The county is rural, with an area of 2,180 square kilometres (840 sq mi) and an estimated population of 191,047 in 2024. Hereford is located near the centre of the county, and other settlements includeLeominster in the north,Ledbury in the east, andRoss-on-Wye in the south. Forlocal government purposes Herefordshire is aunitary authority area.
The centre of Herefordshire is lowland which is crossed by theRiver Wye and its tributary, theLugg. To the east are theMalvern Hills, anational landscape, which straddle the boundary with Worcestershire. The south of the county contains the northern part of theWye Valley, also a national landscape, which stretches intoWales. In the west, the ground rises to theBlack Mountains range; this contains theBlack Mountain (Twyn Llech), which lies on the Powys border and is the highest point in the county, at 703.6 metres (2,308 ft).
The county is in the historicWelsh Marches. The land use is mostly agricultural, and the county is known for its fruit andcider production, and for theHereford cattle breed.
TheRiver Wye, which at 135 miles (217 km) is the fourth-longest in the United Kingdom,[6] enters the county after briefly being its border withPowys. It flows through bothHereford andRoss-on-Wye before returning to Wales.Leominster is on theRiver Lugg, a tributary of the Wye.
In 1974, the administrative county formed in 1889 was merged with that of neighbouringWorcestershire to form Hereford and Worcester. Within this, Herefordshire was covered by thelocal government districts ofSouth Herefordshire,Hereford, and part ofMalvern Hills andLeominster districts. However, the county was dissolved in 1998, resulting in the return of Herefordshire and Worcestershire as counties.[9]
The county andunitary authority created in 1998 has almost identical borders to the pre-1974 county; a small area at Park Wood had been transferred fromMathon toWest Malvern in 1986 and so went to Worcestershire rather than Herefordshire in 1998, but otherwise the re-established border between the two counties was identical to the pre-1974 boundary.[10]
Herefordshire was reconstituted both as a newdistrict as "County of Herefordshire"[11] and as a newcounty (coextensive with the area of the aforementioned district) (effective 1 April 1998) byStatutory Instrument as defined inThe Hereford and Worcester (Structural, Boundary and Electoral Changes) Order 1996.[12] This Order established Herefordshire as aunitary authority on 1 April 1998, combining county and district functions into a single council. Herefordshire is also commonly called aunitary district, but this is not official nomenclature. Herefordshire is officially known as a unitary authority for local government purposes.[13] 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 ofLeominster District Council, and part ofMalvern Hills District Council, all within the previous non-metropolitan county of Hereford and Worcester, whose functions the new authority inherited within its area.[14] 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.
TheLieutenancies Act 1997 made Herefordshire aceremonial county, covering the exact area of the unitary district. ForEurostat purposes it is aNUTS 3 region (code UKG11) and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region.[15]
In Herefordshire, the population size has increased by 2.0%, from around 183,500 in 2011 to 187,100 in 2021. This is lower than the overall increase for England (6.6%), where the population grew by nearly 3.5 million to 56,489,800.[16]
As of the 2021 census, 91.1% of the population identified as 'White British', and 5.1% as 'White Other'. The 'White Other' group is largely made up of migrants from central and Eastern Europe who began moving into the county in the early 2000's, initially for agricultural work, but more recently to work in other sectors such as health care, catering and hospitality.[17] Poland and Romania are the two most common non-UK countries of birth for foreign born people in Herefordshire.[18]
As of the 2021 census, they number 600 people, at around 0.2% of the county's population.[19]
Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers fall within the definition of a minority ethnic group under theRace Relations Amendment Act (2000). There were approximately 400 people (0.2%) within this minority group in the county at the 2011 Census.[20]
Cadbury (Mondelēz International) make milk chocolate crumb nearMarlbrook (nearLeominster).Weston's Cider is inMuch Marcle, who also make Stowford Press. Wye Fruit Ltd is in the north of Ledbury on the B4214 and is a large site ofAmcor, and further west is Universal Beverages (UBL), owned by Heineken since 2007 where it cans cider. The site of Ledbury Preserves of RHM madeRobertson's jam, mincemeat and marmalade and closed in 2008 when production moved to Cambridgeshire. Holden Aluminium Technologies are a sports car chassis manufacturer atLinton.Kingspan Insulation is based atPembridge. BT'sMadley Communications Centre, claims to be the world's largestearth station.Tyrrells Potato Crisps are atDilwyn west of Leominster.
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.[21]
^ 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 ofMuch Marcle, andBulmer's cider, from Hereford, which produces the UK market leaderStrongbow.
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.
The council operates acabinet-style council and has been independently controlled since 2019. The chairman is Sebastian Bowen and the leader of the council is 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 eight other councillors to form the executive cabinet. Each cabinet member makes the decisions about the portfolio that they are allocated.[22] Elections to the council are held every four years. Elections are conducted under theFPTP system with the 53 wards returning one councillor each. Elections have been held in2000, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019, 2023, with the next election to be held in 2027.
In the 2019 election, the Conservatives lost control of Herefordshire Council. This remained true for the 2023 local elections in Herefordshire.
The agricultural economy has changed greatly in recent years[when?] within the county. The county is on the western edge of England which has been historically pastoral as opposed to the east which was morearable.[citation needed]
Probably Hereford's most famous export is itsHereford 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 forHereford United Football Club for many years, led around the club'sEdgar Street ground before major matches.
An illustration from theHerefordshire Pomona, a record of the apple and pear varieties grown in the county in the nineteenth century.[24][25]
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, softfruits such asstrawberries 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 thepolytunnel 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 byEastern European workers who come over for the season and often earn more money 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".[26]
Although some polytunnel sites are illegal,Herefordshire Council has turned a blind eye in the belief that agriculture must be allowed to innovate; otherwise it will stagnate and the county will suffer.[27]
Previously, most farms in the county haddairy cattle. Due to the cost of investing in new equipment, long hours,[clarification needed]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.[citation needed]
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 witheelworm (Heterodera rostochiensis andHeterodera 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.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
Herefordshire County Council was granted acoat of arms on 28 February 1946.[28] The arms became obsolete in 1974 on the abolition of the council, but were transferred to the present Herefordshire Council byOrder in Council in 1997.[29]
Gules on afesse wavy between in chief a lion passant guardantargent and in base a Herefordshire bull's head caboshed proper, a bar wavyazure; and for aCrest 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.[28]
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. Thetalbot dog comes from the heraldry of the Talbot family, Marcher Lords of Shrewsbury and also from that of Viscount Hereford.
TheLatinmotto is:Pulchra terra Dei donum ("This fair land is the gift of God").[30]
As part of a competition organised by the charityPlantlife to raise awareness of conservation issues, the public were asked to vote for "county flowers" that they felt best represented their county.Mistletoe was announced as the winning choice for Herefordshire in 2004.[31] The emblem has no official status and has not been widely adopted. Herefordshire Council uses a logo consisting of a green apple.[32]
Perhaps the most famous sporting team in Herefordshire isHereford United football club, founded in 1924, who were members of theFootball League and played atEdgar Street stadium in the city of Hereford.[34] The club then made its way upwards to theSouthern Football League, finally gaining election to theFootball League in 1972 and defeatingNewcastle United in anFA Cup tie. Two successive promotions saw the club reach theSecond Division in 1978, but two successive relegations followed and saw the club side back into theFourth Division.[35] The club was relegated in 1997 to theFootball Conference,[36] not regaining its Football League status until 2006. The club then played inFootball League Two – 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.[37] The club was wound up in 2014. A newphoenix club,Hereford F.C. was set up competing in theMidland Football League Premier Division (9th tier) for its first season, 2015–16.[38]
TheM50, one of the firstmotorways to be built in the United Kingdom, runs through the south of the county and, with theA40dual carriageway, forms part of the major route linkingSouth Wales with theWest Midlands and the north of England. TheA49 runs north–south through the county and is a strategic route betweenNorth andSouth Wales as well as catering for local traffic.[39]
The early 19th century saw the construction of twocanals, TheHerefordshire & Gloucestershire Canal[43] and The Leominster & Stourport Canal[44] 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 inHereford city centre as part of the regeneration of theEdgar 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.
Classical composer SirEdward Elgar lived in Hereford from 1904 to 1911. His association with the city is commemorated with this statue.Roman Catholic martyr St.John Kemble's grave in the Herefordshire village ofWelsh Newton.
^"What is the cabinet and who are the cabinet members?". Herefordshire Council. Archived fromthe original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved28 February 2016.cabinet consists of six members, including the leader of the council and the deputy leader, each responsible for a programme area
^"The Herefordshire Pomona".Apples to Cider - Online exhibitions across Cornell University Library. 15 June 2018. Retrieved23 July 2023.
^Bull, Henry Graves; Hogg, Robert, eds. (1876–1885).The Herefordshire Pomona. Vol. II. illustrated by Alice B. Ellis and Edith G. Bull. Hereford, London: Jakeman and Carver; Journal of Horticulture Office.OCLC220640042.
^"CPC — Press". Polytunnelcontrol.org.uk. Retrieved25 September 2010.
^"THE QUEEN ON THE APPLICATION OF WYE VALLEY ACTION ASSOCIATION LIMITED v HEREFORDSHIRE COUNCIL and EC DRUMMOND & SON".[2009] EWHC 3428 (Admin), [2010] Env LR 18, [2010] 2 All ER 863.BAILII#BAILII. 18 December 2009. Retrieved24 August 2010.the Council, in my judgment, have made an error of law in relation to their findings that this development was not a project within Schedule 2 and such an error of law, as I set out above, means that quashing of the decision must follow, because the Council have failed to undertake an environmental impact assessment of the process. They failed to go on to consider whether or not the project would have significant environmental effects and, therefore, whether or not it required an environmental statement. In those circumstances, there is no need or purpose for me to consider the subsidiary ground which was raised in relation to the reasons provided with the screening opinion since my conclusions in respect of the first element of the ground of challenge disposes of the case and the planning consent must be quashed.
^abGeoffrey Briggs,Civic and Corporate Heraldry, London, 1971
^"Hereford United – Potted History 1970–1990".Hereford United F.C. 29 December 2009. Archived fromthe original on 29 February 2012. Retrieved25 March 2016.With the club in a state of decline, a second successive relegation followed and in 1978, United found themselves back where they had started, in the old Fourth Division.
^"Hereford United – Potted History 1990–2000".Hereford United F.C. 28 December 2009. Archived fromthe original on 14 March 2012. Retrieved25 March 2016.Despite United's brave efforts, the match finished all square at 1–1, breaking Hereford hearts and condemning them to relegation from the Football League after a twenty-five year reign.
^"National Transport Plan"(PDF).Welsh Assembly Government. 2009. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 15 April 2016. Retrieved25 March 2016.Rail caters for longer distance travel with the services using the Marches Line, which in part runs through England, taking the majority of passengers.
^"Welcome to". Railair.com. Retrieved25 September 2010.
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