Herefordshire

Herefordshire

Geography
Status	Unitary district Ceremonial county
Origin	Historic
Region	West Midlands
Area: - Total - District	Ranked 26th 2,180 km² Ranked 3rd
Admin HQ	Hereford
ISO 3166-2	GB-HEF
ONS code	00GA
NUTS 3	UKG11
Demographics
Population - Total (2005 est.) - Density - District	Ranked 45th 178,800 82 / km² Ranked 84th
Ethnicity	99.1% White
Politics
Herefordshire Council http://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/
Executive	Conservative / Independent
MPs	Paul Keetch Bill Wiggin

Herefordshire (known as County of Herefordshire) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders the English counties of Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south east and the Welsh counties of Gwent to the south west and Powys to the west. It is not to be confused with Hertfordshire, a county north of London.

It is pronounced ['herəfədʃə] (i.e. first syllable as in "herring", and -e- a separate syllable).

The county town of Herefordshire is the cathedral city of Hereford.

Waterways

Historically, the Rivers Wye and Lugg were navigable but the wide seasonal variations in water levels mean that few craft larger than canoes and coracles are now used. There are canoe centres at The Boat House, Glasbury-on-Wye, the Hereford Youth Service and Kerne Bridge Ross-on-Wye, as well as a rowing club in Hereford.

The early nineteenth century saw the construction of two canals, The Hereford & Gloucester Canal and The Leominster & Stourport Canal but these were never successful and there are now few remains to be seen.