MONKLAND is a parish and village situated on the river Arrow, and on the main road between Leominster and Weobley; is distant nearly 3 miles S.W. of Leominster, 5 N.E. of Weobley, and 13 N.N.W. of Hereford; is in Stretford hundred, Leominster union, petty sessional division, polling district, and county court district. The population in 1861 was 211; in 1871, 249; inhabited houses, 52; families or separate occupiers, 57; area of parish, 1,079 acres; annual rateable value, £2,269. John Charles Bengough, Esq. (who is lord of the manor), Mr. Wm. Parry, Mr. Michael Beard, Miss Price, and the Executors of the late Edward Manwaring, Esq., are the principal landowners. The soil is clay; subsoil, red sandstone; chief produce, wheat, beans, hops, fruit, and roots. The river Arrow is noted for trout and grayling fishing.

A small cell of Benedictine monks formerly existed here, subordinate to St. Peter's abbey, at Conches, in Normandy, to which the manor and church had been given by Ralph Toni the elder, in the time of William Rufus. On the suppression of the alien priories this estate was granted by Henry V. to Sir Rowland Lenthall (the then possessor of Hampton court, near Leominster) and Edward Windsor. Monkland is in the diocese and archdeaconry of Hereford and rural deanery of Leominster; living, a vicarage; value, £250 15s., with 34 acres of glebe; patrons, the Dean and Chapter of Windsor; vicar, Rev. Sir Henry Williams Baker, Bart., M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge, who was instituted in 1851. The church, dedicated to All Saints, was beautifully restored and partly rebuilt in 1865 at a cost of £2,155; architect, George E. Street, Esq., of London. It is in the Early English style, and consists of nave, chancel, vestry, south porch, and western tower containing four bells. The tower has a timber-framed spire covered with oak shingle. The greatest care has been taken to restore this church to exactly its original condition.

The interior is very gorgeous; the chancel is entirely new, and was the gift of the Rev. Sir Henry W. Baker, Bart.; the eastern window is of stained glass by Hardman, of Birmingham; below the window is a very effective reredos, which has in the centre a crucifix sculptured in alabaster, under a canopy of Purbeck marble, and on either side two figures - the Blessed Virgin Mary and "the other Mary" on the north, and St. John and St. Mary Magdalene on the south; the ground is Salviati's mosaic; on either side of the reredos the east wall is lined with stone, filled in with geometrical patterns, incised in coloured cement; the altar, raised on three steps, is of cedar, with oak tracery and, walnut panels, with an ebony cornice below the old oak table which has been retained; there are sedilia and a double piscina (one-half being used as a credence table) in the south wall with simple bold moulding; there is also a piscina in the sill of the south-western window near the chancel arch, showing there once had been an altar against the chancel screen; the roof of the chancel is boarded and panelled, and covered with painted decorations, executed from Mr. Street's designs, by Harland & Fisher; at the north side of the chancel the vestry has been lengthened, so as to afford space for an organ, as well as for the choir and clergy, and an arch opened in the wall, which the organ front fills, just over and behind the stalls; the organ was designed by the Rev. Sir Frederick Gore Ouseley, Bart., Mus. Doc., and built by Mr. J.W. Walker, of London, for the vicar, who presented it to the church; its tone and quality are exceedingly effective, and it is admirably adapted for the building.

The pulpit is of oak, with tracery panels of walnut, with statues of the Four Latin Doctors at the angles, and a richly carved cornice; both it and the reredos were executed by Mr. Earp. The pavements are all of Godwin's encaustic tiles. The parish registers begin with the year 1590. The national school for boys and girls, situated adjacent to the church, was built in 1853 of the stone of the neighbourhood, with Bath stone dressings and high pointed open roof. It is under government inspection, and has an average attendance of about 50 children.