A NATIONAL newspaper has paid its second major compliment to the county in the space of a week.

Coming just days after naming Ledbury as one of the 10 best Christmas shopping destinations in Europe, The Guardian has now turned its attention on Hereford.

In its "Let's Move To..." column, the broadsheet's Saturday magazine states that Hereford is "a city that hides its many treasures".

The Guardian does concede that our city "sometimes betrays a whiff of provincialism" but adds that Hereford's "relative isolation out towards the Welsh border, and the independent character and wealth that have grown over the centuries, have given the city a fine – if not beautiful – bone structure of civic architecture in ruddy stone".

Less complimentary are the changes made over recent decades with the ring road, ill-advised paving schemes and public art on the black list.

However, The Guardian ends its review on a positive note stating there are signs that the city is now understanding its "fine, unique character" within the hidden beauty of some of its streets and through the cattle that have been bred for centuries.

"Hereford’s heyday, I feel, is yet to come," the reviewer, Tom Dyckhoff, concludes.