Herefordshire
Herefordshire is a
traditional and
ceremonial county and
unitary district in the
West Midlands region of
England in the
United Kingdom. It borders the
counties of
Shropshire in the north,
Worcestershire in the east,
Gloucestershire in the south east and the
Welsh preserved counties of
Gwent in the south west and
Powys in the west. It is pronounced (i.e. first syllable as in "herring", and -e- a separate syllable).
In
1974 it was merged with the neighbouring
Worcestershire to form the relatively short-lived
Hereford and Worcester. Within this, Herefordshire was covered by the
districts of
South Herefordshire,
Hereford, and part of
Malvern Hills and
Leominster districts.
On
April 1,
1998 it was split out again, in the form of a
unitary authority, with broadly the same borders as before. It is not to be confused with
Hertfordshire, a county near London.
Herefordshire is a very rural county best known for its fruit growing and cider production in particular. When
Celia Fiennes visited Herefordshire in
1696 she saw a countryside in which apple and pear trees were growing everywhere 'even in their corn fields and hedgerows'. Modern agriculture has put pressure on the ancient orchards in the county but many of them still survive today providing a habitat for the rare
noble chafer beetle.
Herefordshire's
county flower is the
Mistletoe.
See main article History of Herefordshire.See main article list of places in Herefordshire.The major settlements in the county include the
City of Hereford, which is the
county town, as well as
Leominster,
Ledbury,
Ross On Wye,
Kington and
Bromyard.
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of Herefordshire at current basic prices
published (pp.240-253) by
Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.
| Agriculture | Industry | Services |
|---|
| 1995 | 1,622 | 218 | 567 | 836 |
| 2000 | 1,885 | 155 | 643 | 1,087 |
| 2003 | 2,216 | 185 | 708 | 1,323 |
includes hunting and forestry
includes energy and construction
includes financial intermediation services indirectly measured
Components may not sum to totals due to rounding
Agriculture has changed massively in recent years within the county. The county is in the west of England which has been historically pastoral as opposed to the east which was more arable.
Fruit
The county is famous for its apple and pear orchards, and of course its Cider. There are many orchards around the county but not as many as there once was.
In the last few years soft fruits 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. This allowed the strawberries to be grown for a far longer season as well as producing strawberries of higher quality with no blemishes from the rain. The strawberries are (in the majority) picked by Eastern European 'students' who come over for the season to earn some money, more than they could working in their country of origin and with the bonus, for many of them, of learning or improving their English. The poly tunnels have been a major issue in the county as some people see them as a 'blot on the landscape'. Others believe however that if agriculture is to survive then it must be allowed to innovate, otherwise the industry will stagnate and the county will suffer.
Dairy
There was a time when the majority of farms in the county would have had dairy cattle for milk production. The cost of investing in new equipment, long hours, BSE, Foot & Mouth and mainly the falling milk prices have meant that the milk production has drastically reduced, with only a few farms still in dairy farming.
Potatoes
As mentioned above 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, fueled by a few other key factors: The previously pastoral soils had not had potatoes grown in them, consequently they were not infected with
eelworm (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 only viably be grown on a field 1 in every 5 years. This meant that potato growers always needed more land than they owned, and so they rented. This was at a time when the rest of the industry was struggling and in serious decline. Their rents of £300-500/acre (as opposed to normally £80/acre) were very helpful to many farmers in a difficult period.
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Berrington Hall*
Dore Abbey*
Hereford Cathedral*
Malvern HillsRoad
The
M50, one of the first
motorways to be built in the
UK, runs through the south of the county and, with the
A40 dual carriageway, forms part of the major route linking
South Wales and the
West Midlands.
The
hilly nature of the
terrain in
Mid Wales means that the main ground transport links between
North Wales and South Wales run through Herefordshire. The other
trunk roads in Herefordshire, the
A49 and the
A465, form part of these north–south routes as well as catering for local traffic. These are single-carriageway roads and mean that travelling through the county is often slow. In particularly Hereford is a major congestion point with all traffic having to pass over one dual-carriageway bridge in the centre of town. Subsequently traffic can jam and leave the city in gridlock in rush hour. In times of flood a roundabout on the south side of the bridge is impassable leaving the south of the city almost stranded. ASDA supermarkets is currently building a controversial supermarket scheme connecting to this small roundabout on a flood plain. This project will have large flood defences and the roundabout will be replaced by traffic lights and the road level raised as part of the project.
Rail
The
Welsh Marches Railway Line also runs north - south with passenger trains operated by
Arriva Trains Wales offering links to
North West and
South West England as well as to North and South Wales. Hereford is the western end of the
Cotswold Line which runs via
Worcester with through services to
Oxford and
London (operated by
First Great Western and
FGWL) and to
Birmingham and
Nottingham (operated by
Central Trains).
Former routes which are now closed were Ledbury to
Gloucester; Hereford to Ross-on-Wye and onward to Gloucester and
Monmouth; Hereford to
Hay-on-Wye;
Pontrilas to Hay-on-Wye; Leominster to
New Radnor;
Eardisley to
Presteign; and Leominster to Worcester via Bromyard.
Air
There are no
airports with
scheduled air services in Herefordshire though
Birmingham,
Cardiff and
Bristol International Airports are all within reach and the
RailAir coach operated by First Great Western provides connections from
Heathrow via
Reading station.
Shobdon Aerodrome near Leominster is a centre for
general aviation and
gliding.
Hot air ballooning is also popular with
Eastnor Castle being one of the favourite launch sites in the area.
Waterways
Historically, the Rivers
Wye and
Lugg were
navigable but the wide seasonal variations in water levels mean that few craft larger than
canoes and
coracles are now used. There are canoe centres at
The Boat House,
Glasbury-on-Wye,
the Hereford Youth Service and
Kerne Bridge Ross-on-Wye, as well as a rowing club in Hereford.
The early
nineteenth century saw the construction of two
canals, The
Hereford & Gloucester Canal and The
Leominster & Stourport Canal but these were never successful and there are now few remains to be seen.
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The Hereford Times Local news, sport & information
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Herefordshire Portal Local events, jobs, photos and news
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Herefordshire Libraries 10 Libraries across herefordshire
