Weobley ( ) is an ancient settlement and civil parish in Herefordshire, England. Formerly a market town, the market is long defunct and the settlement is today promoted as one of the county's black and white villages owing to its abundance of old timber-framed buildings. Although it has the historical status of a town and is referred to as such in the sources, it nowadays refers to itself as a village. Topography Landscape Weobley is in an entirely rural location, north-west of Hereford and south-west of Leominster. It occupies the small shallow valley of the little Marl Brook in the northern lower dip slope of Burton Hill, overlooking the valley of the Newbridge Brook which is a sub-tributary of the River Arrow. The surrounding countryside is mostly farmland, with a few small named ancient woods. However, to the south the deer park of Garnstone Castle (formerly Garnstone Manor) separates the settlement from the wooded heights of Burton Hill. The “castle” was a castellated mansion, an important design by John Nash 1807, which was demolished in 1959. Ornamental plantings for it survive, notably a row of Sequoiadendron giganteum trees which includes a monumental specimen of girth. Weobley Marsh is a separate hamlet to the east, grouped around an area of ancient common land and traditionally a haunt of witches. To the west is the ancient farmstead of The Ley, with a Grade-I listed farmhouse dating to 1589. The underlying geology comprises the Raglan Mudstone Formation of the Lower Old Red Sandstone. The soils are argillic brown earths, of high fertility. Layout The historical layout of the settlement, on which the majority of the old buildings stand, is in the form of an inverted T. The crossbar of the T is the High Street, and the stem is the funnel-shaped mediaeval marketplace comprising a triangular area abutting the High Street and extended to the north by the aptly-named Broad Street. The triangle used to have a row of infill buildings, but these were demolished in the mid 20th century and replaced by a small urban park called the Rose Garden. The west side of the former marketplace is called Portland Street, and the south side is Market Pitch. To the south of the High Street is the site of a mediaeval castle, but this has no civic presence. It abuts the Garnstone deer-park, and is described as a ring and bailey. The