Herefordshire


 * For the similarly named county in the, see .

Herefordshire (pronounced ) is a and   in the   of. It also forms a known as the County of Herefordshire. It borders the English ceremonial counties of to the north,  to the east,  to the south east and the   of  to the south west and  to the west. is a  and is the ; with a population of approximately 50,000 inhabitants it is also the largest settlement. The county is one of the most rural and least densely populated in England, being a largely agricultural area which is primarily known for its fruit and production.

History
Herefordshire is one of the 39.

In it was merged with neighbouring  to form the relatively short-lived. Within this, Herefordshire was covered by the of, , and part of  and  districts.

On  it was split out again, in the form of a, with broadly the same borders as before. It is the second largest unitary area in England, after the.

Cities, towns and villages
The major settlements in the county include, which is the and Herefordshire's only , as well as the towns of , , ,  and.

See also and .

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

Well known companies in Herefordshire are cider in central Hereford, with its UK market leader,. is based in.

Education
Herefordshire has a comprehensive education system with seven independent schools. Outside of these is the county's finest private school, Hereford Cathedral School. Most state schools are from 11-16. Sixth form provision is limited. Around 2000 pupils take GCSEs in Herefordshire each year at age 16. The England average for attaining five good GCSEs including English and Maths is 45.8%; for Herefordshire it is 48.2% - a good result, but typical of rural counties. vastly out performs all Herefordshire schools with an average of 99%. There are few bad schools in the county, with the best being the, followed by the (both in Hereford) and the  in. The worst (by a small amount) is the Wyebridge Sports College in south Hereford near though last years year 11 pupils got a pass rate at gcse at just under 50% beating many of the other schools in hereford, also to note problems such as bullying and drug issues are rarely heard of unlike in schools such as aylestone. A-level performance is disappointing with the exception of the excellent results from the. s have a habit of doing very well, and in this case, it has saved Herefordshire's educational future. The majority of Herefordshire students do not go to this college.

Agriculture
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. This allowed the strawberries to be grown for a far longer season and at a higher quality (no blemishes from the rain). The strawberries are mainly 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 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 technically illegal, Herefordshire council has chosen to ignore legal ruling in the belief 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,, 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, fuelled by a few other key factors: The previously pastoral soils had not had potatoes grown in them; consequently they were not infected with (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. 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/acre (as opposed to normally £80/acre) were very helpful to many farmers in a difficult period.

Coat of arms
Herefordshire County Council was granted a on,. The arms became obsolete in 1974 on the abolition of the council, but were transferred to the present Herefordshire Council by in 1997.

The arms are as follows:

Gules on a fesse wavy between in chief a lion passant guardant argent 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 of the shileld is taken form 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 nad apples. The comes from the heraldry of the Talbot family, Marcher Lords of Shrewsbury and and also from that of Viscount Hereford.

The  is: Pulchra terra Dei donum or This fair land is the gift of God.

County flower
As part of a competition organised by the charity to raise awareness of conservation issues, the public were asked to vote for "s" that they felt best represented their county. 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.

Places of interest

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Road
The, one of the first to be built in the , runs through the south of the county and, with the  , forms part of the major route linking  and the.

The nature of the  in  means that the main ground transport links between  and South Wales run through Herefordshire. The other in Herefordshire, the  and the, 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. In 2006, supermarkets opened a controversial supermarket scheme connecting to this small roundabout on a flood plain. This project has large flood defences and the roundabout has been replaced by traffic lights and the road level raised as part of the project.

Rail
The also runs north–south with passenger trains operated by  offering links to  and  as well as to North and South Wales. Hereford is the western end of the which runs via  with through services to  and  (operated by ) and to  and  (operated by ).

Former routes which are now closed were Ledbury to ; Hereford to Ross-on-Wye and onward to Gloucester and ; Hereford to ; to Hay-on-Wye; Leominster to ;  to ; and Leominster to Worcester via Bromyard.

Air
There are no with  air services in Herefordshire though,  and  International Airports are all within reach and the RailAir  operated by First Great Western provides connections from  via. near Leominster is a centre for and. ing is also popular with being one of the favourite launch sites in the area.

Waterways
Historically, the Rivers and  were  but the wide seasonal variations in water levels mean that few craft larger than  and  are now used. There are canoe centres at The Boat House,, the Hereford Youth Service and Kerne Bridge , as well as a rowing club in Hereford.

The early saw the construction of two, The Hereford & Gloucester Canal and The Leominster & Stourport Canal but these were never successful and there are now few remains to be seen.