MUCH DEWCHURCH is an extensive parish and pleasant village situated on the high road leading from Hay to Ross, and about 2 miles S.E. of Tram Inn, and the same distance E. of St. Devereux stations on the Newport, Abergavenny, and Hereford branch of the Great Western railway (West Midland section). The village is distant about 6¼ miles S.S.W. of Hereford, 9 N.W. of Ross, and 16 N.E. of Abergavenny; is in Wormelow hundred (upper division), Hereford union and county court district, Much Birch polling district, and Harewood End petty sessional division. The population in 1861 was 608; in 1871, 615; inhabited houses, 123; families or separate occupiers, 129; area of parish, 4,897 acres; annual rateable value, £7,293. The trustees of the late T.G. Symons, Esq., are lords of the manor, and James Rankin, Esq., of Bryngwyn; and Evan Pateshall, Esq., M.P., of Allensmore court, are the principal landed proprietors. The soil is clayey; subsoil, red sandstone; chief produce, wheat, barley, turnips, peas, beans, fruit, and pasture. Much Dewchurch is in the diocese and archdeaconry of Hereford and rural deanery of Archenfield; living, a vicarage; value, £420, with residence and 4 acres of glebe; patron, the Lord Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol; vicar, Rev. John Tournay Parsons, B.A., of Balliol College, Oxford, who was instituted in 1850.

The church was anciently called Llan Dwy, or the Church of David; corrupted into Dewchurch. It exhibits the Norman, Early English, and Perpendicular styles of architecture, and is a structure of great antiquity, with square tower, surmounted with a low-pitched roof of oaken shingles, and containing six bells. It is dedicated to St. David, and has nave, chancel, porch, and two ancient monuments to the Pye family, dated 1547, and a stone to the Bodenhams of Rotherwas. It was restored in 1854 at a cost of £900. The earliest register is dated 1558. The charities belonging to the parish are numerous. There is a national school for boys and girls under the management of a committee, with a certificated master. It was built by James Rankin, Esq., and is chiefly supported by subscription; the number of children on the books is 97; average attendance, about 50. The Primitive Methodists have a small chapel at Kiverknoll in this parish. About a quarter of a mile from the church is an old Roman camp.

Bryngwyn, the magnificent mansion of James Rankin Esq., M.A., J.P., D.L. (the donor of the Free Library, Hereford), is delightfully situated on an eminence commanding one of the most extensive views in Herefordshire, and perhaps one of the finest landscapes in England. The house is built in the Early English style of architecture, from the designs of F.R. Kempson, Esq., F.I.B.A., of Hereford, and under the superintendence of Mr. Elijah Shaw, the steward. The park is extensive and finely wooded, and the pleasure grounds are beautifully arranged. Mynde Park is the property of the trustees of the late T.G. Symons, Esq., but at present occupied by Mrs. Hudson Lutwyche. The mansion is a large and handsome structure, with a noble entrance-hall, 60 feet wide by 30 feet high: It ranges under the west side of Saddlebow hill, and the grounds afford some rich and well-wooded scenery. Tram Inn is a station on the Great Western railway, in the parish of Much Dewchurch, but distant 2 miles N.W. of the church. Kiverknoll is a hamlet.