Rushock is a small village in

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire ...

, England. It lies about 1 mile north-east of Kington. The population of the civil parish was 131 at the 2011 census. Rushock was mentioned in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

under the name of ''Ruiscop'', when the place was said to be waste. It was later a hamlet in the parish of Kington, and since 1894 has been in the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

of Kington Rural. Rushock Hill rises to the north-west of the village. A well-preserved section of

Offa's Dyke Offa's Dyke ( cy, Clawdd Offa) is a large linear earthwork that roughly follows the border between England and Wales. The structure is named after Offa, the Anglo-Saxon king of Mercia from AD 757 until 796, who is traditionally believed to h ...

crosses the hill, which some scholars claim is the southern end of the dyke.David Hill and Margaret Worthington, ''Offa's Dyke: History and Guide'', (Stroud, 2003)

Offa's Dyke Path Offa's Dyke Path ( cy, Llwybr Clawdd Offa) is a long-distance footpath loosely following the Wales–England border. Officially opened on 10 July 1971, by Lord Hunt, it is one of Britain's National Trails and draws walkers from throughout th ...

also crosses the hill. Rushock Hill has extensive evidence of ridge and furrow ploughing which extends into a lot of surrounding woodland. Other features include the uncommon site of dry stone walling (not a common local feature) and specimen trees and earthworks which suggest 18th century landscaping.

Capability Brown Lancelot Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783), more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English gardener and landscape architect, who remains the most famous figure in the history of the English la ...

is known to have visited Eywood House in the valley below in Titley and though no evidence of any work being done by him exists the substantial evidence of landscaping suggests that great wealth and imagination was used to greatly alter the hill and surrounding area and would benefit from some modern archaeological investigation.

References

External links

. {{authority control Villages in Herefordshire Kington, Herefordshire