Colwall

"COLWALL, a parish in the hundred of RADLOW, county of HEREFORD, 3 miles (N. E. by N.) from Ledbury, containing 782 inhabitants. The living is a rectory, in the archdeaconry and diocese of Hereford; rated in the king's books at £20. 6. 8., and in the patronage of the Bishop of Hereford. The church, dedicated to St. James, is an ancient structure with a square tower. Colwall is thought to have derived its name from a corruption of Collis Vallum, a fortified hill, which is descriptive of the situation of the place. The Herefordshire Beacon, an ancient encampment on. one of the highest of the Malvern hills, is supposed to have been formed by the Britons to repel the Romans; near it a coronet of gold, set with diamonds, was discovered by a cottager in 1650, who, ignorant of its value, sold it for £31, though it afterwards fetched £1500. Here is a free grammar school, founded in 1612, by Humphrey Walwine, Esq., and under the patronage of the Grocers' Company: there are two schoolrooms, one for the free boys, the other for private pupils. The water of Colwall is equal in purity to the most celebrated of the Malvern springs." [From Samuel Lewis A Topographical Dictionary of England  (1831) ©Mel Lockie]