Hyssington

The church which is in the Diocese of Hereford lies just the north of a small village and is sited just to the west of a medieval Motte-and-bailey castle.

This area was also the source of late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age battle-axes and axe-hammers, made from picrite that were widely traded around 2000 BC.

In this area the altered Hope Shales of the Ordovician period on the margin of the dolerite produce finely laminated flagstones which were widely used on building on the Shropshire-Montgomeryshire border.

Only a few buildings still have the flagstones as roofing slates, including the Old Post Office at Churchstoke and the porch to Hurdley Farmhouse.

[3] In 1951 Professor F W Shotton of Birmingham University identified the source of the rock used for shafthole battle-axes and axe-hammers as picrite which had been quarried from Corndon Hill.

As the production of these implements in the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age did not employed the same flaking techniques as stone axes, which leave recognisable flaking debris, the site or sites of the Corndon Group XII implements production will be very much harder to identitify.

However the Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust did excavate several small quarry depressions in 2008, but only found evidence of fairly recent disturbance.

A stone slab with striations which was suggested was an example of Neolithic art, could equally well have been early plough marks[5] The main distribution of Group XII implements is in mid-Wales, the Midlands, the Cotswolds and stretching across to East Anglia.

The existence of a Saxon church dedication that is likely to be 7th or 8th century in date and just to the east of Offa's Dyke, which runs through Churchstoke parish must be significant.

[8] The building is a long single-chambered church with a west bell hanging, rebuilt in 1875 by Thomas Nicholson, the Hereford Diocesan architect.

[14][15] In 1973 Ronnie Lane, bass guitarist with rock band the Faces, moved to Fishpool Farm in the village.

Hyssington Church, Montgomeryshire, Interior
St-Aethelthryth from Benedictional of St. Æthelwold, 10 C British Library
Chapel at White Grit
Primitive Methodist Chapel