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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.
Hereford expanded under
the Norman and French
kings who ruled England
from 1066. French immigrants
brought over by the new
nobility formed part of
the local community, slowly
losing their separate
identity. With a massive
stone castle and a thriving
market place, the town
became one of the most
important in the country.
The city’s isolation contributed
largely to its economic
stagnation in the post-medieval
period and many attempts
were made to improve Hereford’s
communications with the
outside world. A horse
towing path on the banks
of the navigable River
Wye was opened in 1810
and a horse-drawn railway
opened to the canal wharf
at Abergavenny in 1829.
One of the last canals
to be built in Britain
reached Hereford in 1845.
In
December 1853 the City
of Hereford celebrated
the opening of its first
railway connection.
Regular railway services
to South Wales began
in January 1854 and
lines to Gloucester,
Worcester and Brecon
were opened in the following
ten years.
But
people have been living
in the area around Hereford
for a long time. Below
is the 'Rotherwas Ribbon'
an enigmatic monument
from 4000 years ago.
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