PENCOMBE is a large parish and village, situated between the Bromyard and Leominster and the Bromyard and Hereford roads. It is distant 4 miles S.W. of Bromyard, 9 S.E. of Leominster, 12 N.E. of Hereford, and 6 E.N.E. of Dinmore station on the Shrewsbury and Hereford railway; is in Broxash hundred, Bromyard union, petty sessional division, and county court district, and Bodenham polling district. The population in 1861 was 415; in 1871, 349; inhabited houses, 74; families or separate occupiers, 75; area of parish, 3,955a. 1r. 0p.; annual rateable value, £4,421 8s. 6d. John Hungerford Arkwright, Esq., of Hampton court, is lord of the manor and principal landowner. The Ecclesiastical Commissioners are also landowners here. Septimus Holmes Godson, Esq., of Tenbury, is owner of the Upper Egdon estate, and the house has been recently rebuilt. The soil is clayey, producing wheat, beans, hops, fruit, and pasture. There are several quarries from which good stone for building purposes is obtained.

By an ancient custom the lord of the manor claims a pair of gilt spurs, as an heriot, from the estate of every mayor of Hereford who dies in his mayoralty. A railway is about to be made from Bromyard to Leominster, which will be a great advantage to this district. Some beautiful views of Malvern hills and the surrounding country are to be obtained here. Pencombe is in the diocese and archdeaconry of Hereford and rural deanery of North Froome; living, a rectory; value, £466, with residence and 110 acres of glebe; patron, J.H. Arkwright, Esq.; rector, Rev. George Arkwright, M.A., of Oriel College, Oxford, who was instituted in 1861. The church of St. John was entirely rebuilt in 1864-65 at a total cost or £3,600. It is built after the plan of the old church, and comprises nave, chancel, sanctuary apse, organ chamber, vestry, apparatus crypt, south porch, and engaged tower to the south-east of the nave. The style is Transitional Norman richly treated. An arch divides the nave and chancel, and another of more elaborate design the chancel and apse. The apse is groined and vaulted in stone.

The interior facings throughout are of stone ashlar, relieved with bands and dressings of blue stone. The sittings are all open, and the interior is warmed with hot air. The works were carried out from the designs and under the superintendence of T. Nicholson, Esq., F.I.B.A., of Hereford, the diocesan architect and surveyor. The pulpit, value £30, was presented by Oxford and London tradesmen; the organ cost about 200 guineas; a set of communion plate was given by the Lady Kenyon, and the altar-cloth by the Hon. Mrs. Lloyd Kenyon. the stained glass windows are from the old church. There are brass monumental tablets to the memory of Louisa Margaret Domvile and others. The church was reopened October 19th, 1865. The earliest register is dated 1565. The Rectory house, in the Elizabethan style, is pleasantly situated about half a mile from the church. There is a national school for boys and girls, with accommodation for about 100 children. It was erected in 1862, and is a neat building in the Gothic style, with residences for the master and mistress attached.

Marston Chapel, or Marston Stannett, is a chapelry and small hamlet of Pencombe, situated on the old road from Leominster to Bromyard, about 6 miles E.S.E. of Leominster, 6 W. of Bromyard, and 12 N.N.E. of Hereford. The acreage is 520. J.H. Arkwright, Esq., (who is lord of the manor), Thomas Burlton, Esq., and John Wood, Esq., are the landowners. The soil is clayey; subsoil, marl. Marston is in the diocese and archdeaconry of Hereford and rural deanery of Leominster; living a perpetual curacy; value, £85, derived from 43 acres of land; patron, the Rector of Pencombe; incumbent, Rev. Henry Cooper, M.A., of St. John's College, Cambridge, who was instituted in 1860, and resides at Stoke Prior Vicarage. The church as been entirely rebuilt, and is a neat stone building with bell-turret and one bell. The chancel contains some stained glass windows.