Hereford was one of the first towns founded in England after the end of Roman rule. Early Hereford was a frontier town on the border between kingdoms inhabited by the ancestors of the Welsh and of the English — before there were such countries as "Wales" and "England".
The English never totally conquered what is now modern Herefordshire, as the many Welsh place-names in the county attest. Parts of Herefordshire were never in "Anglo-Saxon" England.
Explore the chapters below to discover the full story, from the ancient rocks beneath the county to the coming of the railways.
Looking for the story of this website? Read Our Story — Hereford.uk.com since 1997
Pre-History
Geology, the Ice Ages, the earliest humans, and the first farmers of Herefordshire.
Iron Age & Romans
Hill-forts, Celtic tribes, the Roman conquest, and the transformation of the landscape.
Early Kingdoms
The kingdoms of Ergyng and the Western Hecani, St Dyfrig, and King Merewalh.
Origins of Hereford
The founding of the city, King Offa's Dyke, the murder of St Ethelbert, and Hereford's planned town.
Saxons & Vikings
The Danish threat, Aethelflaed the Lady of the Mercians, and the rise of the English kingdom.
Late Saxon & Norman Conquest
Edward the Confessor, the Welsh sacking of Hereford, and William fitz Osbern's new town.
Medieval Hereford
The Anarchy, Hereford's university, Llewellyn the Great, and Simon de Montfort.
Tudors & Stuarts
Owain Glyn Dŵr, Owen Tudor's execution, the Reformation, and the Civil War siege.
The Modern Era
Cider country, river barges, stagecoaches, the canal, and the coming of the railways.
Also on Hereford.uk.com
History of the Hereford Bypass — 50 years of proposals, cancellations, political reversals, and repeating promises. A factual account of the road that never arrives.
Historical content provided by Archenfield Archaeology