Stoke Edith is a village in the English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 county of Herefordshire

Herefordshire

Herefordshire is a historic and ceremonial county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire" NUTS 2 region. It also forms a unitary district known as the...

, situated on a road leading from Hereford

Hereford

Hereford is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, southwest of Worcester, and northwest of Gloucester...

 to Ledbury

Ledbury

Ledbury is a town in Herefordshire, England, lying east of Hereford, and south of the Malvern Hills.Today, Ledbury is a thriving market town in rural England. The town has a large number of timber framed buildings, in particular along Church Lane and High Street. One of Ledbury's most outstanding...

. The manor belonged formerly to the Wallwynes, Milwaters and Lingen families.

Stoke Edith was the principal manor of Sir Henry Lingen

Henry Lingen

Sir Henry Lingen , Lord of Sutton, Lingen and Stoke Edith, was a Royalist military commander in Herefordshire during the English Civil War, and later a Member of Parliament.-Ancestry:...

, Royalist cavalier, buried in the church in 1662. In 1670, his widow sold the manor in the 1670s to Thomas Foley, who settled it on his second son Paul

Paul Foley (ironmaster)

Paul Foley , also known as Speaker Foley, was the second son of Thomas Foley of Witley Court, the prominent Midlands ironmaster.-Ironmaster:...

. Paul obtianed licence from James II

James II of England

James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...

 to empark up to 500 acres at Stoke Edith. He rebuilt the timber-framed ancient mansion, Stoke Court, from 1695, when he became Speaker. The house subsequently known as Stoke Park descended in the family until the death of Thomas Lord Foley

Thomas Foley, 1st Baron Foley (1716–1777)

Thomas Foley, 1st Baron Foley was a British politician.Foley was the son of Thomas Foley and his wife Hester , and the cousin, namesake and heir of Thomas Foley, 2nd Baron Foley , thus acquiring Witley Court and the extensive Great Witley estate...

, who having inherited the Great Witley estate

Witley Court

Witley Court in Worcestershire, England is a Grade 1 listed building and was once one of the great houses of the Midlands, but today it is a spectacular ruin after being devastated by fire in 1937. It was built by Thomas Foley in 1655 on the site of a former manor house near Great Witley...

 from his distant counsin Thomas 2nd Baron Foley

Thomas Foley, 2nd Baron Foley (1742–1793)

Thomas Foley, 2nd Baron Foley was a British peer and politician. He was the eldest son of the first baron, another Thomas Foley...

 settled Stoke Edith on his second son Edward Foley (1747–1803)

Edward Foley (1747–1803)

Edward Foley was the second son of Thomas, 1st Lord Foley.Like his brother, he was profligate with the great family wealth...

. Many of the family were members of Parliament. Stoke Park remained their principal residnece until it was burnt down in 1926.

The present Stoke Edith House (once the Rectory

Rectory

A rectory is the residence, or former residence, of a rector, most often a Christian cleric, but in some cases an academic rector or other person with that title...

), the park and extensive agricultural and woodlands remain in the ownership of the Foley family.