LINTON is a parish and village, situated on the borders of Gloucestershire, and intersected by the main road between Ross and Newent. It is distant 5½ miles E.N.E. of Ross, 12 S.S.W. of Ledbury, 5 W. of Newent, 15 S.E. of Hereford, and 13 N.W. of Gloucester; is in Greytree hundred, Newent union, Ross county court district and petty sessional division, and is a polling place for county elections. The population in 1861 was 915; in 1871, 924; inhabited houses, 212; families or separate occupiers, 217; area of parish, 2,775 acres; annual rateable value, £4,854. The Right Hon. Lord Ashburton is the principal landowner. The soil is sandy and loamy; subsoil, chiefly rock and clay; products, wheat, barley, roots, &c. Linton is in the diocese and archdeaconry of Hereford and rural deanery of Ross; living, a vicarage; value, £555, with residence (erected in 1868) and 69 acres of glebe; patrons, the president and fellows of St. John's College, Oxford; vicar, Rev. Edward Palin, B.D., late fellow and tutor of that college, who was instituted in 1866. The earliest register is dated 1570.

Mention is made in Domesday Book of a church in this parish, and the earliest part of the present structure is of early Norman work, but it received its existing form in the 13th and 14th centuries. It consists of nave and chancel 78 feet long, north and south aisles, north porch, western tower and spire with five bells. It underwent complete restoration in 1875-76, at a cost of nearly £1,800, and was reopened for divine service April 20th, 1876. The ceiling of the belfry is beautifully groined, the ribs springing from corbels at the angles, and meeting in a circle at the centre. The belfry opens into the nave by a lofty arch with Early English bases and capitals. The short and massive piers of the north side of the nave are of Norman character, the work, no doubt, of the pious and munificent Talbots, barons of the neighbouring castle of Eccleswall; the piers on the south support Pointed arches with Early English mouldings. The tower has a projecting newel staircase, and some ancient belfry windows with dripstones resting on corbels. The west window is of the Perpendicular period. The vicarage house was rebuilt from the ground in 1868.

A new national school for boys and girls was erected in 1873 at a cost of £754 (exclusive of site, value £50, given by the vicar). There is a residence for the master attached. Accommodation is provided for about 80 children, and the school is under government inspection. Part of Gorstley common, in this parish, and part of the adjoining parish of Newent, in Gloucestershire, have been recently formed into an ecclesiastical district, and a new school church erected at a cost of about £1,100. The building, which is lofty and spacious, stands in Newent parish. The Rev. E.H. Sankey, of Newent, is the incumbent. Divine service is held on Sundays and a school on week-days. There is an endowed school, called "Goff's charity school", at Blindman's gate.

The Baptists have a chapel at Gorstley common. Broom's Ash, or Bromsash, is a hamlet distant about 1 mile S.W. of Linton. About half a mile farther south is Eccleswall Court, a modern residence in the occupation of Mr. Michael Berkley. It occupies the site of Eccleswall castle, which will ever retain a certain degree of interest as the cradle of the brave Talbots, founders of the earldom of Shrewsbury. It afterwards came into the possession of the Greys, Lords of Wilton; but it has since passed from their descendants into other hands. There was formerly a chapel belonging to Eccleswall castle, the bell and font of which were removed about a century ago to Lea church. Gorstley or Gorsley Common is a wild district about 1 mile to the E. of Linton. To the N. is a picturesque and well-wooded country on the borders of Gloucestershire.