From the 1830s to the 1850s Letton was a township in the hundred of Stretford, and Hurstley in the hundred of Wolphy. Combined 1831 population was 163, with 95 of these in Letton. The ecclesiastical parish living was a rectory in the Archdeaconry and Diocese of Hereford; it was rated in the king's books—survey of the finances of English churches—at £6. 15s 7½d yearly in 1831. Letton was described as "on the road from Hereford to Hay and Brecon". It was part of the Weobley Union—poor relief and joint parish workhouse provision set up under the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834. The parish church of St John the Baptist was described as "an old stone building" with nave, one south transept, a chancel, and a tower with three bells. The chancel contained mural tablets to the Blisset family. In the 1850s the living was worth £235 yearly, with residence, and of glebe—an area of land used to support the parish church and priest—in the gift of the Rev Henry Blisset MA, who was also the incumbent, the lord of the manor and one of two chief landowners; the Blisset family provided lords of the manor and landowners until the 1890s. There was a small rectory house, built 1870, "by the road side", but the then incumbent lived in his family mansion close to the church [Letton Court]. There were parish charities valued at £462. By 1851 the population of Letton township (village), had fallen to 125, and the wider parish risen to 214, with 89 in Hurstley, in an overall area of , Hurstley being of . The soil and subsoil was described as clay, except at the south, by the river, as gravel and alluvial soil. Reported in the parish was a barrow. There were five farmers, two of whom were at Hurstley. Post was processed through Hereford, which was the nearest money order office.Lewis, Samuel, A Topographical Dictionary of EnglandLetton in the Post Office Directory of Herefordshire, 1856, p.68Letton in the Historical and Topographical Directory of Herefordshire, 1858, p.220
