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Herefordshire

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{| class="wikitable" border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" align="right" width="300" style=margin-left:10px |- !colspan="2" align="center" style="background-color: #ff9999"|County of Herefordshire |- |colspan="2" align="center"|Image:EnglandHerefordshire.png 150px|Herefordshire |- !colspan="2" style="background: #ff9999;"|Geography |- |width="45%"|Status |Unitary authority Unitary
Titular county
Ceremonial counties of England Ceremonial county |- |width="45%"|Origin |Traditional counties of England Historic |- |Region |West Midlands (region) West Midlands |- |style="font-weight: normal;" | Surface area Area:
- Total
- District
|List of Ceremonial counties of England by Area Ranked 26th
1 E9 m² 2,180 square kilometre km²
List of English districts by area Ranked 3rd |- |Admin HQ |Hereford |- |ISO 3166-2:GB ISO 3166-2 |GB-HEF |- |ONS coding system ONS code |00GA |- |Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics NUTS 3 |UKG11 |- !colspan="2" style="background: #ff9999"|Demographics |- |Population
- Total (2004 est.)
- Density
- District |List of ceremonial counties of England by population Ranked 45th
177,800
82 / km²
List of English districts by population Ranked 83rd |- |Ethnicity |99.1% White |- !colspan="2" style="background: #ff9999"|Politics |- |colspan="2" align=center|Herefordshire Council
http://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/ |- |Executive |Conservative Party (UK) Conservative & Independents |- |MPs elected in the UK general election, 2005 MPs | *Paul Keetch *Bill Wiggin |} '''Herefordshire''' is a Traditional counties of England traditional and Ceremonial counties of England ceremonial county and Subdivisions of England#Unitary Authorities unitary district in the West Midlands (region) West Midlands region of England in the United Kingdom. It borders the county counties of Shropshire in the north, Worcestershire in the east, Gloucestershire in the south east and the Preserved counties of Wales Welsh preserved counties of Gwent in the south west and Powys in the west. 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 Non-metropolitan district districts of South Herefordshire, Hereford, and part of Malvern Hills (district) Malvern Hills and Leominster (district) 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. 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 Viscum album Mistletoe.

History
''See main article History of Herefordshire.''

Cities, Towns and villages
''See main article list of places in Herefordshire.'' The major settlements in the county include the Hereford City of Hereford, which is the county town, as well as Leominster, Ledbury, Ross On Wye, Kington, Herefordshire Kington and Bromyard.

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 poly tunnel. 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. The poly tunnels have been a major issue in the county as some people see them as a 'blot on the landscape'. If agriculture is however 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 over came 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, subsequently they were not infected with nematode 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 had, so 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.

Places of interest
*Berrington Hall *Dore Abbey *Hereford Cathedral *Malvern Hills AONB Malvern Hills

Transport

Road
The M50 motorway (United Kingdom) M50, one of the first motorways to be built in the United Kingdom UK, runs through the south of the county and, with the A40 road A40 dual carriageway, forms part of the major route linking South Wales and the West Midlands (county) West Midlands. The Mountain 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 road A49 and the A465 road 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 improved and level raised as part of the project.

Rail
The Welsh Marches Line Welsh Marches Railway Line also runs north - south with passenger trains operated by Arriva Trains Wales offering links to North West England 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 First Great Western Link 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 Presteigne Presteign; and Leominster to Worcester via Bromyard.

Air
There are no airports with Scheduled air transport scheduled air services in Herefordshire though Birmingham International Airport (UK) Birmingham, Cardiff International Airport Cardiff and Bristol International Airport Bristol International Airports are all within reach and the [http://www.railair.com RailAir] Coach#Motor coach coach operated by First Great Western provides connections from London Heathrow Airport Heathrow via Reading railway station Reading station. Shobdon Aerodrome near Leominster is a centre for general aviation and gliding. Hot air balloon Hot air ballooning is also popular with Eastnor Castle being one of the favourite launch sites in the area.

Waterways
Historically, the Rivers River Wye Wye and River Lugg 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 [http://www.wyevalleycanoes.co.uk The Boat House], Glasbury-on-Wye, [http://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/youthservice/22702.asp the Hereford Youth Service] and [http://www.wye-pursuits.co.uk Kerne Bridge] Ross-on-Wye. The early nineteenth century saw the construction of two canals, The [http://www.smr.herefordshire.gov.uk/post-medieval/canals/hereford_gloucester.htm Hereford & Gloucester Canal] and The [http://www.smr.herefordshire.gov.uk/post-medieval/canals/leominster_stourport.htm Leominster & Stourport Canal] but these were never successful and there are now few remains to be seen.

External links

- The Hereford Times Local news, sport & information
- Herefordshire Portal Local events, jobs, photos and news {{England ceremonial counties}} {{England traditional counties}} {{West_Midlands}} Category:Herefordshire de:Herefordshire es:Herefordshire eo:Herefordshire fr:Herefordshire nl:Herefordshire no:Herefordshire ru:Херефордшир sk:Herefordshire Category:Counties of England Category:Counties of the Welsh Marches Category:Unitary authorities in England

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