57 



The following paper was read by the President {Mr. G. H. Pipee, r.G.S.)< on 



MOEDIFOED. 



The name of this place is probably of British origin, and may have been derived 

 from Mae'-r-d\vy-fford (the place on the road by the two waters), which view is 

 supiwrted bj' the fact that the old residents usually pronounced it "Mardiford." 

 Or, it may be a modified form of Mord-gwy-fFord, or Mawd dwr-ford, meaning 

 the passage or way through the muddy or over-flowing water. The word "More " 

 is frequently a corrujjtion of " Mere." a pool, and the name may come from the 

 mere or marsh formed at the junction of the rivers Wye and Lugg. 



At the time of the Norman invasion the Manor was held by Aluit, a free 

 Saxon, by lease, from Ethelstan, Bishop of Hereford, to which See it belonged. 

 William I. gave it to Henry de Ferrers, a Norman baron of great wealth and 

 position, who fought at Hastings. He was the jwssessor of many other manors 

 and lordships, and was conspicuous as one of the seven Commissioners who had 

 charge of the great Domesday Survey in the year 1086. 



At that time the rental of the Manor was assessed at £3, the value having 

 been the same in the reign of Edward the Confessor. In many manors a depre- 

 ciation in value may be observed, the value having been greater in the time of 

 the Saxon monarch. King Stephen defeated David King of Scotland at the 

 battle of Northallerton in 11.38, and for his valiant services there Eobert de 

 Ferrers, son of Henry, was created Earl of Derby. This great family held high 

 oflBces in the State until the time of Henry III., when Robert de Ferrers, eighth 

 and last Earl of Derby of that line, having displayed persistent animosity to the 

 King, his castles and lands were declared by the Parliament to be forfeited, and 

 were g^ranted to Prince Edward, who had before that time wasted his manors and 

 lands in Derbyshire and Staffordshire, and destroyed the Castle of Tutbury, his 

 principal residence. 



The disloyalty of Robert de Ferrers had been pimished by three years' 

 imprisonment, when it was arranged that the Prince should restore the castles 

 and estates on the payment of the sum of £50,000, which sum was guaranteed by 

 eleven great barons, to whom the Earl conveyed his estates by way of counter 

 security. One of these friends was Sir Bartholomew de Sudeley, of Sudeley 

 Castle, near Wmchcomb, then High Sheriff of Herefordshire ; and, as money was 

 not forthcoming for the redemption of the estates, they eventually became fully 

 vested in the Prince, and still form part of the Duchy of Lancaster. Sir 

 Bartholomew de Sudeley was instrumental in conveying the Manor of Mordiford 

 to Henry de Hereford, ancestor of the ancient family of that name who still 

 possess the Manor and estates. The Herefords were settled at Mordiford before 

 the compilation of Domesday, and as early as the reign of Edward I. Roger de 

 Hereford, son of Sir Henry de Hereford, held lauds there by soccage of Ralph 



