Croft, of six households in 1086, contained three smallholders (middle level of serf below and with less land than a villager), two further occupants and one Frenchman (typical indication of a military presence).

In 1066 Aelfric held the lordship, which in 1086 was transferred to Leofwin (the interpreter) who was also tenant-in-chief under the overlordship of Queen Edith for king William I.

Both parishes were in the Hundred of Wolphy, and were part of the union—poor relief and joint workhouse provision set up under the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834—petty sessional division and county court district of Leominster.

Yarpole was 2 miles (3 km) north-west from the Berrington and Eye station on the Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway.

Croft parish included the alienated township of Newton, Hampton Court 7.5 miles (12 km) to the south.

The chief landowner and lord of the manor at Newton township was John Arkwright DL, JP, who lived at Hampton Court.

In 1881 the township was listed as growing crops grown of wheat, beans, root vegetables and hops, with orchards and pasture, on a light alluvial soil.

[5][6][7] The ecclesiastical parish, which covered both Croft and Yarpole, was in the archdeaconry and Diocese of Hereford and rural deanery of Leominster.

The church of St Leonard was described as "a neat stone edifice" of Decorated style, with "a detached tower and spire (containing three bells) at some distance to the south-west".

Documented interior fittings included a font, and "some curious monuments", and an 1873 organ costing £130 "defrayed by the vicar and his personal friends".

The manor was later recovered by the Croft descendants who remained until the end of the 18th century, when the property was sold by Sir Archer Croft, 3rd Baronet (1731–1792) to Thomas Johnes (1748–1816), the translator, MP, landscape architect and social benefactor, who then sold it to Somerset Davies, whose family still held the property in the 1870s.

The second was a National School teaching 45 males and 51 females from both Yarpole and Croft, supported mainly by a collection after a yearly sermon in the parish church.

Further significant buildings noted at the time were 'Highwood' (Highwood House), between the southern edge of Bircher Common and the crossroads at Cock Gate, which was the seat of Humphrey de Bohun Devereux DL, JP, and The Knoll, the villa residences of Bycroft, and the farmhouse of Lady Meadow.

The parish is rural, of farms, arable and pasture fields, managed woodland and coppices, water courses, isolated and dispersed businesses, residential properties, the nucleated settlements of the village of Yarpole and the hamlets of Bircher and Bicton, and the site of the ancient settlement and waste of Bircher Common.

[9] The parish is represented in the UK parliament as part of the North Herefordshire constituency, held by the Conservative Party since 2010 by Bill Wiggin.

In 1974 Croft and Yarpole became part of the now defunct Leominster District of the county of Hereford and Worcester, instituted under the 1972 Local Government Act.

[18] The closest rail connection is at Leominster railway station, 5 miles (8 km) to the south-east, and on the Crewe to Newport Welsh Marches Line.

The property comprises the house and gardens of Croft Castle, and 1,500 acres (610 hectares) of park and woodland which includes farmhouses, two cottages and the church of St Michael.

[28] The Grade II* listed country house of Croft Castle dates to the 16th- to early 17th-century, was extended in the late 17th, and remodelled at about 1765 and in 1913.

Interior fixtures and fittings include in the chancel a timber-beamed roof, which over the altar is internally lowered to provide a curved boarded ceiling painted with clouds.

[30] A Grade II listed stable block, of U-plan and two storeys, 60 yards (55 m) north-east from the house, dates to the late 18th- to early 19th-century.

[31] Within Croft Castle woodland, 600 yards (550 m) north-east from the house is Fishpool Valley, a steep sided valley of a depth of up to 150 feet (46 m) and 275 yards (251 m) at its widest, running south-east from Yatton Hill, through which flows a stream dammed to create pools which are fed by two springs to the north and drainage from Bircher Common at the east.

[32] In the late 18th century a two-storey pumphouse was constructed at the edge of one of the pools, today Grade II listed.

[35] At the south-west edge of Bircher Common is the Grade II Croft Lodge, of two-storeys with attic, dating to the early 19th-century house with 20th-century alterations, and east from the common the Grade II timber framed and two storey Woodend Farmhouse dating to the 17th century with 18th- and mid-19th-century changes.

[36][37][38][39][40][41] Included in listed buildings in Yarpole village is the Grade II* parish Church of St Leonard on Green Lane.

Bircher Hall is a mid-18th-century two storey house with 19th-century changes, and with a hipped roof, stuccoed brick walls and a north entrance with Doric columns supporting a pediment.

[50] Further north, on the same side of the road is Knoll Cottage, a two-storey early 17th-century house, timber framed with render infill, at the time of listing split into two dwellings, that at the north a simple range, that at the south of greater height with cross gable and part jettied, and both units thatched.

[51] On the opposite side of the road to The Knoll is a mid-18th-century dovecote on Old Barn Court (entrance drive) of square plan, red brick, two levels, and cross gabled with clock turret above.

[52][53] Also to the north from The Knoll is The Court House, which dates to the 17th century, and heightened in the 18th, of timber framing with roughcast render infill, of two storeys with two entrances, with tiled roof and two brick chimney stacks, one central.