Place:Clifford, Herefordshire, England

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Clifford is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England, four miles to the north of Hay on Wye in Wales. It lies on the south bank of the River Wye, which here forms the border between Wales and England. Through the village runs the B4350 which is the main road. The civil parish also includes the hamlets of Priory Wood and Hardwicke.

A Vision of Britain through Time provides the following description of Clifford from John Marius Wilson's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales of 1870-72:

"CLIFFORD, a village and a parish in the [registration] district of Hay and county of Hereford. The village stands on the river Wye, adjacent to the Hereford and Brecon railway, 2 miles NNE of Hay; and has a post office under Hereford. The parish includes also part of Vowmine township. Acres: 6,522. Real property: £6,209. Population: 895. Houses: 207. A castle was built here by W. Fitzosborne; became the seat of the Cliffords of Ugbrooke; and was the birthplace of Jane de Clifford, "Fair Rosamond, " the favourite of Henry II. The ruin of the castle still surmounts a bold eminence overlooking the Wye; and is ivy-clad and beautiful, but not extensive. A cell of Cluniac monks, subordinate to Lewes priory, was founded here, in the time of Henry I., by one of the Cliffords. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Hereford. Value: £300. Patron: W. W. Trumper, Esq. The church is Norman, and has an embattled tower. The vicarage of Hardwick is a separato benefice. Smith's school and alms-houses have £358 a year; and other charities £13."

Research Tips

• Herefordshire Archive and Records Centre, Fir Tree Lane, Rotherwas, Hereford HR2 6LA is where paper and microfilm copies of all records for Herefordshire are stored. The Archives Centre has a website where the index to the archives (and also the wills catalog) can be searched. One item in the catalog is List of all Herefordshire parish register and bishops transcripts holdings which is a PDF file with information provided in an old version of Excel.

Online sources which may also be helpful:

• GENUKI gives pointers to other archive sources as well as providing some details on each parish in the county. The emphasis here is on ecclesiastical parishes (useful before 1837)
• A listing of all the Registration Districts in England and Wales since their introduction in 1837 and tables of the parishes that were part of each district and the time period covered with detailed notes on changes of parish name, mergers, etc. Do respect the copyright on this material.
• The FamilySearch Wiki for Herefordshire provides a similar but not identical series of webpages to that provided by GENUKI
• A Vision of Britain through Time has a group of pages of statistical facts for almost every parish in the county
• Unfortunately, only one volume on Herefordshire has been published in the Victoria County History series. British History Online have produced a series of Ordnance Survey first edition maps for the county which may be helpful for mid-nineteenth century inquiries
• Ancestry.co.uk lists its collections of Herefordshire genealogical material.
• FindMyPast collections of historical records can be searched for Herefordshire. They have collections of parish records for the pre-1837 period.