Dorstone

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Dorstone
Dorstone shown within Herefordshire
Population	200
OS grid reference	SO313418
Unitary authority	Herefordshire
Ceremonial county	Herefordshire
Region	West Midlands
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	HEREFORD
Postcode district	HR3
Dialling code	01981
Police	West Mercia
Fire	Hereford and Worcester
Ambulance	West Midlands
European Parliament	West Midlands
UK Parliament	Hereford
List of places: UK • England • Herefordshire

Coordinates: 52°04′13″N 3°00′06″W / 52.0703, -3.0016

Dorstone is a village within the Golden Valley, Herefordshire. There is a thriving community with a small post office, church [1] and public house [2] with restaurant. The Golden Valley area offers excellent hillwalking and horseback riding countryside and is noted for its scenery. It is within the catchment area of the popular Fairfield secondary school.

Dorstone once contained a castle, Dorstone Castle [3].

Dorstone is home to the Golden Valley Young Farmers' Club. In 2006 it won the National Federation of Young Farmers' Clubs pantomime competition in Blackpool.

St. Faith's parish church in Dorstone was reputedly built by Richard de Brito, one of the knights who murdered Thomas a Becket, as penance for the murder. He also built the Pandy Inn in Dorstone to house the workmen who built the church. During Victorian era rebuilding of the church in the 1890s a tomb to another de Brito was found which contained a pewter chalice. This was housed in the church for many years but was stolen in 2006.

A Dorstone History Society has just been founded which hopes to find out more about the church and the village - which stretches back to Neolithic times as suggested by the local Arthur's Stone, Herefordshire, an ancient monument.

[edit] Railway

The Golden Valley Railway branch line to Hay-on-Wye was opened on 1 September 1881 as far as Dorstone and later extended to Hay-on-Wye. The new railway station and junction involved considerable addition to the track layout and buildings at Pontrilas.

The route from Hay-on-Wye to Pontrilas can be seen here [4] Use the zoom keys and click on the place marks to see the local stations.

The last passenger train out of Dorstone was on 23 August 1951. One of the last original tickets can been seen here: [5]