#Weobley, a village at the center of Herefordshire’s famous Black and White Trail, has pretty much everything you could need. Schools and surgeries of course, tea shops, restaurants, butchers, a brewery, pubs, a pottery, museums, libraries, public toilets, and churches (there are four of different denominations), and more heritage than you could throw a history book at .
The Daily Mail was so impressed in 2015 that it included it in its top 20 ‘most idyllic villages you MUST visit’. And in 2017, BBC’s The One Show chose Weobley as one of the most attractive villages in the country. Can it do no wrong?
Some eleven miles from Hereford, Weobley sits in the Herefordshire’s lowlands surrounded by low hedges, steep wooded hills, and farmland. But it is its black and white timber-framed buildings – and there are plenty of them – for which this village is most famous. Everything seems old here, even the road signs are of great vintage. There is no doubt, Weobley is impossibly chocolate box lovely.
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A gentleman enjoying a glass of ale at the Salutation Inn, or ‘the Sal’ to locals, claims to have had family living in the village going back 300 years. “I did the paper round here as a kid, my mother did it when she was a girl, and my grandfather did it too,” he announces proudly. The Rev Chris Rhodes has lived here for 54 years and is emphatic when she says “I wouldn’t live anywhere else. They’re going to have to carry me out first.”
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In 2017, BBC’s The One Show chose Weobley as one of the most attractive villages in the country.
(Image: Marsha O’Mahony)
Perched looking over the village in the rose garden is a magpie, sculpted by Walenty Pytel. It was commissioned by villagers from prize money earned from their 1999 Village of the Year title. As a mascot of the black and white village, the magpie was an apt choice.
Weobley (pronounced ‘Webbly’) comes from the Saxon words ‘Wibba’ and ‘ley’, a woodland clearing. The profitable wool trade during the medieval period probably accounts for the fine architecture here. Other major industries in the past have included glove making, brewing, and nail manufacture.
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Perched looking over the village in the rose garden is a magpie, sculpted by Walenty Pytel. It was commissioned by villagers from prize money earned from their 1999 Village of the Year title. As a mascot of the black and white village, the magpie was an apt choice.
(Image: Marsha O’Mahony)
This brewing heritage is being brought back here, in a micro way, with the village’s very own beer makers, The Weobley Brewing Company. They use local hops in their brews, with some coming from just down the road. The brewery is based on Jules, a bit of a Weobley legend.
A tiny, cozy restaurant on the corner of the main street, the food here is excellent (it has been sampled). It gets nearly top marks in Tripadvisor, “fantastic food, super tasty, country food and reminds me very much of France.”
Perhaps Weobley’s most famous resident was Ella Mary Leather, folklorist and early oral historian, her 1912 book ‘ The Folklore of Herefordshire ‘ has become a classic. She took it upon herself to record and collect folk songs from locals and Gypsies. She was friends with composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, who accompanied her on her quest in the countryside.
Even the bus stop in Weobley is quaint and pretty
(Image: Marsha O’Mahony)
He was inspired by a Gypsy melody he heard on one of these trips that he incorporated it into his ‘ Fantasia on Christmas Carols ‘. Her grave can be seen at the church.
It certainly seems to be a friendly village. I enjoyed a cup of tea at Annie Mac’s Tearoom. Pleasing to see the tea, nice and strong, served in a proper china tea cup. On leaving to pay, I didn’t realize there was a minimum payment for card. With no cash on me I was in a bit of a pickle. However, one of the customers offered to pay for me. ‘You can buy me one another time,’ she said. It was such a kind and generous act, I was bowled over.
It certainly seems to be a friendly village. I enjoyed a cup of tea at Annie Mac’s Tearoom. Pleasing to see the tea, nice and strong, served in a proper china tea cup.
(Image: Marsha O’Mahony)
Up the road towards the Rose Garden, Emily Starnes runs the Green Bean Café and deli. Inside it is all baskets, full of fresh fruit and veg, and a deli counter to be proud of. Emily has been at the helm for nine years and thinks it’s a great place to live, and run a business too.
Being on the Black and White Trial means visitors all year round: “We have a good mix here, locals, cyclists, walkers. And we are well catered too with library, museum, schools etc. We’ve had a lot of support locally during the lockdowns and we started doing ready meals in the shop, which seem to have gone down well.”
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Towards the Rose Garden, Emily Starnes runs the Green Bean Café and deli.
(Image: Marsha O’Mahony)
Across the road, business is good at Mark Hurd’s Butchers. It’s difficult to chat, he has a steady stream of customers buying joints, bacon, wobbly sausages, and ‘pies made down the road. It’s a nice village,’ he says in between serving customers, ‘nice and peaceful.’
One of the village’s two pubs, the Salutation Inn (The Unicorn is the other) gets top marks on Tripadvisor. ‘Visited on a rainy Sunday,’ said one reviewer, ‘together with my parents, my husband and our kids. We must have come across as quite a chaotic bunch.
“First walked in using the wrong entrance, then we had lots of questions and no idea how to order (we have two small kids and hadn’t been to a pub since Covid) all while wildly talking at each other in German to translate for my mom.”
There have been times I’ve walked into pubs and the silence swallows you up or, even worse, you are ignored. Not at ‘the Sal’. It’s nippy outside, so the sight of a huge roaring fire is very welcome. There are a few locals propping up the bar with Chris Dyer and Di Reacord behind it.
Chris Dyer and Di Reacord
(Image: Marsha O’Mahony)
I am met with huge smiles all around, lots of, ‘how are you my lovely, how are you, what can we do for you?’ They all agree it is the friendliest of villages.
Stuart Elder has been landlord here for 11 years. He’s busy cooking in the kitchen but still manages to extol the virtues of this black and white village. “It is the best place to have a pub.
“The community here is fantastic, we all look out for each other, and this has been emphasized even more during the pandemic.”
So get yourself across to wonderful Weobley. Lots to see, eat and drink. And very friendly too.
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