Dorstone | |
---|---|
The village green, Dorstone | |
Location within Herefordshire | |
Population | 401 (2011) [1] |
OS grid reference | SO313418 |
Unitary authority | |
Ceremonial county | |
Region | |
Country | England |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | HEREFORD |
Postcode district | HR3 |
Dialling code | 01981 |
Police | West Mercia |
Fire | Hereford and Worcester |
Ambulance | West Midlands |
UK Parliament | |
Dorstone is a village within the Golden Valley, Herefordshire, England. There is a church [2] and public house [3] with restaurant. The Golden Valley area offers hillwalking and horseback riding countryside and is noted for its scenery. It is within the catchment area of Fairfield secondary school.
Dorstone was once the location of Dorstone Castle. [4] A mile to the south the fragmentary remains of Snodhill Castle can still be seen. [5] [6] From 2014 to 2018, the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England (Historic England) put £150,000 into scientific and historical study of the Snodhill Castle site, plus an additional £500,000 grant to the Snodhill Castle Preservation Trust to complete clearing and restoration of the remains of Snodhill Castle, with the site opening to the public as of May 2018. [7] [8]
St. Faith's parish church in Dorstone was reputedly built by Richard de Brito, one of the knights who murdered Thomas Becket, as penance for the murder. He also built the Pandy Inn in Dorstone to house the workmen who built the church. During Victorian era rebuilding of the church in the 1890s a tomb to another de Brito was found which contained a pewter chalice. This was housed in the church for many years, but was stolen in 2006.
The Dorstone History Society seeks to study the church and the village – which stretches back to Neolithic times as suggested by the local Arthur's Stone, an ancient monument. This is said to be the spot where King Arthur slew a giant who left the impression of his elbows on one of the stones as he fell. [9]
An annual sloe gin competition is held in Dorstone. [10] Each year the winner is crowned the "Grand Master of the Sloes". [11]
The Golden Valley Railway branch line to Hay-on-Wye was opened on 1 September 1881 as far as Dorstone and later extended to Hay-on-Wye. The new line involved considerable additions to the track layout and buildings where it joined an existing line at the junction station of Pontrilas.
The last passenger train from Dorstone was on 23 August 1951.
The River Monnow marks the England–Wales border for much of its 42 miles (68 km) length. After flowing through southwest Herefordshire, England, and eastern Monmouthshire, Wales, its confluence with the River Wye is approximately 1⁄3 mile (0.54 km) south of Monmouth.
Ross-on-Wye is a market town and civil parish in Herefordshire, England, near the border with Wales. It had a population estimated at 10,978 in 2021. It lies in south-east of the county, on the River Wye and on the northern edge of the Forest of Dean.
Sloe gin is a British red liqueur made with gin and blackthorn fruits (sloes), which are the drupe fruit of the Prunus spinosa tree, which is a relative of the plum. As an alcoholic drink, sloe gin contains between 15 per cent and 30 per cent alcohol by volume (ABV); however, European Union regulations established 25 per cent ABV as the minimal alcoholic content for the blackthorn beverage to be a sloe gin. Historically, despite being a liqueur based upon gin, the EU included the colloquial name sloe gin to the legal definitions; thus, sloe gin is the only alcoholic beverage that legally uses the term gin without appending the liqueur suffix.
Herefordshire is a ceremonial county and unitary authority in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire and Powys to the west. The city of Hereford is the largest settlement and the county town.
Much Marcle is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England, located 7 miles (11 km) north-east of Ross-on-Wye. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 660. The name Marcle comes from the Anglo-Saxon word for a boundary field, mearc-leah. Much, in this case, means large or great, from the Middle English usage of the word.
Stow Hill is a community civil parish and coterminous electoral district (ward) of the City of Newport, South Wales.
Geograph Britain and Ireland is a web-based project, begun in March 2005, to create a freely accessible archive of geographically located photographs of Great Britain and Ireland. Photographs in the Geograph collection are chosen to illustrate significant or typical features of each 1 km × 1 km (100 ha) grid square in the Ordnance Survey National Grid and the Irish national grid reference system. There are 332,216 such grid squares containing at least some land or permanent structure, of which 281,131 have Geographs.
Ganarew is a village and small civil parish in south Herefordshire, England near the River Wye and the border with Wales. The village is located 0.62 miles (1.00 km) southwest of the village of Whitchurch on the main A40 road, and lies within the electoral ward of Kerne Bridge. The village is about 2 miles (3.2 km) from Monmouth and 8 miles (13 km) from Ross-on-Wye. It contains the Church of St Swithin and Ganarew Manor.
The Golden Valley is the name given to the valley of the River Dore in western Herefordshire, England. The valley is a picturesque area of gently rolling countryside. It lies in the lee of the Black Mountains, Wales.
The A606 is an A road in England that starts in West Bridgford, on the outskirts of Nottingham, and heads southeastwards through Leicestershire and the towns of Melton Mowbray and Oakham, terminating at Stamford, Lincolnshire on the former Great North Road.
Wilton Castle is a 12th-century Norman castle located in south-eastern Herefordshire, England on the River Wye adjacent to the town of Ross-on-Wye. The castle is named after the manor associated with it.
Arthur's Stone is a Neolithic chambered tomb, or dolmen, in Herefordshire, England. It is situated on the ridge line of a hill overlooking both the Golden Valley, Herefordshire and the Wye Valley. The tomb dates from 3,700 BC – 2,700 BC.
The Marches Way is a partially waymarked long-distance footpath in the United Kingdom. It runs for 351 kilometres (218 mi) through the Welsh–English borderlands, traditionally known as the Welsh Marches, and links the cities of Chester in the north and Cardiff in the south.
Devauden is a village and community in Monmouthshire, southeast Wales. It is located between Chepstow and Monmouth near the top of the Trellech ridge on the B4293 road. The community covers an area of 3,790 hectares (14.6 sq mi), and includes the villages of Itton and Wolvesnewton, Llanfihangel-tor-y-mynydd and Newchurch.
The Herefordshire Trail is a long distance footpath in Herefordshire, England.
Dorstone railway station was a station in Dorstone, Herefordshire, England. The station was opened in 1881, closed to passengers in 1941 and closed completely in 1953.
The River Dore is a tributary of the River Monnow in Herefordshire, England.
Cobridge is an area of Stoke-on-Trent, in the City of Stoke-on-Trent district, in the county of Staffordshire, England. Cobridge was marked on the 1775 Yates map as 'Cow Bridge' and was recorded in Ward records (1843) as Cobridge Gate.
Llancillo is a civil parish in south-west Herefordshire, England, and is approximately 13 miles (20 km) south-west from Hereford. The parish borders Wales at the south in which is the nearest town, Abergavenny, 7 miles (11 km) to the south-southwest. In the parish is the isolated Grade II* listed 11th-century Church of St Peter.
Snodhill Castle is a ruined motte-and-bailey castle, about 1 mi (1.6 km) south of the village of Dorstone in west Herefordshire, England. It is recognized as one of the major castles of the Welsh Marches. It was built in the 11th century to secure the border between Norman England and the Welsh Princes. Archaeological excavations show that it was one of the first Norman castles in England to have stone-built fortifications, with more sophisticated defenses being added in later centuries.