Wikipedia
Pencombe is a township, parish, and village located in Herefordshire, England. It is from Bromyard (the local market town with schools and a hospital) and about from Hereford, in each case reached by narrow roads. Its buildings, including St John's Church, Pencombe Church of England Primary School, nearby residential home Pencombe Hall and coach house (now a private dwelling), were heavily influenced by the Arkwright family. (In the nineteenth century the Arkwrights were known for the invention of industrial textile equipment; they lived at nearby Hampton Court, accessible via Dinmore Railway Station.) Pencombe is an active community of about 350 people with its own gastropub, the Wheelwright Arms, and modern village hall, which doubles as a cinema for "Flicks in the Sticks". The village hall is also home to Pencombe Under Fives Playgroup, a lively voluntary parent-run group. Pencombe Court, adjacent to the church, is the principal farmstead. The appropriate civil parish is called Pencombe with Grendon Warren. Its population at the 2011 census was 329.
St John's Church is constructed in the Norman style of soft local red sandstone, and replaces a medieval building on the same site. In 2009 a new female parish priest was appointed. Across the road is the former parish hall, opened in the 1890s, now a private dwelling. There is holiday accommodation at Durstone Farm, and at Shortwood family farm, which is signposted as an "open" farm welcoming visitors, selling produce and giving guided tours of the grounds. Shortwood has a play park.
The land is fully cultivated and is mostly arable, with hops and fruit (under polytunnels) on the west-facing slopes towards the Welsh Marches.
Westwards out of the village the road climbs steeply to the local sports ground (host to the local cricket and football teams) and along a ridge giving magnificent views back across the valley and towards Bromyard Downs and the Malvern Hills. This is some of the most open countryside in Herefordshire.
Below is an extract from the Post Office Directory of Herefordshire, 1863. It contains some information about the village in past records.