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Home arrow History arrow General History
General History
Before the Saxons, or the Romans come to that, North Herefordshire supported a thriving agricultural community based on the Celtic Iron Age hill forts of Ivington, Credenhill and Croft Ambury. The majority of land would have been heavily wooded. During the occupation of the Romans, the hill forts were abondoned. However, the local Silurian celts under the leadership of Caratacus resisted the occupation for some 20 years after the invasion. During the peaceful times of the Roman occupation, wool and corn were the principal exports from the farms along the main North-South Roman road, now the A4110. Following the Roman withdrawal in the early fifth centuary the hill forts once again become a refuge in the turbulent times of the Dark Ages.
Around two hundred years after the legions were withdrawn the Saxons reached the River Lugg at Leominster, and eventually, over time, spread Westwards over the fertile land as far as the present border with Wales, resulting in a mixed Saxon and Celtic population but with the Saxons as overlords. Under the saxons, the area became part of the Saxon kingdom of Mercia.

The next event was the Norman Conquest and four Dilwyn settlements appeared in the Domesday Book. In two entries it is spelt DILUEN. In the others it appears as DILGE! Five other settlements in the modern parish are also listed under names that they still have today, several dignified by the suffix 'Court'. Under the Normans, the first church was built. Its roof line can still be seen on the wall of the tower. The present Church, dedicated to St Mary, dates from the end of the 13th Century.

One of the battles of the War of the Roses was fought at Mortimers Cross, just to the north of Dilwyn, in 1461 with the Yorkists winning under the leadership of Edward, Earl of March. Later that year he was crowned King of England (as Edward IV).

ImageThe agricultural prosperity came to an end as the Black Death swept Europe and North Herefordshire. The population was cut by more than half in the 1340s and 50s. There was some recovery by 1558 when Dilwyn's first parish register was started with a marriage. Further innovations followed, but the worst experience was the Civil War. A Royalist Colonel Symmonds kenpt a diary and described building over the gate to the churchyard. The village submitted ahefty bill afterwards for the losses of corn and cattle to the passing armies. Taxation, always a well recorded feature of life, reaped its harvest in Dilwyn as well as elsewhere. When the time came to re-organise the tythe system, one of the earliest maps of the village was drawn.
 
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