MARSTOW is a small parish and village pleasantly situated on the main road leading from Ross to Monmouth, and on the Garron brook, which runs through the parish and flows into the river Wye near the Old Forge. The village is distant 5 miles S.W. of Ross, 6 N.E. of Monmouth, and 15 S. of Hereford; is in Wormelow hundred (lower division), Ross union and county court district, Whitchurch polling district, and Harewood End petty sessional division. The population in 1861 was 142; in 1871, 161; inhabited houses, 31; families or separate occupiers, 35; area of parish, 809 acres; annual rateable value, £1,693. The parish is in the manor of Wilton-upon-Wye. The principal landowners are Charles Octavius Swinnerton Morgan, Esq., M.P., of the Friars, Newport, W.H. Harford, Esq., and the Rev. William Holt Beever, M.A. The soil is sandy and loamy; subsoil, sandstone and rock; products, wheat, barley, roots, and pasture.

Marstow is in the diocese and archdeaconry of Hereford and rural deanery of Archenfield; living, a vicarage consolidated with that of Pencoyd; joint value, £281, with half an acre of glebe, but no residence; patron, the Vicar of Sellack; vicar, Rev. William Coke, B.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge, who was instituted in 1831, and resides at Garron Hill cottage, Llangarren. The church of St. Matthew was rebuilt in 1855 at a cost of £750. It is situate at Brelstone green, and is a small edifice of red sandstone with Bath stone quoins. The tower contains two bells. A district school was erected at Glewstone in 1873, for the accommodation of the children of this parish and the outlying portions of the parishes of Goodrich, Peterstow, Bridstow, and Hentland. It is also used for divine service once on Sundays during the winter months. The cost of building was about £400 (exclusive of fittings); accommodation is provided for 63 children; average attendance, about 50.

Glewstone is a hamlet partly in Marstow and partly in Goodrich. It is distant about 3 miles S.W. of Ross. Glewstone Court, in the parish of Goodrich, is the residence of Lieut.-Col. P.A. Roberton (late of the Indian army). Pencraig is a hamlet distant 1½ miles N. It is chiefly in this parish, but partly in that of Goodrich. Here is a meeting house for the Plymouth Brethren, erected in 1872. Pencraig Court, the seat of the Rev. William Holt Beever, M.A., is one of the most beautiful residences on the banks of the Wye. Fairfield House is the property and residence of Arthur Annesley Hancocks, Esq. Trebandy House, the residence of Thomas Mountjoy Fisher, Esq., lies to the N.W., towards Llangarren. New Court Farm, in the occupation of Mr. William Imms, was extra-parochial. Brelstone is a hamlet.