Hereford's Heritage

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Hereford Cathedral, which is also home to the world famous Mappa Mundi (a thirteenth century collection of maps of the medieval European world) is situated on Broad Street, and is also home to the Three Choirs festival. The Three Choirs is the oldest music festival in Europe, which is held in Hereford every third year with the other two festivals being held in Gloucester and Worcester.

At the other end of Broad Street is St. Anne’s Church, which is considered to be one of the more creative church restorations of modern times and even includes a café. The Hereford Museum and Art Gallery are also located on Broad Street and operate a regular run of temporary exhibitions relating to history and the arts.

On the west side of the city close to Sainsburys supermarket is the Hereford Cider Museum, which provides visitors with the story and history of cider and the city’s role within that history. Visitors can see the original Bulmer’s cellars and the way in which the cider used to be produced. There are also the Herefordshire Pomonas, which are books depicting the kinds of apples and pears that were used over hundreds of years.

Just outside of the city is the Waterworks Museum, where among other things, visitors can see one of the biggest, triple expansion steam engines (which reuses steam that otherwise would be wasted through the exhaust) in the country.

In Hereford’s city centre, in the area known as High Town stands the ancient building known as the Black and White House Museum, which was built in 1621 and began life as a butcher’s house. The building has been a museum since 1929 giving visitors a fascinating glance of what daily life was like in Jacobean times.