Talk:Hereford

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[edit] Founding Date?

This article has the founding as 'around 700 AD' but the article on the Bishop of Hereford says the See was founded in 676. Surely there must have been a settlement there before then or could the See have been founded on a 'green field' site? --Cavrdg 13:01, 27 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] By-pass

Is there a firm plan for a by-pass? All I could see in the Highways Agency A49 Route Strategy is, under Route Outcome 6, a target to undertake studies to identify appropriate measures with a timescale of complete initial studies by 2008.--Cavrdg 12:29, 18 August 2005 (UTC)

This is from a couple of years ago. Virginia said last year that an incoming Conservative government would fully commit to an up-to-date study of the volume of traffic which passes through and terminates in Hereford (the last one having taken place in the early 1990's. 21:36, 23 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Pronounciation?

The Welsh name and pronounciation are provided, but a phonetic guide would be helpful in English as well. How is Hereford pronounced? Is it trisyllabic or bisyllabic?

It is pronounced trisyllabically, as something like 'hěrəfüd' 80.255 01:43, 21 August 2005 (UTC)
Why not add this to the article? Or am I the only one who thought it might be "Here" (not "there") "Ford" (Model T)?
Having lived in Hereford all my life.... Astrolox 02:27, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
Actually in my last edit I didn't describe that correctly at all, (Please ignore it). I suppose I would describe it as Hair-Re-Fud. If using a local accent you usually drop the H, being more Ere-Fud. I would give you a phonetic guide but I haven't a clue how they work. Astrolox 02:32, 21 January 2006 (UTC)
Well, International Phonetic Alphabet gives you one option but I suspect the number of readers who would get it to display correctly and then understand it would be very small. I'd say Herry-furd and Erry-fud would do for renderings of the more and less posh versions respectively. --Cavrdg 08:33, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

Some people do pronounce the end of the word as "Ford", as rhyming with Chord. But, most do say it more like "Fudd", rhyming with Could. The start of the word is just like as said. It's an easy word to pronounce, anyway --Cowards 16:47, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Redevelopment

How about a section on the redevelopment? Edgar Street, High Town, Asda, Left Bank, etc. Could be interesting.

[edit] Origins of the Name

I was always told that the name of Hereford stems from earlier Welsh names - as the area around Hereford was frequently under Welsh control in the early years of the city's existance. The idea of 'here ford' seems a little convenient and too close to modern English. I don't doubt that it may very well be that but surely a citation should be attributed to this? --80.43.95.32 01:54, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Rewrite?

Or should I just say "write" since this article is quite small anyway? Is anyone interested in taking on this article properly i.e. doing away with pretty much everything that is on the page now and starting again with full sections on history, economy, demographics, etc. I'm not much of a history person so anything I write would be pretty poor but I'm happy to start writing a "Culture and society" section and a "Politics" section. There's a lot of information at the Hereford Times archive for pointers to economy and such like and the references here are an ideal starting point for a history section.WindsorFan 17:55, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Civil Parish

I've added a fact template to the claim in the section "Local Government" as it states that Herefors is one of only seven civil parishes to have city status, and yet the civil parish entry claims there are six. It may be that one is referring to just England, and the other to perhaps England and wales (where civil parishes no longer exist), but I think this apparent inconsistency needs resolving in some way. I wonder if anyone else knows how to check this quickly?  DDStretch  (talk) 21:20, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

City status in the United Kingdom has a list of cities and their types of local government. The missing one of the seven is Truro. I did wonder whether the omission was a result of Cornish Nationalists who claim Cornwall is not part of England but, from the history, it looks like it was just an oversight so I have updated the civil parish article. --Cavrdg 13:41, 1 April 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Welsh name of Hereford

This should stand because of the special realtionbship between the Marcher towns and cities and Wales. I, for example, was raised in Wales but born in Salop. Many border communities look East to England and always have done so. Many drover routes ended at Hereford, Gloucester, Chester & Salop. --MJB (talk) 14:55, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Request for Consensus: Welsh Name (copied from Shrewsbury but same debate)

An anonymous user (User:217.39.132.9) has removed the Welsh pronounciation from the introduction repeatedly. I am not neccessarily opposed to this, because I personally don't see why it needs to be in the opening line either, but war-reverting with User:Maxburgoyne and User:Dpaajones is clearly not the answer. Perhaps a consensus needs to be reached with all editors. Asdfasdf1231234 (talk) 14:59, 16 January 2008 (UTC) Thank you. All the great Marcher towns and cities (Ludlow - once the capital of Wales and the Marches - Chester, Hereford and Shrewsbury) have a unique relationship with Wales. Alsace-Lorraine in France and its link with Germany is similar. I was raised in Knighton and we saw Salop, Ludlow and Hereford as our local centres; not LLandrindod Wells or Abergavenny (Y Fenni). The Welsh names are ancient and speak eloquently of this Marcher link. We are not suggesting a list of irrelevant Dutch, Spanish & Innuit names. Finally, English alternatives are usually given for Welsh towns. --MJB (talk) 15:05, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

The reason Welsh towns have both names listed when available is because Wales has two official languages, English and Welsh. England has only one official language, English. As such only English names should be shown on articles for English towns. 217.39.132.9 (talk) 16:47, 16 January 2008 (UTC)
If you'd said that a long time ago rather than edit-warring and breaching WP:3RR you would have saved some unnecessary drama. As it happens, I agree. These are, although in the Marches, English towns. Even an edit summary would have helped. --Rodhullandemu (Talk) 16:55, 16 January 2008 (UTC)
My two cents to this is that as a resident of Hereford, it would be wrong to include hereford's welsh name - as rightly said it isnt in wales. Does someone really want to be listing every town/city names in other languages? Its no different. Hereford is not in or belong to wales. H0sting (talk) 08:40, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

It's always been a city very much connected with Wales and Welsh affairs. Johnrcrellin (talk) 10:10, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Only because of its proximity. The city is still english, and doesnt speak welsh.H0sting (talk) 10:14, 26 January 2008 (UTC)
Surely the point is that the Welsh name of Hereford might be of relevance to Welsh speakers, to whom it is an important city ? (And historically even more so - drovers etc). Is the article only for Herefordians - I think not ? I am English myself but I do find the additude of many on this issue insufferably "English" in a bad way ! Johnrcrellin (talk) 10:10, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

It is one tiny addition acknowledging a historic truth. My family on my father's side - Burgoyne - has been in Herefordshire for 300 yrs + and on my mother's side - Parry - in Wales for longer, so please do not overplay the ". . . I am from Hereford" trump card. --MJB (talk) 12:09, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

It makes sense to include the Welsh name- but only if a cooked lump of dough is referred to either as "brith" or "bread" in Hereford, and by the same token, Shrewsbury. On the other hand, I am planning to go to Eboracum/Jorvik for a couple of days so may not have time to argue this out. --Rodhullandemu (Talk) 13:23, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Sadly your contribution lacks both wit and any attempt at research; the York page does make reference to the Roman and Latin names. QED. By the way, bread is bara in Welsh; brith is currant. --MJB (talk) 14:33, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Well, I have now had a little time to do some research. Wikipedia policy and guidelines, as far as I can tell, are silent on this kind of situation. So I sought outside authority, without much luck. There are references to Hengoed, but not as a current alternative to Hereford. I have been unable to find any authoritative website (whether national or local government) making this equation. Sure, the article for York refers to Eboracum and Jorvik, but not in the very first sentence as current usage. So I'd suggest either authority is provided for this use or we raise a request for comment to assess community opinion. It would also help if we wound down the personal angle on this. It should be a matter of fact, and fact alone. --Rodhullandemu (Talk) 15:02, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Actually, the Welsh name for Hereford, Henfordd, is in very common usage. Google it, or("Hengoed" is another place entirely.) It is also written "Henffordd", as in:[1].

I will add something with more subtlety that before. Howard Alexander (talk) 22:39, 4 February 2008 (UTC)

Fine, if you can cite any authority that "Henfordd" is currently an official name for Hereford, that would be acceptable. What its name may be in Welsh is probably irrelevant, because, as far as I am aware, Hereford remains in England. It's OK for Cardiff to also be referred to as Caerdydd, because Wales has two official languages; England does not. What the Welsh Wikipedia does, with the greatest respect to it, is irrelevant to the English language Wikipedia. It's not a nationalist issue; it's a geographical and political (small "p") issue. My opinion, FWIW, is that "Henfordd" should not be referred to as an official alternative to "Hereford" in the lead, because legally, it isn't; as it is now, later on in the article, I don't have an issue with. --Rodhullandemu (Talk) 22:56, 4 February 2008 (UTC)
In agreement of the solution, or at least until wikipedia bring up guidelines about this sort of situation H0sting (talk) 23:58, 4 February 2008 (UTC)
The guidelines are here and here but neither is prescriptive in this case. Reading these together, I can see an argument for "Henfordd" being an acceptable alternative name for "Hereford" in the lead if it can be shown to be shown to have substantial acceptance, so I'd say the ball remains within the court of those seeking to have it there to provide evidence of this usage, otherwise, I'd argue the current status of the article adequately represents the situation without going through this argument ad nauseam. Propose it stays as it is. --Rodhullandemu (Talk) 00:10, 5 February 2008 (UTC)
OK, agree it stays as it is then H0sting (talk) 08:25, 5 February 2008 (UTC)
I'm not going to re-instate the Welsh version as it looks like a consensus has been reached to leave it out for now, but just for information the Welsh name for Hereford is 'Henffordd' not 'Henfordd' and it's in use today. Here are examples: by the BBC discussing Hereford FC, and by weather warnings by the Environment Agency (where it preceeded by 'Sir' it refers to Shropshire, and by 'Dinas' it refers to the city itself). Brith BTW means 'spekled'.--Rhyswynne (talk) 16:34, 20 March 2008 (UTC)
Beg your pardon, I see the Welsh name(s) is mentioned later in the article. I'm going to change the " Henfordd (or Henffordd) " to Henffordd (or Henfordd) ". I'd never come across the Henfordd spelling before, but as with a lot of Welsh names with a ff (which gives the English 'f' sound) in it, it may have been mis-spelt over time (a single f gives the 'v' sound'). On Google searches for instance, Henffordd appears 6,000+ times compraed to 129 mentions of Henfordd.--Rhyswynne (talk) 17:05, 20 March 2008 (UTC)



[edit] Discussion about addition of Welsh names to articles about English settlements

Since this matter has been raised on a number of pages now, and is ongoing, I think it best to refer people to Wikipedia talk:WikiProject UK geography/How to write about settlements#Addition of Welsh names to English articles and Wikipedia talk:WikiProject UK geography/How to write about settlements#Addition of Welsh names to English articles (2) where the matter is being discussed for a number of articles (at least 4) about English settlements in which Welsh names have recently been added.  DDStretch  (talk) 17:42, 16 February 2008 (UTC)