In 1066 Alward held the lordship, which passed in 1086 to Drogo (son of Poyntz), with Ralph of Tosny as tenant-in-chief under Queen Edith as overlord for king William I.

Adjacent parishes are Leominster at the north and north-west, Humber at the east, Bodenham at the south-east, Hope under Dinmore at the south, and Newton at the south-west.

The parish is rural, of farms, fields, managed woodland and coppices, water courses, isolated and dispersed businesses, residential properties, Humber Marsh Nature Reserve, and the nucleated settlements of the hamlet of Ford at the western border of the parish, and Stoke Prior at the centre north.

[11] Ford and Stoke Prior 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 Ford and Stoke Prior, as separate civil parishes, became part of the now defunct Leominster District of the county of Hereford and Worcester, instituted under the 1972 Local Government Act.

The closest rail connection is at Leominster railway station, 2 miles (3 km) to the north-west, on the Crewe to Newport Welsh Marches Line.

[19] On the outskirts of the village are three self catering vacation establishments, and 1 mile (1.6 km) to the south, bed and breakfast accommodation.

[25] Wickton Court, partly timber-framed and of two storeys, and just over 1 mile (1.6 km) south from Stoke Prior, dates to the 17th century, with later alterations and additions.

[26] The Priory, a partly timber-framed house dating to the 14th century and retaining a blocked window of that time, was extended and altered in the 17th and 18th.

[27] Half a mile (800 m) east from Stoke Prior is the site of a Romano-British town, defined as enclosures through cropmarks.

Finds include Roman pottery, such as Samian ware, animal bones, human skeletons, parts of amphora, rings and bracelets, roof tiles, and painted wall plaster.