Whitchurch is a 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 ...

situated on the A40, connecting nearby

Ross-on-Wye Ross-on-Wye (Welsh: ''Rhosan ar Wy'') is a market town in England, near the border with Wales. It had a population of 10,582 according to the 2011 census, estimated at 11,309 in 2019. It lies in south-eastern Herefordshire, on the River Wye and ...

to Welsh town

Monmouth Monmouth ( , ; cy, Trefynwy meaning "town on the Monnow") is a town and community in Wales. It is situated where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. Monmouth is northeast of Cardiff, and west of London. I ...

. It is located within the

Wye Valley The Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; cy, Dyffryn Gwy) is an internationally important protected landscape straddling the border between England and Wales. The River Wye ( cy, Afon Gwy) is the fourth-longest river in th ...

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is an area of countryside in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Areas are designated in recognition of thei ...

. Whitchurch parish encompasses the areas of Symonds Yat (West), Lewstone and the

Great Doward The Doward ( cy, Deuarth Fach, "two small hills"), is an area in the parish of Whitchurch in south Herefordshire, England, consisting of the hills of Little Doward and Great Doward and extensive woodland. It is within the Wye Valley Area of O ...

. These areas are served by the Whitchurch and Ganarew Group Parish Council.

History

King Arthur's Cave King Arthur's Cave is a limestone cave at the foot of a low cliff at the north-western end of Lord's Wood in The Doward, near Symonds Yat, Herefordshire, about four miles northeast of Monmouth, in the Wye Valley. The cave entrance lies about ...

, located in the Doward area of Whitchurch parish, is a site of archaeological interest, with the discovery of an

Upper Palaeolithic The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Palaeolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago (the beginning of the Holocene), according to some theories coin ...

human burial and the remains of

mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks and, ...

woolly rhino The woolly rhinoceros (''Coelodonta antiquitatis'') is an extinct species of rhinoceros that was common throughout Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene epoch and survived until the end of the last glacial period. The woolly rhinoceros was a me ...

giant deer The Irish elk (''Megaloceros giganteus''), also called the giant deer or Irish deer, is an extinct species of deer in the genus '' Megaloceros'' and is one of the largest deer that ever lived. Its range extended across Eurasia during the Pleist ...

, and

cave hyena The cave hyena (''Crocuta crocuta spelaea''), also known as the Ice Age spotted hyena, was a paleosubspecies of spotted hyena which ranged from the Iberian Peninsula to eastern Siberia. It is one of the best known mammals of the Ice Age and is w ...

. Evidence of a Roman settlement, including a tessallated pavement thought to be the remains of a Roman villa, has been found in a meadow to the side of the road to Monmouth. Whitchurch is named after the church of Saint Dubricius which was originally white in colour. St Dubricius parish church dates from the 13th century, with Victorian restoration and additions. As the churchyard directly backs onto the river Wye, St Dubricius Church has experienced several instances of flooding, with particularly serious damage occurring in episodes of flooding in 1947 and 2020. Until the 9th century, when it was taken over by

Mercia la, Merciorum regnum , conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia , common_name=Mercia , status=Kingdom , status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879)Client state of Wessex () , life_span=527–918 , era=Heptarchy , event_start= , date_start= , ye ...

, Whitchurch was within the Welsh kingdom of

Ergyng Ergyng (or Erging) was a Welsh kingdom of the sub-Roman and early medieval period, between the 5th and 7th centuries. It was later referred to by the English as ''Archenfield''. Location The kingdom lay mostly in what is now western Herefordshir ...

. After the Norman conquest, the area became known as

Archenfield Archenfield (Old English: ''Ircingafeld'') is the historic English name for an area of southern and western Herefordshire in England. Since the Anglo-Saxons took over the region in the 8th century, it has stretched between the River Monnow and Ri ...

and was governed as part of the

Welsh Marches The Welsh Marches ( cy, Y Mers) is an imprecisely defined area along the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom. The precise meaning of the term has varied at different periods. The English term Welsh March (in Medieval Latin ...

. It became part of Herefordshire, and England, in the 16th century, although the use of Welsh in the area remained strong until the 19th century. The Welsh name for the village, ''Llandywynnog'', means "church of Tywynnog", derived from a personal name Gwynnog. Within the parish in Symonds Yat (West) is the Old Court (now the Old Court Hotel), which was built in the 16th century and is a Grade II* listed building. The Old Court was the ancestral home of the Gwillim family including Elizabeth Posthuma Gwillim. Thomas Gwillim built the Gwillim family burial enclosure at St Dubricius church in 1744.

John Graves Simcoe John Graves Simcoe (25 February 1752 – 26 October 1806) was a British Army general and the first lieutenant governor of Upper Canada from 1791 until 1796 in southern Ontario and the Drainage basin, watersheds of Georgian Bay and Lake Superior. ...

, first Lieutenant Governor of

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the ...

(1791–1796) and founder of

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, named Whitchurch Township in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

after the birthplace of his wife, Elizabeth Gwillim. The

Wye Tour The Wye Tour was an excursion past and through a series of scenic buildings, natural phenomena, and factories located along the River Wye. It was a popular destination for British travellers from 1782 to around 1850,, p. 86 and reached its p ...

, an excursion route popularised in the late 18th century by William Gilpin, passed through the Whitchurch area along the river, drawing tourism to the scenic area.

Amenities

Whitchurch parish has several inns, pubs, cafes, a local shop, and a nearby caravan and camp site. Across the A40 from Whitchurch village, in Symonds Yat (West), are Wye Valley Visitor Centre, Butterfly Zoo, Jubilee Maze, and leisure park. Whitchurch & Ganarew Memorial Hall hosts events and activities for the locality. The village school, Whitchurch Church of England Primary School, has been awarded

Unicef UK UNICEF UK, also known as the United Kingdom Committee for UNICEF, is one of 36 UNICEF national committees based in industrialised countries. The national committees raise funds for the organisation's worldwide emergency and development work. In 2 ...

’s Rights Respecting Schools Award at Silver: Rights Aware and is a

Keep Britain Tidy Keep Britain Tidy is a UK-based independent environmental charity. The organisation campaigns to reduce litter, improve local places and prevent waste. It has offices in Wigan and London. History Keep Britain Tidy was originally set up by a conf ...

Eco-Schools Ambassador.

References

External links

Whichurch and Ganarew Local History SocietyThe Gwillim-Simcoe Family StoryWhitchurch Church of England Primary SchoolOld Court Hotel
Villages in Herefordshire {{Herefordshire-geo-stub