Wigmore is a village and civil parish in the northwest part of the county of Herefordshire, England. It is located on the A4110 road, about west of the town of Ludlow, in the Welsh Marches. In earlier times, it was also an administrative district, called a hundred. Name The placename is attested as Wigemore (1086), Wiggemora (1165), from an Old English *wicga-mōr, the element wicga ("insect") likely denoting the yielding quality of the moorland, thus "quaking marsh" or similar. Wigmore has usually been identified as the Wigingamere of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (s.a. 917, 921) in 19th century scholarship, but Wigingamere is now known to have been in Newport, Essex. The misidentification goes back to Edward Lye, who recorded a Wicinga-mere (introducing an association with Vikings) as a villa in agro Herefordiensi. History Early history An early settlement on a hill close by the location of the present village seems to have been called Merestone or Merestun (from the Old English Mersc, meaning mere or marsh and Tūn, meaning enclosure, farmstead, village, manor or estate - thus literally "village by the marsh"). The name of the marsh itself seems to have been applied to the later village. Although Roman remains have been found in the area (near Bury Farm, to the east) on the western branch of Watling Street (which crosses Wigmore Moor). Wigmore Church is an Anglo-Saxon foundation, with substantial surviving wall portions dating to the 10th century. The Mortimer period At the time of the reign of Edward the Confessor, the barony of Wigmore belonged to Edric Sylvaticus, the English Earl of Shrewsbury. However, he refused to submit after the Norman conquest and was defeated in battle and taken prisoner. His possessions were subsequently granted to the Norman William FitzOsbern, the Earl of Hereford under William I from 1068 to 1072, as a reward for his services. FitzOsbern built Wigmore Castle, as it became known. Although it was probably initially only built of earth and timber, it was to become one of the main English border castles along the Welsh Marches during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. However, FitzOsbern's son Roger de Breteuil took part in the Revolt of the Earls; after the Earl's subsequent defeat William I seized the castle and gave it to another of his supporters, Ranulph de Mortimer. From this time on Wigmore became the head of the barony of the Mortimers, Earls of March.