Knill is a village and civil parish

Civil parish

In England, a civil parish is a territorial designation and, where they are found, the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties...

 in 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...

, England

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...

. Recorded in the Domesday Book

Domesday Book

Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 (1086) as Chenille (from the Old English meaning 'Place by the hillock') the little village of Knill sits just inside the Herefordshire side of the border with Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

, 4.5 km (2.8 mi) south west of Presteigne

Presteigne

Presteigne is a town and community in Powys, Wales. It was the county town of the historic county of Radnorshire, and is in the Diocese of Hereford...

 and very much in 'The Marches

Welsh Marches

The Welsh Marches is a term which, in modern usage, denotes an imprecisely defined area along and around the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom. The precise meaning of the term has varied at different periods...

' as these borderlands are known. The ancient boundary between Mercia

Mercia

Mercia was one of the kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy. It was centred on the valley of the River Trent and its tributaries in the region now known as the English Midlands...

 and the Welsh, Offa's Dyke

Offa's Dyke

Offa's Dyke is a massive linear earthwork, roughly followed by some of the current border between England and Wales. In places, it is up to wide and high. In the 8th century it formed some kind of delineation between the Anglian kingdom of Mercia and the Welsh kingdom of Powys...

, runs along the ridge above the village with the modern border running along the 'Hidden Valley' floor. The population of the village in the 1861 census was 84 and this has now declined to figures in the 20s.


There is no war memorial

War memorial

A war memorial is a building, monument, statue or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or to commemorate those who died or were injured in war.-Historic usage:...

 in the village but in the parish church there is a carved stone plaque on the wall, which greets visitors with the inscription:

TO THE GLORY OF GOD

AND IN THANKSGIVING TO HIM FOR

THE VICTORY GRANTED TO US IN THE

GREAT WAR OF 1914-1918

AND FOR HIS MERCIES IN BRINGING

SAFELY HOME THE MEN OF THIS PARISH

WHO SERVED THEIR COUNTRY OVERSEAS

Knill is one of three Thankful Villages

Thankful Villages

Thankful Villages are settlements in both England and Wales from which all their then members of the armed forces survived World War I. The term Thankful Village was popularised by the writer Arthur Mee in the 1930s...

 in Herefordshire - those rare places that suffered no fatalities during the Great War of 1914 to 1918

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

.

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