Bishopstone group & District Parish Council

Welcome to the Bishopstone and District Group Parish web site. We hope, within these pages, to provide useful and interesting information about our Parish. We welcome comments and suggestions so please feel free to make these via the contact us page.

About our Parish....
The Bishopstone Group of parishes is situated 8-9 miles to the west of the city of Hereford and covers a total area of 1843 hectares which is predominately rural and agricultural. The five hamlets that make up the group lie in an east-west line along the Wye Valley as shown on the map below. They are bisected by the A438 and bounded on the south by the River Wye. Bishon Common which lies in Bishopstone has been designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest because of its flora and bird life.
The Group comprises 5 parishes: Bishopstone, Bridge Sollars, Byford, Kenchester and Mansell Gamage. The parishes vary considerably in size and population density; Bishopstone, the largest and most nucleated, has a population of 197, while Bridge Sollers, Mansell Gamage and Byford together total 203. There are no separate figures available for Kenchester, as Herefordshire Council’s Key Statistics put it together with Stretton Sugwas.
Analysis of the 2001 census returns shows that the makeup of the population of the parishes is typical of rural Herefordshire as a whole. There is a pub and a combined garage/shop situated on the A438 at Bridge Sollars, but lack of facilities in the Group means that residents have to travel to Hereford or to other towns and villages for most shops and services. There is a bus service to and from Hereford that serves some of the parishes but buses are few and far between and most travel is by private cars. The Group has no community centre, surgery, school, playgroup, post office or any other significant service.