County Dossier
Herefordshire
A Marcher county where Welsh hills meet English fields.
Herefordshire is an inland county in the Midlands, celebrated for its orchards and traditional cider. The River Wye flows from Clifford through Hereford, where the imposing Norman cathedral dominates the cityscape, before winding onward to Ross-on-Wye and out of the county.
At a glance
Herefordshire at a glance
A Marcher county where Welsh hills meet English fields.
- Earliest documentary reference: Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
- Shire by 10th–11th C
- Formed from earlier territories: Magonsaete and west Mercian borderland
- Area: 837 sq miles
- Population: 183,631
- County Top: Black Mountain
County Geography
Herefordshire meets Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, Monmouthshire and Brecknockshire to the south and south-west, and Radnorshire to the west. The county is shaped by the Wye valley, the Lugg and Frome country, the Malvern Hills on the eastern side, and the Black Mountain edge in the south-west.
Herefordshire is easy to recognise through its river valley, orchard lowland, and hill-edged border country.
Map Reference
View Herefordshire on the map
Herefordshire is the county. The map also shows lieutenancies and council areas that use the county name.
The county.
The lieutenancy.
Council areas.
Places and routes
Hereford, Leominster, Ross-on-Wye, Ledbury, and Kington show the county from cathedral city and northern market centre to southern Wye town, eastern hill-edge town, and western borderland gateway.
Connections
The county’s routes have long followed the Wye, crossed eastward toward the Malvern side, and run north-south through the borderland market towns. Movement follows the same river, hill, and marcher pattern.
Names
- Herefordshire
- County of Hereford
County of Hereford is the formal historical style. Herefordshire is the settled county name, while Herefords is only the shortened documentary form built from that older county centre at Hereford.
By the 10th and 11th centuries Herefordshire stood as a frontier shire facing the Welsh marches. Its cathedral city, castles, and marcher lordships grew within one settled county frame, and the Wye-side landscape still makes that frame clear.