Moccas

{{Short description|Village in Herefordshire, England}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Use British English|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox UK place | country = England | shire_county = Herefordshire | region = West Midlands | unitary_england = Herefordshire | coordinates = {{coord|52|05|N|2|56|W}} | population = 105 | population_ref = (2011 Census) | constituency_westminster = Hereford and South Herefordshire | postcode_district = HR2 | postcode_area = HR | post_town = Hereford | static_image_name = Church, Moccas - geograph.org.uk - 148854.jpg | static_image_caption = St Michael's parish church in Moccas }}

'''Moccas''' is a village and civil parish in the English county of Herefordshire. It is located {{Convert|14|mi}} west of Hereford. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 census was 105.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=11126627&c=HR2+9JA&d=16&e=62&g=6385878&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=0&s=1446206074359&enc=1|title=Civil parish population 2011|accessdate=30 October 2015}}</ref>

The parish is mainly farmland with a number of woods, including Woodbury Hill Wood and the Moccas Park Deer Park (though mostly in Dorstone parish). The parish church of St Michael is well known as the site of the very early Welsh Moccas Monastery, founded by Saint Dubricius in the 6th century,<ref name="HTT" /> as recorded in the ''Book of Llandaff''.<ref>{{cite book | title=An Essential Guide to Celtic Sites and Their Saints | author=Elizabeth Rees | publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group | year=2003 | isbn=0-86012-318-9 | pages=169–170 }}</ref> The church has a notable monument to the de Fresnes family, lords of the manor in the 14th century.<ref>{{cite book | title=The foundations of gentry life: the Multons of Frampton and their world, 1270-1370 | series=Past & present | author=Peter R. Coss | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2010 | isbn=0-19-956000-5 | pages=166–167 }}</ref>

Moccas Court, north of the village, replaced the old manor house which once stood next to the church. It is a fine Georgian country house, now a hotel, built between 1776 and 1783 for the Cornewall family by the architect Anthony Keck.

The name Moccas probably derives from the Welsh Moch-rhos, meaning pig land, according to the Moccas village history website. Geiriadur yr Academi / The Welsh-English Academy Dictionary (University of Wales Press 1995) lists Moccas, glossed as "English Place name", and gives the Welsh form as "Mochros". "Moch" (pigs) and "rhos" (moorland) combine to give "moch-ros" (soft mutation of RH > R, caused by the preceding word, hence "Mochros" /ˈmɔχrɔs/).

==References== {{Reflist|refs= <ref name="HTT">{{Cite web |title = DA Monastic Site, Moccas |work = Herefordshire Through Time |publisher = Herefordshire Council |url = http://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/htt/smrSearch/Monuments/Monument_Item.aspx?ID=1080 |accessdate = 2010-09-25 |url-status=dead |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20110610153403/http://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/htt/smrSearch/Monuments/Monument_Item.aspx?ID=1080 |archivedate = 2011-06-10 |df = }}</ref> }} * {{cite book | title=Herefordshire | volume=25 | series=Buildings of England | author=Nikolaus Pevsner | authorlink=Nikolaus Pevsner | publisher=Penguin Books | year=1963 | pages=253–254 }}

== External links == {{Commons category|Moccas}} *[https://www.geograph.org.uk/search.php?i=3863849 Photos of Moccas and surrounding area on geograph] *[http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/place_page.jsp?p_id=1889 History of Moccas in Herefordshire] *[http://www.moccas-court.co.uk/ Moccas Court]

Category:Villages in Herefordshire