Herefordshire () is a
county
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
in the
West Midlands of England, governed by
Herefordshire Council
Herefordshire Council is the local government authority for the county of Herefordshire in England. It is a unitary authority, combining the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district.
History
The council was formed on 1 April 1998 followi ...
. It is bordered by
Shropshire
Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...
to the north,
Worcestershire to the east,
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
to the south-east, and the
Welsh counties of
Monmouthshire and
Powys
Powys (; ) is a county and preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain.
Geog ...
to the west.
Hereford, the
county town of Herefordshire has a population of approximately 61,000, making it the largest settlement in the county. The next biggest town is
Leominster
Leominster ( ) is a market town in Herefordshire, England, at the confluence of the River Lugg and its tributary the River Kenwater. The town is north of Hereford and south of Ludlow in Shropshire. With a population of 11,700, Leominster i ...
and then
Ross-on-Wye
Ross-on-Wye ( Welsh: ''Rhosan ar Wy'') is a market town in England, near the border with Wales. It had a population of 10,582 according to the 2011 census, estimated at 11,309 in 2019. It lies in south-eastern Herefordshire, on the River Wye ...
. The county is situated in the historic
Welsh Marches, Herefordshire is one of the most rural and sparsely populated counties in England, with a
population density
Population density (in agriculture: Stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical ...
of 82/km
2 (212/sq mi), and a 2021 population of 187,100 – the
fourth-smallest of any
ceremonial county in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. The land use is mostly agricultural and the county is well known for its fruit and
cider production, and for the
Hereford cattle breed.
Constitution
From 1974 to 1998, Herefordshire was part of the former
non-metropolitan county
A non-metropolitan county, or colloquially, shire county, is a county-level entity in England that is not a metropolitan county. The counties typically have populations of 300,000 to 1.8 million. The term ''shire county'' is, however, an unoffi ...
of
Hereford and Worcester
Hereford and Worcester was an English non-metropolitan county created on 1 April 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 from the areas of the former administrative county of Herefordshire, most of Worcestershire (except Halesowen, Stourbridge ...
.
Herefordshire was reconstituted both as a new
district
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...
as "County of Herefordshire" (effective 19 July 1996) and as a new
county
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
(coextensive with the area of the aforementioned district) (effective 1 April 1998) by
Statutory Instrument as defined in ''The Hereford and Worcester (Structural, Boundary and Electoral Changes) Order 1996''. This Order established Herefordshire as a
unitary authority
A unitary authority is a local authority responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are usually performed by a higher level of sub-national government or the national governmen ...
on 1 April 1998, combining county and district functions into a single council. Herefordshire is also commonly called a ''unitary district'', but this is not official nomenclature. Herefordshire is officially known as a unitary authority for local government purposes. It is governed by Herefordshire Council which was created in 1998 with the new unitary district that absorbed the previous administrative areas of Hereford City Council, South Herefordshire District Council, most of
Leominster
Leominster ( ) is a market town in Herefordshire, England, at the confluence of the River Lugg and its tributary the River Kenwater. The town is north of Hereford and south of Ludlow in Shropshire. With a population of 11,700, Leominster i ...
District Council, and part of
Malvern Hills District Council, all within the previous non-metropolitan county of Hereford and Worcester, whose functions the new authority inherited within its area. The remainder of Malvern Hills district absorbed the Worcestershire part of Leominster district (the area around Tenbury Wells) and continued to constitute a (smaller) district within the new two-tier county of Worcestershire.
The
Lieutenancies Act 1997 made Herefordshire a
ceremonial county, covering the exact area of the unitary district. For
Eurostat purposes it is a
NUTS 3 region (code UKG11) and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region.
Physical geography
The
River Wye, which at is the fifth-longest in the United Kingdom, enters the county after briefly being its border with
Powys
Powys (; ) is a county and preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain.
Geog ...
. It flows through both
Hereford and
Ross-on-Wye
Ross-on-Wye ( Welsh: ''Rhosan ar Wy'') is a market town in England, near the border with Wales. It had a population of 10,582 according to the 2011 census, estimated at 11,309 in 2019. It lies in south-eastern Herefordshire, on the River Wye ...
before returning to Wales.
Leominster
Leominster ( ) is a market town in Herefordshire, England, at the confluence of the River Lugg and its tributary the River Kenwater. The town is north of Hereford and south of Ludlow in Shropshire. With a population of 11,700, Leominster i ...
is situated on the
River Lugg
The River Lugg ( cy, Afon Llugwy) rises near Llangynllo in Radnorshire, Wales. It flows through the border town of Presteigne and then through Herefordshire, England, where it meets its main tributary, the River Arrow, to the south of Leomi ...
, a tributary of the Wye.
There are two
Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty
An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is an area of countryside in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Areas are designated in recognition of thei ...
in the county. The
Wye Valley
The Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; cy, Dyffryn Gwy) is an internationally important protected landscape straddling the border between England and Wales.
The River Wye ( cy, Afon Gwy) is the fourth-longest river in th ...
is located in the river's valleys south of Hereford, while the
Malvern Hills
The Malvern Hills are in the English counties of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and a small area of northern Gloucestershire, dominating the surrounding countryside and the towns and villages of the district of Malvern. The highest summit aff ...
are in the east of the county, along its border with
Worcestershire.
History
Herefordshire is one of the 39
historic counties of England
The historic counties of England are areas that were established for administration by the Normans, in many cases based on earlier kingdoms and shires created by the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Celts and others. They are alternatively known as an ...
. Herefordshire County Council was created in 1889.
In 1974, the administrative county formed in 1889 was merged with that of neighbouring
Worcestershire to form Hereford and Worcester. Within this, Herefordshire was covered by the
local government districts
The districts of England (also known as local authority districts or local government districts to distinguish from unofficial city districts) are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the st ...
of
South Herefordshire,
Hereford, and part of
Malvern Hills
The Malvern Hills are in the English counties of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and a small area of northern Gloucestershire, dominating the surrounding countryside and the towns and villages of the district of Malvern. The highest summit aff ...
and
Leominster
Leominster ( ) is a market town in Herefordshire, England, at the confluence of the River Lugg and its tributary the River Kenwater. The town is north of Hereford and south of Ludlow in Shropshire. With a population of 11,700, Leominster i ...
districts. However, the county was dissolved in 1998, resulting in the return of Herefordshire and Worcestershire as counties.
The current
ceremonial county and
unitary district have broadly the same borders as the historic county.
Demographics
Population growth
Herefordshire's growth rate has, in recent decades, been higher than the national average, with the population increasing by
14.4% between 1991 and 2011; the population of England as a whole increased by only 10.0%. However, this has been from a lower base, with only Northumberland and Cumbria having lower population densities than Herefordshire.
In the late 19th and early 20th century the population of the county declined steadily.
Ethnicity
The population is White 98.2%, Asian 0.8%, Mixed 0.7%, Black 0.2%, Other 0.1%.
Travellers
Gypsies and Travellers have historically been Herefordshire's largest minority ethnic group. They are made up of three main groups:
*
Romanichal or Romany "Gypsies"
*
Irish Travellers
Irish Travellers ( ga, an lucht siúil, meaning "the walking people"), also known as Pavees or Mincéirs (Shelta: Mincéirí), are a traditionally peripatetic indigenous ethno-cultural group in Ireland.''Questioning Gypsy identity: ethnic na ...
*New Travellers or
New Age Travellers
New Age travellers, not completely synonymous with but otherwise shortened to New Travellers (often referred to as "crusties"), are people in the United Kingdom generally espousing New Age beliefs along with the hippie culture of the 1960s (over ...
Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers fall within the definition of a minority ethnic group under the
Race Relations Amendment Act (2000). They have contributed to the development of the county, for example through seasonal working in orchards. There were approximately 400 people (0.2%) within this minority group in the county at the 2011 Census.
Cities, towns and villages
The major settlements in the county include
Hereford, which is the
county town and Herefordshire's only
city
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
, as well as the towns of
Leominster
Leominster ( ) is a market town in Herefordshire, England, at the confluence of the River Lugg and its tributary the River Kenwater. The town is north of Hereford and south of Ludlow in Shropshire. With a population of 11,700, Leominster i ...
,
Ledbury,
Ross-on-Wye
Ross-on-Wye ( Welsh: ''Rhosan ar Wy'') is a market town in England, near the border with Wales. It had a population of 10,582 according to the 2011 census, estimated at 11,309 in 2019. It lies in south-eastern Herefordshire, on the River Wye ...
,
Kington and
Bromyard.
Economy
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Herefordshire at current basic prices published by the Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.
includes hunting and forestry
includes energy and construction
includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured
Components may not sum to totals due to rounding
Many well-known cider producers are based in Herefordshire. These include Weston's cider of
Much Marcle, and
Bulmer's cider, from Hereford, which produces the UK market leader
Strongbow.
Employment
Most employment in Herefordshire is in agriculture, manufacturing and services. According to Herefordshire Council's online document "worklessness", 10% of people are unemployed in Herefordshire including out-of-work, homeless, ill and disabled and their carers.
Cargill Meats and H. P. Bulmers are two of the largest private sector employers, with the Council and NHS being the largest public sector employers.
Politics
Westminster Parliamentary
There are two parliamentary constituencies in Herefordshire. ,
Bill Wiggin
Sir William David Wiggin (born 4 June 1966) is a British Conservative Party politician, and a former Shadow Minister for Agriculture & Fisheries. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Herefordshire, previously Leominster, since t ...
represents
North Herefordshire and
Jesse Norman
Alexander Jesse Norman (born 23 June 1962) is a British Conservative Party politician serving as Minister of State for Decarbonisation and Technology since October 2022. He previously served as Minister of State for the Americas and the Overs ...
represents
Hereford and South Herefordshire. Both politicians are members of the
Conservative Party.
Council
The council operates a
cabinet-style council and has been independently controlled since 2019. The chairman is Councillor Sebastian Bowen and the leader of the council is Councillor David Hitchiner.
The Cabinet Leader is appointed yearly by the full council of 53 councillors. The Cabinet Leader then picks their deputy and up to 8 other councillors to form the executive cabinet. Each cabinet member makes the decisions about the portfolio that they are allocated. Elections to the council are held every 4 years. Elections are conducted under the
FPTP
In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...
system with the 53 wards returning 1 councillor each. Elections have been held in
2000
File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...
, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019, with the next election due in 2023.
In the 2019 election, the Conservatives lost control of Herefordshire Council.
Education
Herefordshire has a comprehensive education system that also includes several independent schools. Most state secondary schools are for ages 11–16. Colleges of further and higher education in the county include
Hereford College of Arts
Hereford College of Arts is an art school based in the West Midlands, UK, and is the only specialist college in the region dedicated to the Arts.
Description
It offers courses in both further and higher education fields, in Art & Design, Musi ...
,
Hereford College of Education,
Hereford Sixth Form College
Hereford Sixth Form College is a co-educational state funded sixth form college in Hereford, England.
It offers over 40 subjects at A-Level and 10 at GCSE. It is on the A465 in Aylestone Hill, in the east of Hereford, opposite Wye Valley Nuffie ...
,
Herefordshire and Ludlow College and the
Royal National College for the Blind.
Agriculture
The agricultural economy has changed greatly in recent years within the county. The county is on the western edge of England which has been historically pastoral as opposed to the east which was more
arable.
Beef
Probably Hereford's most famous export is its
Hereford beef cattle. Herefords are docile but extremely hardy creatures and these attributes have led to their proliferation across the world, particularly the US, Canada, South America and Australia. The breed is so gentle that a Hereford bull was used as the mascot for
Hereford United Football Club for many years, led around the club's
Edgar Street ground before major matches.
Fruit
The county is famous for its apple and pear orchards, and its cider. There are many orchards around the county but not as many as there once were.
In the last few years, soft
fruit
In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants that is formed from the ovary after flowering.
Fruits are the means by which flowering plants (also known as angiosperms) disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particu ...
s such as
strawberries have become a new and rapidly expanding area of the agricultural economy of the county. One of the main reasons for this was the introduction of the
polytunnel or French tunnel. This allows the strawberries to be grown for a far longer season and with a higher quality (with no blemishes from the rain). The strawberries are mainly picked by
Eastern European
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whi ...
workers who come over for the season and often earn more money, more than they could working in their own country and with the bonus, for many of them, of learning or improving their English. The polytunnels have been a major issue in the county, as some people see them as a "blot on the landscape".
Although some polytunnel sites are illegal,
Herefordshire Council
Herefordshire Council is the local government authority for the county of Herefordshire in England. It is a unitary authority, combining the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district.
History
The council was formed on 1 April 1998 followi ...
has turned a blind eye in the belief that agriculture must be allowed to innovate; otherwise it will stagnate and the county will suffer.
Dairy
Previously, most farms in the county had
dairy cattle
Dairy cattle (also called dairy cows) are cattle bred for the ability to produce large quantities of milk, from which dairy products are made. Dairy cattle generally are of the species '' Bos taurus''.
Historically, little distinction was ...
. Due to the cost of investing in new equipment, long hours,
BSE,
foot-and-mouth disease and mainly falling milk prices, the county's milk production has drastically reduced, with only a few farms still in dairy farming.
Potatoes
The county is historically pastoral. The soils are mostly clay, meaning that large scale potato production was very difficult, as tractors were not powerful enough to pull the large machinery required to harvest the crop. Around the early 1990s new technology and more powerful machines overcame this problem. Potato production started to increase, fuelled by a few other key factors: The previously pastoral soils had not had potatoes grown in them; consequently they were not infected with
eelworm
The nematodes ( or grc-gre, Νηματώδη; la, Nematoda) or roundworms constitute the phylum Nematoda (also called Nemathelminthes), with plant-parasitic nematodes also known as eelworms. They are a diverse animal phylum inhabiting a broa ...
(''Heterodera rostochiensis'' and ''Heterodera pallida''), which in the east of England had to be sprayed against weekly (a large cost). Also, the clay soil produced an unblemished potato of the highest grade. The intensive nature of the crop meant that potatoes could be grown viably on a given field in only one of every five years. Because potato growers always needed more land than they owned, they rented extra. This demand for rental fields came at a time when the rest of the industry was struggling and in serious decline. The potato farmers' rents of £300–500 per acre (as opposed to normally £80 per acre) were very helpful to many farmers in a difficult period.
Emblems
Coat of arms
Herefordshire County Council was granted a
coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldic visual design on an escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central element of the full heraldic achievement, which in its ...
on 28 February 1946.
[Geoffrey Briggs, ''Civic and Corporate Heraldry'', London, 1971] The arms became obsolete in 1974 on the abolition of the council, but were transferred to the present Herefordshire Council by
Order in Council
An Order-in-Council is a type of legislation in many countries, especially the Commonwealth realms. In the United Kingdom this legislation is formally made in the name of the monarch by and with the advice and consent of the Privy Council (''Kin ...
in 1997.
The arms are
blazon
In heraldry and heraldic vexillology, a blazon is a formal description of a coat of arms, flag or similar emblem, from which the reader can reconstruct the appropriate image. The verb ''to blazon'' means to create such a description. The vi ...
ed as follows:
''
Gules on a
fess
In heraldry, a fess or fesse (from Middle English ''fesse'', from Old French ''faisse'', from Latin ''fascia'', "band") is a charge on a coat of arms (or flag) that takes the form of a band running horizontally across the centre of the shiel ...
e wavy between in chief a lion passant guardant
argent
In heraldry, argent () is the tincture of silver, and belongs to the class of light tinctures called "metals". It is very frequently depicted as white and usually considered interchangeable with it. In engravings and line drawings, regions to ...
and in base a Herefordshire bull's head caboshed proper, a bar wavy
azure; and for a
Crest on a wreath of the colours a demi lion rampant gules holding in the sinister claw a fleece or; and for Supporters, on the dexter side a lion guardant or gorged with a wreath of hops fructed proper and on the sinister a talbot argent gorged with a collar or charged with three apples proper.''
The red colouring ("gules") of the shield is taken from the arms of the City of Hereford. The red colour also represents the red earth of Herefordshire. The silver and blue wave across the centre of the shield represents the River Wye. The lions that form parts of the arms, crest and supporters are also taken from Hereford's arms. The agricultural produce of Herefordshire is represented by the bull's head, fleece, hops and apples. The
talbot dog comes from the heraldry of the Talbot family, Marcher Lords of Shrewsbury and also from that of Viscount Hereford.
The
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
motto
A motto (derived from the Latin , 'mutter', by way of Italian , 'word' or 'sentence') is a sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of an individual, family, social group, or organisation. Mot ...
is: ''Pulchra terra Dei donum'' ("This fair land is the gift of God").
County flower
As part of a competition organised by the charity
Plantlife
Plantlife is the international conservation membership charity working to secure a world rich in wild plants and fungi. It is the only UK membership charity dedicated to conserving wild plants and fungi in their natural habitats and helping peo ...
to raise awareness of conservation issues, the public were asked to vote for "
county flower
In a number of countries, plants have been chosen as symbols to represent specific geographic areas. Some countries have a country-wide floral emblem; others in addition have symbols representing subdivisions. Different processes have been used to ...
s" that they felt best represented their county.
Mistletoe was announced as the winning choice for Herefordshire in 2004. The emblem has no official status and has not been widely adopted. Herefordshire Council uses a logo consisting of a green apple.
Sport
Perhaps the most famous sporting team in Herefordshire is
Hereford United football club, who were members of the
Football League and played at
Edgar Street stadium in the city of Hereford. The club was founded in 1924 on the merger of two local teams – St Martin's and RAOC – and became members of the Birmingham Combination League. The club then made its way upwards to the
Southern Football League, finally gaining election to the
Football League in 1972 – the same year that the club famously defeated
First Division side
Newcastle United in an
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...
tie. Two successive promotions saw the club reach the
Second Division in 1978, but two successive relegations followed and saw the club side back into the
Fourth Division. Despite being situated within England, the club has competed in the
Welsh Cup on a number of occasions, winning the trophy in 1990. The club suffered relegation from the Football League in 1997 and fell into the
Football Conference
The National League (named Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons) is an association football league in England consisting of three divisions, the National League, National League North, and National League South. It was called the ...
, not regaining its Football League status until 2006. The club then played in
Football League Two
The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...
– the fourth tier of English football – for six years before once again being relegated out of the Football League at the end of the 2011–12 season. The club was wound up in 2014. A new
phoenix club,
Hereford F.C. was set up competing in the
Midland Football League
The Midland Football League is an English football league that was founded in 2014 by the merger of the former Midland Alliance and Midland Combination. The league has four divisions that sit at levels 9–12 of the football pyramid.
History
T ...
Premier Division (9th tier) for its first season, 2015–16. The club lost to
Morpeth Town at
Wembley Stadium
Wembley Stadium (branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the original Wembley Stadium, which was demolished from 2002 to 2003. The stadium ...
on 22 May 2016 in the final of the
FA Vase.
Cricket is widely played within the county, and
Herefordshire County Cricket Club
Herefordshire County Cricket Club is one of twenty minor county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Herefordshire. The team is currently a member of the Minor Counties Champio ...
compete in the
Minor Counties Championship, having been elected in 1992 to take Durham's place, when that county joined the First-class structure. The leading club sides in Herefordshire are Brockhampton CC and Eastnor CC, who both compete in the
Birmingham and District Premier League
The Birmingham & District Premier Cricket League is the oldest club cricket league in the United Kingdom, formed in 1888. It was the first ECB Premier League, being designated such in 1998, and is one of the strongest of the ECB Premier Leagues ...
, the ECB accredited Premier League for cricket clubs in the West Midlands, and one of the strongest cricket leagues in England. Below that in the cricketing pyramid system 7 other leading Herefordshire clubs compete in the
Worcestershire County Cricket League, with the remaining 25 or so cricket clubs within the county competing in the Marches League, or just playing Sunday or mid-week 'friendly' matches.
Places of interest
*
Abbey Dore Court
*
Arthur's Stone
*
Berrington Hall
*
Brockhampton Estate
*
Courtyard Centre for the Arts – Hereford's main theatre and art performance centre
*
Croft Castle
*
Dore Abbey
Dore Abbey is a former Cistercian abbey in the village of Abbey Dore in the Golden Valley, Herefordshire, England. A large part of the original medieval building has been used since the 16th century as the parish church, with remaining parts eith ...
*
Eastnor Castle
Eastnor Castle, Eastnor, Herefordshire, is a 19th-century mock castle. Eastnor was built for John Cocks, 1st Earl Somers, who employed Robert Smirke, later the main architect of the British Museum. The castle was built between 1811 and 1820. ...
*
Edgar Street (Football Stadium Home to
Hereford F.C.)
*
Eye Manor
*
Goodrich Castle
Goodrich Castle is a Norman medieval castle ruin north of the village of Goodrich in Herefordshire, England, controlling a key location between Monmouth and Ross-on-Wye. It was praised by William Wordsworth as the "noblest ruin in Herefordshi ...
*
Hampton Court
Hampton Court Palace is a Grade I listed royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, southwest and upstream of central London on the River Thames. The building of the palace began in 1514 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, the chie ...
*
Hellens Manor
Hellens Manor, also known as Hellens House or simply Hellens and located in the village of Much Marcle in Herefordshire is one of the oldest dwellings in England, primarily composed of Tudor, Jacobean and Georgian architecture, but the foundati ...
*
Hereford Cathedral
*
Kilpeck Church
*
Malvern Hills
The Malvern Hills are in the English counties of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and a small area of northern Gloucestershire, dominating the surrounding countryside and the towns and villages of the district of Malvern. The highest summit aff ...
*
Herefordshire Beacon
The Herefordshire Beacon is one of the highest peaks of the Malvern Hills, and is high enough to be classified as a mountain. It is surrounded by a British Iron Age hill fort earthwork known as British Camp. The fort subsequently had a ringwor ...
*
Priory Church
*
Sutton Walls Hill Fort
*
Wigmore Castle
*
Welsh Newton
Transport
Road
The
M50, one of the first
motorways to be built in the United Kingdom, runs through the south of the county and, with the
A40 dual carriageway, forms part of the major route linking
South Wales with the
West Midlands and the north of England. The
A49 runs north–south through the county and is a strategic route between
North
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.
Etymology
The word ''north ...
and
South Wales as well as catering for local traffic.
Railways
The
Welsh Marches Line also runs north–south with passenger trains operated by
Transport for Wales offering links to
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
as well as to North and South Wales.
Hereford is the western end of the
Cotswold Line
The Cotswold Line is an railway line between and in England.
History Early years
The line between Oxford and Worcester was built under an 1845 Act of Parliament and opened in 1851 as part of the Oxford, Worcester and Wolverhampton Railway.
...
which runs via
Worcester with through services to
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
and
London Paddington (operated by
Great Western Railway) and to
Birmingham
Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...
(operated by
West Midlands Trains
West Midlands Trains (WMT) is a train operating company in the United Kingdom. It operates passenger trains on the West Midlands franchise between London and the English Midlands under two trade names: West Midlands Railway (WMR) (within the ...
). The rural
Heart of Wales Line
The Heart of Wales line ( cy, Llinell Calon Cymru) is a railway line running from Craven Arms in Shropshire to Llanelli in southwest Wales. It serves a number of rural centres, including the nineteenth-century spa towns Llandrindod Wells, Lla ...
linking
Craven Arms
Craven Arms is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire, England, on the A49 road and the Welsh Marches railway line, which link it north and south to the larger towns of Shrewsbury and Ludlow respectively. The Heart of Wales railway l ...
in Shropshire to
Llanelli in southwest Wales passes through the extreme north west of Herefordshire with stations at
Knighton and
Bucknell near the meeting point of the boundaries of Herefordshire,
Shropshire
Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to ...
and
Powys
Powys (; ) is a county and preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain.
Geog ...
. The majority of passengers between North and South Wales use the Marches line.
Former lines which are now closed were the
Ledbury and Gloucester Railway;
Ross & Monmouth Railway; Hereford to
Hay-on-Wye
Hay-on-Wye ( cy, Y Gelli Gandryll), simply known locally as "Hay" ( cy, Y Gelli), is a market town and community in Powys, Wales; it was historically in the county of Brecknockshire. With over twenty bookshops, it is often described as "the to ...
;
Pontrilas
Pontrilas ('' en, Bridge over Three Rivers'') is a village in south Herefordshire, England, half a mile from the border with Wales. It is in the parish of Kentchurch and lies midway between Hereford and Abergavenny. In 2011 the main village conta ...
to Hay-on-Wye; Hay-on-Wye to
Brecon
Brecon (; cy, Aberhonddu; ), archaically known as Brecknock, is a market town in Powys, mid Wales. In 1841, it had a population of 5,701. The population in 2001 was 7,901, increasing to 8,250 at the 2011 census. Historically it was the coun ...
;
Leominster
Leominster ( ) is a market town in Herefordshire, England, at the confluence of the River Lugg and its tributary the River Kenwater. The town is north of Hereford and south of Ludlow in Shropshire. With a population of 11,700, Leominster i ...
to
New Radnor;
Eardisley to
Presteigne
Presteigne (; cy, Llanandras: the church of St. Andrew) is a town and community in Radnorshire, Powys, Wales on the south bank of the River Lugg. Formerly the county town of the historic county of Radnorshire, the town has, in common with ...
; and
Leominster
Leominster ( ) is a market town in Herefordshire, England, at the confluence of the River Lugg and its tributary the River Kenwater. The town is north of Hereford and south of Ludlow in Shropshire. With a population of 11,700, Leominster i ...
to
Worcester via
Bromyard. Part of the Titley Spur is opened annually by enthusiasts and a steam train is run along the track.
There has long been talk of a new station at Rotherwas, in the south of
Hereford.
Air
There are no airports with Scheduled air transport in Herefordshire.
Birmingham Airport
Birmingham Airport , formerly ''Birmingham International Airport'', is an international airport located east-southeast of Birmingham city centre, west-northwest of Coventry slightly north of Bickenhill village, in the Metropolitan Borou ...
,
Cardiff Airport and
Bristol Airport are the nearest. The RailAir
RailAir coach operated by
First Berkshire & The Thames Valley
First Beeline Buses, trading as First Berkshire & The Thames Valley, is a bus operator providing services in and around Slough. It is a subsidiary of FirstGroup.
History
In January 1986 Alder Valley North Limited, later renamed, The Berks ...
provides connections to
Heathrow Airport via
Reading station or passengers can change at Reading station and then go all the way by train via
Hayes & Harlington to Heathrow Airport.
Shobdon Aerodrome
Shobdon Aerodrome is an airport west of Leominster, Herefordshire, England.
RAF Shobdon
Shobdon started as a British Army camp. It acted as a reception point for casualties received from Southampton being distributed to local hospitals. With ...
near Leominster is a centre for
general aviation
General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...
and
gliding.
Hot air balloon
A hot air balloon is a lighter-than-air aircraft consisting of a bag, called an envelope, which contains heated air. Suspended beneath is a gondola or wicker basket (in some long-distance or high-altitude balloons, a capsule), which carries ...
ing is also popular with
Eastnor Castle
Eastnor Castle, Eastnor, Herefordshire, is a 19th-century mock castle. Eastnor was built for John Cocks, 1st Earl Somers, who employed Robert Smirke, later the main architect of the British Museum. The castle was built between 1811 and 1820. ...
being one of the favourite launch sites in the area.
Waterways
Historically, the rivers
Wye,
Teme and
Lugg were
navigable
A body of water, such as a river, canal or lake, is navigable if it is deep, wide and calm enough for a water vessel (e.g. boats) to pass safely. Such a navigable water is called a ''waterway'', and is preferably with few obstructions against di ...
but the wide seasonal variations in water levels mean that few craft larger than
canoes
A canoe is a lightweight narrow water vessel, typically pointed at both ends and open on top, propelled by one or more seated or kneeling paddlers facing the direction of travel and using a single-bladed paddle.
In British English, the ter ...
and
coracles are now used. There are canoe centres a
The Boat House Glasbury-on-Wye (in
Powys
Powys (; ) is a county and preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh successor state, petty kingdom and principality that emerged during the Middle Ages following the end of Roman rule in Britain.
Geog ...
, Wales)
the Hereford Youth Servicean
Kerne Bridgein
Ross-on-Wye
Ross-on-Wye ( Welsh: ''Rhosan ar Wy'') is a market town in England, near the border with Wales. It had a population of 10,582 according to the 2011 census, estimated at 11,309 in 2019. It lies in south-eastern Herefordshire, on the River Wye ...
, as well as
rowing
Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically ...
clubs in Hereford and Ross-on-Wye.
The early 19th century saw the construction of two
canals
Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow un ...
, The
Herefordshire & Gloucestershire Canal and The Leominster & Stourport Canal
but these were never successful and there are now few remains to be seen. The Herefordshire & Gloucestershire Canal is currently the subject a restoration project, which includes the construction of a new canal basin in
Hereford city centre as part of the regeneration of the
Edgar Street Grid. The project, however, is being undertaken by a small voluntary group and there is no expected date for any part of the canal to re-open for boating.
Notable people
*
Jarrod Bowen
Jarrod Bowen (born 20 December 1996) is an English professional footballer who plays as a winger or forward for club West Ham United and the England national team. He has previously played for Hereford United and Hull City.
Early life
Bowe ...
, footballer
*
Simon Carr, cyclist
*
Frank Oz
Frank Oz (born Frank Richard Oznowicz; May 25, 1944) is an American actor, puppeteer, and filmmaker.
He began his career as a puppeteer, performing the Muppet characters of Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, and Sam Eagle in ''The Muppet Show ...
, Actor and voice actor, producer, director
*
Matthew Hall, writer
*
Dennis Potter
Dennis Christopher George Potter (17 May 1935 – 7 June 1994) was an English television dramatist, screenwriter and journalist. He is best known for his BBC television serials '' Pennies from Heaven'' (1978), ''The Singing Detective'' (198 ...
, writer
*
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, poet
*
Richard Hammond, ''
Top Gear
Top Gear may refer to:
* "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission
Television
* ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme
* ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the or ...
'' and ''
The Grand Tour
''The Grand Tour'' is a British motoring television series, created by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, James May and Andy Wilman, made for Amazon exclusively for its online streaming service Amazon Prime Video, and premiered on 18 November ...
'' presenter
*
Mary Duggan, cricketer
*
Noele Gordon, actress
*
Mike Oldfield
Mike may refer to:
Animals
* Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum
* Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off
* Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and document ...
, musician
*
Mick Ralphs,
Mott the Hoople
Mott the Hoople were an English rock band formed in Herefordshire. Originally known as the Doc Thomas Group, the group changed their name after signing with Island Records in 1969. The band released albums throughout the early 1970s but fai ...
and
Bad Company
Bad Company are an English rock supergroup that was formed in 1973 by singer Paul Rodgers, guitarist Mick Ralphs, drummer Simon Kirke and bassist Boz Burrell. Bad Company ''AllMusic'' Peter Grant, who managed the rock band Led Zeppelin, a ...
guitarist
*
Richard Ashcroft
Richard Paul Ashcroft (born 11 September 1971) is an English singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer and occasional rhythm guitarist of the alternative rock band The Verve from their formation in 1990 until their original split in 1999. So ...
, songwriter and lead singer of
The Verve
The Verve were an English rock band formed in Wigan in 1990 by lead vocalist Richard Ashcroft, guitarist Nick McCabe, bass guitarist Simon Jones and drummer Peter Salisbury. Guitarist and keyboard player Simon Tong later became a member in ...
*
Thomas Britten, 19th-century footballer
[The English players in 1870s Scottish football](_blank)
Andy Mitchell, Scottish Sport History, 12 April 2021
*
Monty Don
Montagu Denis Wyatt Don (born George Montagu Don; 8 July 1955) is a British horticulturist, broadcaster, and writer who is best known as the lead presenter of the BBC gardening television series '' Gardeners' World''.
Born in Germany and rais ...
, BBC TV presenter
*
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, KG, PC (; 10 November 1565 – 25 February 1601) was an English nobleman and a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I. Politically ambitious, and a committed general, he was placed under house arrest following ...
, favourite of
Queen Elizabeth I
*
Conroy Maddox, artist
*
Beryl Reid
Beryl Elizabeth Reid, (17 June 1919 – 13 October 1996), was a British actress of stage and screen. She won the 1967 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for ''The Killing of Sister George'', the 1980 Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performan ...
, actress
*
Jessica Raine
Jessica Raine (born Jessica Helen Lloyd; 20 May 1982) is an English actress. She is best known for her roles as Jenny Lee in the television series ''Call the Midwife'' (2012–2014) and Verity Lambert in the television film '' An Adventure in ...
, actress
*
Sir Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...
, composer
*
Sir Roy Strong, art historian
*
David Garrick, renowned actor of the 18th century
*
Lady Godiva
Lady Godiva (; died between 1066 and 1086), in Old English , was a late Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who is relatively well documented as the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and a patron of various churches and monasteries. Today, she is mainly re ...
, wife of Leofric,
Earl of Mercia
Earl of Mercia was a title in the late Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Danish, and early Anglo-Norman period in England. During this period the earldom covered the lands of the old Kingdom of Mercia in the English Midlands.
First governed by ealdormen under t ...
*
Harold Godwinson
Harold Godwinson ( – 14 October 1066), also called Harold II, was the last crowned Anglo-Saxon English king. Harold reigned from 6 January 1066 until his death at the Battle of Hastings, fighting the Norman invaders led by William the ...
, Earl of Hereford and last Anglo-Saxon King of England
*
Ellie Goulding, musician
*
Nell Gwynne,
mistress of
King Charles II of England
Charles II (29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685) was King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651, and King of England, Scotland and Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685.
Charles II was the eldest surviving child of ...
*
Terry Jenkins, professional
darts
Darts or dart-throwing is a competitive sport in which two or more players bare-handedly throw small sharp-pointed missiles known as darts at a round target known as a dartboard.
Points can be scored by hitting specific marked areas of the bo ...
player
* St.
John Kemble (martyr) Catholic priest
*
Francis Kilvert
Robert Francis Kilvert (3 December 184023 September 1879), known as Francis or Frank, was an English clergyman whose diaries reflected rural life in the 1870s, and were published over fifty years after his death.
Life
Kilvert was born on 3 ...
, 19th century diarist and
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...
clergyman
*
Mark Labbett
Mark Andrew Labbett (born 15 August 1965), also known by his professional nickname The Beast, is an English quizzer and television personality. Since 2009 he has been one of the "chasers" on the ITV game show '' The Chase'' as "The Beast" and ...
, one of five Chasers on ''
The Chase'' as well as its
Australian counterpart
*
Albert Lee, guitarist
*
Peter Mandelson
Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson (born 21 October 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who served as First Secretary of State from 2009 to 2010. He was President of the Board of Trade in 1998 and from 2008 to 2010. He is the ...
, politician and former resident of
Foy
*
John Masefield
John Edward Masefield (; 1 June 1878 – 12 May 1967) was an English poet and writer, and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate from 1930 until 1967. Among his best known works are the children's novels ''The Midnight Folk'' and ...
, poet laureate
*
Sidney Nolan, Australian artist
*
John Oldcastle,
Lollard leader and basis for
Shakespeare's character
Falstaff
*
Blanche Parry,
lady-in-waiting to
Queen Elizabeth I
*
Peter Scudamore
Peter Scudamore MBE (born 29 June 1958), often known as 'Scu', is a former jockey and trainer in National Hunt racing. He was an eight-time Champion Jockey (including one title shared with John Francome), riding 1,678 winning horses in his c ...
, jockey
*
James Honeyman-Scott
James Honeyman-Scott (4 November 1956 – 16 June 1982) was an English rock guitarist, songwriter and founding member of the band The Pretenders.
With the band, Honeyman-Scott established a reputation, in the words of AllMusic, as "one of th ...
, guitarist
The Pretenders
*
Pete Farndon, bass guitarist
The Pretenders
*
Martin Chambers
Martin Dale Chambers (born 4 September 1951 in Hereford) is an English musician, who is best known as a founding member and drummer of the rock band the Pretenders. In addition to playing the drums with the group, Chambers sings backing vocals ...
, drummer
The Pretenders
*
Tom Spring,
bare-knuckle boxer
Bare-knuckle boxing (or simply bare-knuckle) is a combat sport which involves two individuals throwing punches at each other for a predetermined amount of time without any boxing gloves or other form of padding on their hands. It is a regulated ...
, champion of England in the 19th century
*
Thomas Traherne
Thomas Traherne (; 1636 or 1637) was an English poet, Anglican cleric, theologian, and religious writer. The intense, scholarly spirituality in his writings has led to his being commemorated by some parts of the Anglican Communion on 10 October ...
, 17th century poet
*
Alfred Watkins
Alfred Watkins (27 January 1855 – 15 April 1935) was an English author, self-taught amateur archaeologist, antiquarian and businessman who, while standing on a hillside in Herefordshire, England, in 1921 experienced a revelation. He noticed ...
, pioneering archaeologist and photographer
*
Richard Johnson Richard or Dick Johnson may refer to:
Academics
* Dick Johnson (academic) (1929–2019), Australian academic
* Richard C. Johnson (1930–2003), professor of electrical engineering
* Richard A. Johnson, artist and professor at the University of ...
, jockey
*
Sir Walter Roper Lawrence, author
*
Allan Leonard Lewis
Allan Leonard Lewis Victoria Cross, VC (28 February 1895 – 21 September 1918) was an England, English recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to Unit ...
Posthumously awarded the
Victoria Cross, Died 21 September 1918, commemorated on Vis-En-Artois Memorial, France
*
Richard Hakluyt Elizabethan writer and geographer who recorded contemporary voyages of exploration and promoted the settlement of North America
*
Ronald Pennell, artist, engraver and sculptor
See also
*
Custos Rotulorum of Herefordshire – Keeper of the Rolls
*
Herefordshire (UK Parliament constituency)
The county constituency of Herefordshire, in the West Midlands of England bordering on Wales, was abolished when the county was divided for parliamentary purposes in 1885. It was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of Englan ...
– Historical list of MPs for Herefordshire constituency
*
List of High Sheriffs of Herefordshire
*
List of schools in Herefordshire
*
List of Lord Lieutenants of Herefordshire
References
External links
*
*
*
Herefordshire CouncilVisit HerefordshireFull Guide To HerefordshireThings To Do In HerefordshireWhere To Eat In HerefordshireEvents & What's On In Herefordshire
{{Authority control
*
Ceremonial counties of England
Local government districts of the West Midlands (region)
NUTS 3 statistical regions of the United Kingdom
Unitary authority districts of England
West Midlands (region)
Counties of England established in antiquity
Counties of England disestablished in 1974
Counties of England established in 1998