The parish is significant for its Grade II* listed church, and Athelstan Wood, formerly anciently managed but now largely coniferised.

It was part of the union—poor relief and joint workhouse provision set up under the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834—and county court district Hereford, and the Herewood End petty sessional division.

[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] In 1848 the incumbent priest's living was in the gift of Guy's Hospital, London and was a vicarage, which by 1848 had been discharged of tithes, being typically one-tenth of the produce or profits of the land given to the priest for his services, commuted in 1841 under the 1836 Tithe Commutation Act, and substituted with a yearly rent-charge payment.

[4][5][7][8] Parish land is described as arable with pasture and meadow, the soil loamy with a 'rockstone' subsoil on which was grown variously wheat, barley, oats, turnips, peas and fruit.

Residents and occupations listed in 1858 included the rector, the master of the National School, two stonemasons, the licensed victuallers of the Castle Inn public house and the Little Castle Inn public house, a further innkeeper, a cooper, a carpenter, and fourteen farmers, one of whom was also a carpenter.

In 1913 Henry Adkins MA, BCL, resided at both the Old Rectory in Little Birch and the New University Club at St James Street, London.

[9][10][11][12] Little Birch parish is long and narrow, and orientated north-west to south-east with a length of approximately 3 miles (5 km).

Its widest distance, of less than 1 mile (1.6 km), is towards the north-west around Little Birch hamlet; its narrowest, of 900 yards (800 m), is at the centre at the south-west of Athelstans Wood.

It is chiefly rural, of farms, fields, woods, and dispersed properties, with a more concentrated residential area at the north-west at Barrack Hill.

The extreme south-east tip of the parish is within the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), edged at the north by the Llanwarne to Hoarwithy Laskett Lane.

The stream Wriggle Brook rises beyond the north-west of the parish and flows as a tributary to the River Wye in Hentland.

The Brook forms the border with the south-west neighbouring parishes of Much Birch and Llanwarne before crossing eastwards across Little Birch into the parish of Little Dewchurch, at which point a feeder stream to the Brook flows from the north-west at Aconbury and through Athelstans Wood, partly providing the border with Little Dewchurch.

A further upstream feeder to Wriggle Brook flows at the south-west edge of Athelstans Wood from its source just north from Little Birch church.

[16] The closest National Rail station is at Hereford on the Welsh Marches Line, 5 miles (8 km) to the north.

The extent and characteristics of the wood remained the same from this time until after the Second World War, witnessed by aerial photographic evidence of 1946.