Weobley has a reputation for good food.  So while you discover the stories behind the facades of the interesting Medieval buildings, take time out to enjoy the Weobley of today.

 

Not only is Weobley a wonderful place to live, it is also a great place to visit for a day, a weekend or as a base for your holiday in Herefordshire or The Marches. Indeed, The Daily Mail included Weobley as one of the top 20 most idyllic villages you MUST visit in their August 13, 2015 issue.

A recent visitor to Weobley made this comment on Trip Advisor. “We prepared in advance by visiting the website and learning about the Heritage Trail. I printed the PDF map which guides you around the village, and downloaded the mp3 files to my phone so we could listen to the commentary without requiring any phone signal - a good move as it turned out because Weobley is an EE deadspot. The commentary is printed at all the various points anyway, but looking and listening is a fun way to do it, and we enjoyed ourselves a lot. It doesn't take long to do and the village is relatively compact, so not a lot of trekking. We did it with my parents who are both over 70 and they had no problems.”

The method of building houses with timber frames began in the Stone Age.  However, substantial and long-lasting houses were not built until the medieval period and many of the houses in Weobley date from the middle of the fifteenth century. All the timber framed houses in Weobley are constructed of wood frames of recently felled oak and cut to size off site.  A number was scratched into the timber at each joint position so a house could be assembled like a kit. As the oak dried, the joints tightened, making them stronger.

In a large house which stood on what is now the Rose Garden in the village centre, James Tomkins lived.  He fathered 33 children with two successive wives in the latter half of the 16th century and all the children survived. The poem on the right was written about Tomkins.

It is almost impossible to believe that a market hall and several substantial houses stood here on the Rose Garden and presumably part of the roadway.  Evidence from the fire in the 1930's and early photographs and paintings show this area covered with buildings. On the right is one such painting which you can see in the Museum.  You can see the market hall on the left of the painting with the ground floor unenclosed.

“Reader draw near! If e’er thou chance to climb

By gradual steps this chamber for to view,

I’ll tell thee what in they great Grandsire’s time

Here came to pass, which though ‘tis strange ‘tis true.

Babes thirty three did from two mothers spring

To famous Tomkins, O, admired thing!

 

And may the loud resounding trump of fame,

Proclaime great Tomkins for a man of men.

In golden letter, O! engrave his name

In marble tablets with an iron pen

Let this survive this house and last when all

Its beams doe tremble and rafters fall.”

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