Preston-on-Wye is a village in the Wye valley, 8 miles W of Hereford. The village is on the S side of the river, with the church a half mile N of the modern centre, close to the river. St Lawrence’s church was drastically restored by T. Nicholson in 1883, and consists of a long chancel with a N vestry, an aisleless nave with no chancel arch, a N transept used as a store-room, a S porch and a W tower. Romanesque work is found in a lancet at the W end of the N nave wall, the N and S nave doorways and the font.

Preston-on-Wye was held by the canons of Hereford cathedral before the Conquest and in 1086. It was assessed at 6 hides, with woodland a league long andhalf a league broad, and a mill. 2 clerks held 2½ hides of this land, and 1 hide of it was waste in 1086. It was all waste in 1066.

Pevsner ignores the font, Brooks calls it neo-Norman, of 1883. RCHME calls it a modern bowl on an old cylindrical stem, retooled. The SMR offers the opinion that as the church must once have had a Norman font, the stem belonged to that.

The S doorway with its trumpet capitals must date from c.1170-90, but is heavily restored. The original form of the N doorway is unclear.