to change in 1840.
Farming was still protected by the Corn Laws following many years of high prices resulting from the Napoleonic Wars. This was the time much of the infrastructure of stone weirs on the Arrow and mills were built, or much improved. The water meadow system was flourishing, and the first Hereford Herd Book (of pedigree cattle) was soon to be published.
Mr James Gough was farming at the Leen.
The population of Pembridge parish in 1821 was 1.203
1858 Herefordshire Directory
This was the height of Queen Victoria’s reign with Palmerston as PM.
Charles Dickens first started his tour, and the other Charles (Darwin) published his Theory of Evolution. The first post boxes appeared and the stench of sewage in the Thames so affected Parliament that they approved the construction of the London sewer system. The source of The Nile was discovered.
With massive improvements in breeding and the science of Agriculture, the introduction of steam machinery, the enclosures, removal of tithes and use of the train network for mail and trade- this was the boom time for the rural economy.
Pembridge railway station had opened to passenger traffic in 1855
The Leen was farmed by Mr Philip Turner
The Pembridge population had grown in 1861 to 1,500.
1876 Littlebury’s Directory
Still with Queen Victoria and Disraeli as PM.
The law now prevents the employment of children under the age of 10 and insists that they attend school between the ages of 5 to 13. Grey squirrels were introduced to Cheshire.
The boom time continued with the industrial revolution creating demand and ‘High’ farming improving the land all the time.
The Leen was still farmed by Mr Philip Turner
The Pembridge population in 1871 was 1,535
1900 Kellys Directory
The final year of Queen Victoria’s rule with Robert Cecil as PM.
The height of the Second Boer War.
The year before Marconi sent the first radio signal across the Channel and UK had its first Nature Reserve at Wicken Fen.
Rural England had suffered a severe decline in the last 25 years with imports of grain, beef, sugar and other goods on the huge, fast, refrigerated ships from the Americas and the Commonwealth. Fewer people were in service, and the self-sufficiency of the countryside was ending. Workers (and their families) were moving to manufacturing centres or into heavy industry.
AP Turner farmed at the Leen.
Pembridge Population 1901 was 1,103
1914 Jakeman and Carvers Directory
King George V reigned, and Herbert Asquith was PM.
The Irish Uprising and World War I dominated this period.
Early cars and lorries were starting to use the roads some of which were ‘tarred’.
Rural life continued to suffer with Pembridge losing a third of its people in 40 years!
The Leen had been sold by AP Turner in 1912 to Mr LM Garbutt
The population of Pembridge had fallen in 1911 to 995
1941 Kelly’s Directory
King George VI reigned and Winston Churchill as PM
Into the third year of World War II things were going badly with HMS Hood, Ark Royal, Prince of Wales, and Repulse all sunk, Tobruk surrounded and Europe over run. However, penicillin was used effectively for the first time.
Nearer home rationing was introduced, evacuees from Liverpool and London swelled the school age population, and the Home Guard was set up. Electricity had arrived and some people had a telephone. Cars were becoming more numerous.
Farming had really suffered since the end of WW1 and many farms were sold up as prices fell. By 1941 the War Agriculture Committees were set up, farmers were forced to plough up land and the ‘Dig for Britain’ campaign got underway.
The Leen was farmed by William Smith- Telephone number Pembridge 5
The population of Pembridge in 1931 was 954.
1980 Yellow Pages
Queen Elizabeth II with Margaret Thatcher as PM
Since WW2 rationing had finished, the country rebuilt and infrastructure much improved. Traffic had dramatically increased – the first discussion of a ‘Pembridge Bypass’ was in 1954!! Pembridge rail station closed in 1964.
We had been through the ‘Swinging Sixties’ and landed on the moon. Decimal currency appeared in 1971. Telephones were now in almost every home (with their Rotary dialling system and copper wires) and the local telephone directory consisted of thousands of entries in alphabetical order on hundreds of pages. The trade edition of telephone numbers appeared in ‘The Yellow Pages’.
We had joined the ‘Common Market, later to become the EU’. Farming had been through a golden period with the price of land going up from £100/acre in the 1950’s to £1000/acre, but the economy was in a mess and interest rates got to 15%!!! Milk quotas were introduced the next year.
The Leen was farmed by Frank Smith and Partners
The population of Pembridge in 1981 reached an all-time low of 807!! A little over half what it had been a century before.
2024 Google
King Charles III reigns and Kier Starmer is PM
Almost everyone has their own mobile phone, and the Yellow Pages and other directories have gone online. The land line has all but disappeared. Communication is rarely done by letter.
Having left ‘Europe’- ‘Basic Payments’ to farmers are being removed to be replaced by payments for ‘Management of the Countryside’ under the Environmental Land Management Scheme while maintaining food production. Land prices average £8000/acre.
The Leen is farmed by the Norman Partnership
The population of Pembridge in 2021 was 1,052
Where would we find such a comprehensive list of the people of Pembridge today? We no longer have these directories.
Tony Norman
Copies of these trade directories, and those for other years, are available at the
Herefordshire County Archive (HARC). Fir Tree Lane, Hereford HR2 6LA. Anyone can
telephone to make an appointment to see the County records: 01432 260750. This is a free
service, and the archivists are pleased to help. www.herefordshire.gov.uk/herefordshire-
archive-records-centre
The University of Leicester has placed many directories for all parts of the country online
with free public access. These include directories from 1760s to 1910s, and at least one for
every English and Welsh county for the years 1850s, 1890s and 1910s.
www.specialcollections.le.ac.uk
Funded by the UK Lottery, the directories are now available online in
https://www.ukdataservice.ac.uk
Search ‘ Digital Library of Historical Directories , 1750-1919 ‘
Subscribers to Ancestry may also search ‘UK City and County Directories , 1766-1946’.
