YARPOLE is a parish and village intersected by the Leominster and Ludlow road, and by the road leading from Ludlow to Presteigne, which passes through Bircher village. It is distant 5 miles N.N.W. of Leominster, 8 S.S.W. of Ludlow, 11 E. of Presteigne, 18 N. of Hereford, and about 2 N.W. of Berrington and Eye station on the Shrewsbury and Hereford railway. It is in Wolphy hundred, Leominster union, county court district, polling district, and petty sessional division. The population in 1861 was 630; in 1871,586; inhabited houses, 136; families or separate occupiers, 147; area of parish, 2,523 acres; annual rateable value, £3,588. The Rev. William Trevelyan Kevill Davies, of Croft castle, who is lord of the manor, Thomas Dunne, Esq., of Bircher hall, Arthur Henry Wall, Esq., and William Connop, Esq., are the principal landowners. The soil is clayey; subsoil, clay and gravel; chief produce, wheat, beans, hops, fruit, barley, oats, &c.

Yarpole is in the diocese and archdeaconry of Hereford and rural deanery of Leominster; living, a vicarage, united to Croft rectory; joint value, £240, with 93½ acres of glebe, and £14 from Bishop Croft's charity (of which the Dean and Chapter of Hereford are trustees); patron, Rev. W.T. Kevill Davies; vicar, Rev. Joseph Edwards, M.A., of Exeter College, Oxford, who was instituted in 1839, and is also a prebendary of Hereford cathedral, and a rural dean. The church, dedicated to St. Leonard, is a neat stone edifice in the Decorated style of architecture, with a detached tower and spire (containing three bells) at some distance to the south-west of the fabric. It consists of a nave, chancel (rebuilt in 1853 by the Governors of Lucton school), southern porch, font, and some curious monuments. The building was restored by Mr. (now Sir) George Gilbert Scott, R.A., in 1863, at an expense of £1,705, of which the parish gave by rate £930. It was reopened in July, 1864. A new organ was erected in 1873 at a cost of £130, defrayed by the vicar and his personal friends. The charities are small, and are distributed chiefly in bread.

The Croft and Yarpole national school was erected in 1851 at a cost of £1,200, defrayed by the Rev. W.T. Kevill Davies, who also built a school-house in 1873 at a cost of £150, exclusive of site. The school is under government inspection, and has an average attendance of about 60 children. Bircher is a township and neat village, situated on the Ludlow and Presteigne road, and distant about ¼ of a mile N.E. of the church. The Primitive Methodists have a small chapel on Bircher common. Bircher Hall, the pleasant seat of Thomas Dunne, Esq., J.P. and D.L., is a modern mansion, with very beautiful pleasure grounds and magnificent scenery. The Highwood, the seat of the Hon. Humphrey de Bohun Devereux, J.P. and D.L., is delightfully situated on an eminence in this parish, and commands a pleasing and picturesque prospect. The Knoll, now occupied by Edie Thomas, Esq., and Bycroft, at present unoccupied, are neat villa residences. Lady Meadow is an ancient building, now a farm-house in the occupation of Mr. William Hinton. Cockgate is a place in this parish.