Welsh Journals

220 NOTES ON BORDER PARISHES. register of Wormesley Priory records that in 1264 John ]e Strange, Lord of Monnington and Winforton, with the consent of Stephen the Hermit, and of Endicus, Precentor of Hereford, vicegerent of the Bishop of Hereford, granted the hermitage of St. Cynidr, with right of patronage thereto, to the church of St. Leonard of Wormesley, and the canons there serving God, who in return were to say mass for the souls of the donor and of Walter Mucegros. At the same time, John Giffard and Matilda Longespee, his wife, confirmed to the Prior and Convent of Wormesley the grants made to Friar Stephen by Walter Clifford, Matilda's father. Somewhat later, John le Strange, son of John, gave to the hermitage a meadow which Friar Stephen held of the Lady Matilda de Longespee, and quitted his claim to it. In 1304, Roger de Mortimer, lord of Winforton, for the welfare of his soul, etc., considering the Priors of Wormesley had no certain way assigned to them whereby they might pass and re-pass into the grounds belonging to the hermitage, gave and ordained a com¬ petent and sufficient way for all their use necessary at all times of the year, "ad carros & carrettas servientibus & ad animalia frapaganda" through the north gate. The said way was to be 10 ft. in breadth directly to Holowe medewe, to the passage1 of Middle- wood, "a Heremite way to remayne there for the future". This " Heremite" way was probably the narrow lane which still leads towards the hermitage from the village. In 1365, John Gours, Hugh Monington, and John Minors left land in Wybbenham to the Prior and Convent of Wormesley for fifty years, and another half acre in Winforton, reserving the rent of a rose at the Feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist, and the following year they did quit-claim to the Prior and Convent for ever. 1 I.e., the ford.