BYFORD is a parish pleasantly situated on the river Wye, and on the main road leading from Hereford to Hay and Brecon, distant 7½ miles W.N.W. of Hereford, 12 S.E. of Kington, 13 E. of Hay, 14 S.W. of Leominster, and 6 S. of Weobley; is in Grimsworth hundred, Weobley union and petty sessional division, Yazor polling district, and Hereford county court district. The population in 1861 was 201; in 1871, 270; inhabited houses, 52; families or separate occupiers, 47; area of parish, 869a. 0r. 38p.; annual rateable value, £1,529 16s. 6d. Sir Henry Geers Cotterell, Bart., of Garnons, is lord of the manor and principal landowner. The soil is stiff loam upon gravel; chief products, wheat, barley, beans, peas, roots, and fruit. Offa's Dyke goes through this parish, and crosses the Hereford turnpike road. Byford is in the diocese and archdeaconry of Hereford and rural deanery of Weobley; living, a rectory; value, £190, with residence and 32¼ acres of glebe; patron, Sir Henry G. Cotterell, Bart.; rector, Rev. Berkeley Lionel Scudamore-Stanhope, M.A., of All Souls College, Oxford, who was instituted in 1866. The church is a fine ancient stone edifice, in the Pointed style of architecture, partly Decorated, and has a square tower containing three bells. It is dedicated to St. John the Baptist, and contains nave, chancel, south aisle, with a lady chapel on the south. It was restored in 1851 at a cost of about £500, chiefly at the expense of the late rector. The register begins with the year 1724. There is an elementary school for this and the adjoining parish of Mansell Gamage; it is under Government inspection, and has a certificated mistress, with an average attendance of 65 children. The Rectory House, adjoining the church, is an excellent and very substantial building in Grecian style; it was erected by the late rector, the Rev. James Johnson.