Herefordshire’s rustic beauty hasn’t slowed a new wave of sharp accommodation, shopping, food and drink operators. For an unheralded rural retreat with a dash of contemporary attitude, put this forward-looking county on your radar.
22 March, 2022
This article appears in Volume
36: Discovery.
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to some of the UK’s wildest landscapes and timeless black-timbered
villages and towns, Herefordshire feels a world away from city
life. Just three hours from London by train or car, this county has
somehow humbly flown under the travel radar – despite the diverse
array of fine produce, skilled makers and stylish hoteliers
contributing to the scene.
That’s not to say that this bucolic region, with two Areas of
Outstanding Natural Beauty, in the Malvern Hills and Wye Valley, has been left undiscovered. Those in the
know are charmed. Netflix producers have been setting up camp here
since 2019 for coming-of-age comedy-drama Sex Education; the
striking wooden chalet belonging to Gillian Anderson’s character,
Jean Milburn, sits above the handsome hamlet of Symonds Yat
East.
But it’s the county’s urbane leanings that make it feel all the
more special. The cathedral city of Hereford is packed with
thriving restaurants and small shopping streets in its Independent
Quarter. Nearby Chase Distillery is hailed as a pioneer of Britain’s
craft drinks movement, with world-renowned gin and vodka stemming
from its Rosemaund Farm base. To the west, on the border of England
and Wales, is the market town of Hay-on-Wye, which draws the great
and good of the literary world for its annual Hay
Festival. Then there’s Ledbury, where locally owned stores line
cobbled alleyways and Tudor houses double as artist studios, wine
shops and delis.
A robust agricultural heritage has long kept the county busy,
but there is a sense that Herefordshire is ready to take the
spotlight. Younger farmers and landowners are pivoting from their
traditional offerings in order to entice travellers seeking
sustainability-led, design-driven experiences, taking farm-to-fork
restaurants with rooms to the next level.
A long weekend of market town-hopping in Herefordshire,
savouring the local ingredients and unearthing the rural retreats
among lush, sheep-dotted fields, is one well spent. It feels as if
the county is on the cusp of a new chapter as a great British
getaway, but, also, that there’s still time to explore it before
the secret’s out.
To find out more, head to visitherefordshire.co.uk
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