Herefordshire is one of the historic counties of England, dating back to Anglo-Saxon times. More than a millennium later, it remains predominantly an agricultural region, with only one larger settlement, the cathedral city of Hereford. Only the wilds of Northumberland and Cumbria have a lower population density.

Herefordshire’s rural atmosphere may not have changed a great deal, but its borders have – in early centuries its borders with Wales led to frequent changes, and their proximity means many place names have a Welsh flavour. Welsh was even spoken in many areas of the county until the 19th century. For centuries the southern and western area of the county, known as Archenfield, had uncertain status between the two countries. The 10th century Danish invasion reached as far as this area.

In more modern times, between 1974 and 1998 the whole county was absorbed into ‘Hereford and Worcester’.

Herefordshire was governed by a sheriff as early as the reign of Edward the Confessor, the shire court meeting at Hereford where later the assizes and Quarter Sessions were also held. In 1606 an act was passed declaring Hereford free from the jurisdiction of the Council of Wales, but the county was not finally relieved from the interference of the Marcher Lords (appointed by the monarch to oversee the border) until the reign of William and Mary.

Herefordshire was first represented in parliament in 1295, although the boroughs made very irregular returns and from 1306 to 1627 only Hereford and Leominster were represented. During the Wars of the Roses the influence of the Mortimers led the county to support the Yorkist cause, and Edward, afterwards Edward IV, raised 23,000 men in this neighbour-hood. The Battle of Mortimer’s Cross was fought in 1461 near Wigmore. Before the outbreak of the civil war of the 17th century, complaints of illegal taxation were rife in Herefordshire, but a strong anti-Puritan feeling induced the county to favour the royalist cause.

Herefordshire has always been esteemed an exceptionally rich agricultural area, where manufacture has been unimportant, with the sole exception of the woollen and the cloth trade which flourished soon after the Norman conquest. Iron was worked in Wormelow hundred in Roman times, and the Domesday Survey mentions iron workers in Marcle. At the time of Henry VIII the county’s towns had become much impoverished, and Elizabeth I, in order to encourage local industries, insisted on her subjects wearing English-made caps from the factory of Hereford.

Hops were grown in the county soon after their introduction into England in 1524. In 1580 and again in 1637 the county was severely visited by the plague. In the 17th century it had a flourishing timber trade, and was also noted for its orchards and cider, and remains so today.

Data provided exclusively to this magazine by www.thegenealogist.co.uk, extracted from the site’s census collections, confirms the rural nature of the county. All of the top occupations in 1841 were traditional ones such as farmer, labourer, mason, carpenter, wheelwright, sawyer, butcher, blacksmith and miller – and 70 years later, the picture remained much the same. Unusually, the county’s population remained very stable despite rapid expansion elsewhere – the population in both 1841 and 1911 was just over 113,000, whereas the overall population for England and Wales more than doubled.

The most common surnames in the county strongly reflect its proximity to Wales. In both 1841 and 1911, the majority of the top 20 surnames are ones we typically associate with Wales.

In 1841, names in that list which were not in the national top 20 include Price, Powell, Watkins, Morgan, Preece, Griffiths, Morris, Hill, Phillips, Harris and Pritchard. In 1911, 9 of those remain in the top 20; the only one to drop out of the list is Hill, in favour of James.

Herefordshire has its own family history society (see bellow) and the county record office is to be found in Hereford – see www.herefordshire. gov.uk/archives. The Hereford Museum features artefacts from the county and see here for details of visiting this and other historic museums and attractions in the county.

See also the Herefordshire Through Time  website.