Stoke Edith is a village in the English county of Herefordshire, situated on the A438 road between Hereford and Ledbury. The population in 1801 of Stoke Edith parish was 332. The estate and the manor house known as Stoke Edith House belonged formerly to the Wallwynes, Milwaters and Lingen families.
Stoke Edith was the principal estate of Sir Henry Lingen, a Royalist officer in the English Civil War, who was buried in the church in 1662. His widow sold the estate in 1670 to Thomas Foley, who settled it on his second son Paul. Paul obtained a licence from James II to empark up to 500 acres at Stoke Edith. He rebuilt the timber-framed mansion Stoke Court from 1695, when he became Speaker. The house, renamed Stoke Park, remained in the family until the death of Thomas Lord Foley who, having inherited the Great Witley estate from his distant counsin Thomas 2nd Baron Foley, settled Stoke Edith on his second son Edward Foley (1747–1803). Many of the family were members of Parliament. Stoke Park remained their principal residence until it was burnt down in 1926.
The building currently known as Stoke Edith House was previously the Rectory and this, together with the park and extensive agricultural and woodlands, remain in the ownership of the Foley family.
Famous quotes containing the word edith:
“The living blind and seeing Dead together lie
As if in love . . . There was no more hating then,
And no more love; Gone is the heart of Man.”
—Dame Edith Sitwell (1887–1964)