Hereford [key], town, Herefordshire, W central England. Hereford is a cattle-market town, from which the cattle breed takes its name. Industries include food processing, brewing, and light manufacturing. At its cathedral, which probably dates from the 11th cent., the Festival of the Three Choirs is held every third year. (In the other years it is held at Gloucester or Worcester.) The nearby White Cross commemorates the termination of the great plague in the mid-14th cent. A grammar school was founded there in the 14th cent. Hereford was the birthplace of Nell Gwyn, mistress of Charles II, and the stage actor David Garrick.
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