The village of Garway surely owes its existence and much of its history to its geographical position, lying as it does close to the River Monnow (see extract from current Ordnance Survey map on right).

The river seems always to have been used as a boundary and continues in that way today as part of the country border between England and Wales and as the county border between Herefordshire and Monmouthshire.

Early records of the number of households and the population in Garway Parish are sparse but some of the available records are shown in the table below. Although the population increased between 1800 and 1831, the number of people involved in agriculture fell dramatically from 181 to 72. The total population and number of households reached a peak in the later 1800s but then declined to its lowest in the early 1970s before rising again. It can be seen that, since the later 1800s, the average household size has nearly halved.

Maps of individual estates dating from before the 19th century exist but the first known map of the whole Garway Parish area is the Tithe map of 1840. A coloured extract from this map with field names added is shown on the right. The first edition of Ordnance Survey's 6" to 1 mile scale maps was produced around 1880 but the sheets covering Garway are not available in Hereford. An extract from the OS 1905 map covering Garway can be accessed from the thumbnail map on the right.

The other web pages in this Historic Garway section cover different periods of history and tell you how events in those periods affected the Garway area. The last two pages cover the history of St Michael's Church and describe some of the other noteworthy old buildings and pubs.