Walter de Pembrugge

The name of the village Pembridge, comes from the old British 'Penn', meaning headland or enclosures and the old English 'brycg'; bridge or causeway and there has been a thriving community here for over a thousand years. Pembridge is first mentioned in the Domesday book, where it is stated that Earl Harald held it.

The manor of Pembridge then moved into the hands of the de Pennebrugge family. The tomb of Sir Richard de Pembridge who fought at the battle of Poitiers in 1356 is in Hereford Cathedral.

Behind the church, there is a moat and mound where Pembridge Castle once stood, nothing remains of the buildings, the former owners having moved to Pembridge Castle, near Welsh Newton in South Herefordshire. A recent archeological dig on this site found remnants of the foundations and stone walls. They also found a Roman Tegula or roof tile on this site. Five more of these red tiles can be seen in the exterior of the east wall of the Church, showing that even then locals were into recycling!

Pembridge reached its peak of population during the middle ages. Most of the black and white houses in the village date from the 15th century. Originally they would not have been painted in these colours and some of the new timber frame houses, built in the traditional style, show the warm colours of the wood, giving an idea of what they once may have looked like. But it is the old cottages, in their black and white livery, that stand out from these later additions, their crooked beams, cracked and weathered by time, to make Pembridge a perfect postcard village.==