LEINTHALL STARKES is a small parish situated on the main road between Ludlow and Wigmore, distant 6 miles S.W. of Ludlow, 11 N.W. of Leominster, 11 E.S.E. of Knighton, 9 N.E. of Presteigne, and 22 N.N.W. of Hereford. It is in Wigmore hundred, petty sessional division, and polling district, Ludlow union and county court district. The population in 1861 was 144; in 1871, 146; inhabited houses, 29; families or separate occupiers, 31; area of parish, 990 acres; annual rateable value, £1,225. A.J. Rouse Boughton Knight, Esq., of Downton castle, is lord of the manor and principal landowner. The soil is loam and gravel, with a clayey subsoil; chief produce, wheat, beans, peas, turnips, and barley. Leinthall Starkes is in the diocese and archdeaconry of Hereford and rural deanery of Leominster; living, a vicarage; value, £56, with 1 acre of glebe; patron, A.J.R. Boughton Knight, Esq.; vicar, Rev. George Hollis Clay, M.A., Clare College, Cambridge, who was instituted in 1872, and is also rector of Aston, and honorary secretary to the Hereford diocesan church building society. The Rev. Edwin Barton, B.C.L., vicar of Wigmore, acts as curate.

The church, dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene, is an old Norman structure, with a small Norman east window, and windows of later date inserted in the south wall, a very handsome open timber roof, and a chancel screen. This church, which, though possessing many very interesting features, had fallen into a sad state of dilapidation and decay, is now restored; open seats have been substituted for the previous high pews; the roof repaired, stained, and varnished; a new roof placed over the chancel, and the whole covered in with Broseley tiles. The interior walls, which were covered with whitewash, have been fresh pointed, and the windows reglazed. A new prayer-desk, pulpit, and altar cloth have been provided for the church; the latter being the gift of Mrs. Boughton Knight. The church was reopened on October 15, 1875. It has a small belfry with two bells, porch, and a fairly good old font. In the churchyard there are at the east and west ends of the church four fine old yew trees, very much admired. There is a free school for boys and girls, endowed with £14 per annum by Thomas Allen, Esq., in 1704. There are a few small charities belonging to the parish.