Stoke Edith House

Stoke Edith was the principal manor of Sir Henry Lingen (1612 – 1662), Royalist cavalier. He and the resident rector, Henry Rogers, denounced for their political leanings, knew the property could be victimized at any time. Lingen's widow, Alice Pye of the Mynnd, sold the manor in the 1670s to the ironmaster Thomas Foley, who settled it on his second son Paul. Paul obtained licence from James II to empark up to 500 acres at Stoke Edith. After a visit by the leading garden designer, George London, in 1692, the park and gardens were remodelled to his suggestion, and it is likely that pleasure grounds would have been laid out around the house in a series of formal compartments with geometric…

A prior house, Elizabethan in style, was characterized by its multiple shaped gables and stone detailing. The interior included a state wing is to the west and a parlour room in the centre of the house. There was a long study, a drawing room, a wainscotted dining room, and an embellished hall. The east-wing stair was top-lit. The Stoke Edith Wall Hanging, dating to 1710-20 and which originally hung in the house, is now on display in the Victoria and Albert Museum. In 1926, Paul Henry Foley donated 136 rare books in 242 volumes from the house to Hereford Cathedral's library.