About Breinton

This part of the website provides lots of information about the historic and environmentally special parish of Breinton. Much of the information has been collected over the past decade and it forms part of the evidence base for the Neighbourhood Plan. More is being discovered every month by local volunteers and a history group has recently been created to provide a focus for local research. By using the menu below you can find out about Breinton’s; History Wildlife Horticultural heritage and the specific role fruit orchards played in shaping what we see today Art and design including the work of celebrated artist Brian Hatton Landscape. geology and soils and View some historic maps that show how little Breinton has changed in the past century
Rural Breinton on the northern bank of the River Wye (as seen on Google Earth)

Overview of Breinton

A summary of its history, landscape and agriculture

Read Overview
Photo of old couple sitting outside Bay Tree Cottage Breinton Common early 1900s

Breinton’s History

There are not many parishes bordering a city that have changed so little in the last 1000 years. Find out why it has not changed and much more.

History
Frog, having laid frogspawn, near Kings Acre Road, March 2014 (N. Geeson)

Wildlife in Breinton

The landscape of Breinton has seen few significant changes in the last few hundred years, which means there is a special diversity of wildlife in long-established woodland, meadow and road verge habitats.

Wildlife
An avenue of cider apple trees at Breinton Manor Farm (N. Geeson)

Apples, Pears and Horticulture

Traditional apple orchards have been part of the landscape of Herefordshire for centuries with notable expansion in the 1820s and 1830s. Horticulture has also played its part in the development of Breinton.

Growing in Breinton
Breinton Hatton Views under Threat poster

Art and Design in Breinton

There were several famous landscape painters of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who drew and painted in Breinton.

Art and Design
View of central Hereford over the arable fields, hay meadows, pastures and woods of rural Breinton. (N. Geeson)

Breinton’s Geology, Soils and Landscape

Breinton is part of Natural England’s National Character Area: Herefordshire Lowlands. The parish of Breinton is a collection of hamlets within an undulating landscape of orchards, nurseries, arable fields and grassland, with mature hedges and woodland. 

Geology and Landscape
Map of Chapel House land in Breinton Common

Explore Breinton in Maps

The area is shown in old maps as well as modern ones showing land use and potential bypass routes.

Maps