ONE of Hereford's best-known landmarks won the award for Outstanding Contribution to the City.

This Hereford BID award celebrates those who have improved the visitor experience to Hereford and increased footfall into the city, as well as adding value to the community.

Hereford Cathedral won the award with Hereford River Carnival and Rural Concierge runners-up.

Mark Carter, operations manager, and Lyn Smith, verger, from the cathedral picked up the award at the ceremony at the Shire Hall, which was presented by Cargills managing director, Mary Thompson.

Mark said: "We were surprised. There are so many great things going on in Hereford. The cathedral is a landmark in Hereford but Hereford is now so much more than that."

He said they are preparing for the Three Choirs Festival next year in Hereford which will focus on celebrating the centenary of the universal suffrage bill and votes for women.

Mark said: "It is a landmark for the rest of the country. They say Hereford, they say the cathedral, cattle, cider, the Mappa Mundi etc. It is also somewhere for people to come and to be still, to contemplate and explore spirituality as well as bringing all of those things together."

Hereford Cathedral has been a beacon for the city since its original founding in around 676AD.

Throughout this time, the cathedral has drawn visitors from far and wide which has benefited the city as a whole.

Cathedral cities are known to have a higher cultural significance as a result and as Hereford is one of the three venues for the Three Choirs Festival, the world’s oldest music festival, this helps attract people to Hereford throughout the year.

This past year has been particularly busy in raising Hereford’s profile with, among other things, the unveiling of the new SAS Memorial, the BBC’s live broadcast of the Easter Day Eucharist (one of the most watched BBC religious broadcast programmes) and the current exhibition featuring Grayson Perry’s Map of Nowhere, which has attracted significant press coverage.

The building and exhibition are iconic images for the city and wider region, with the cathedral choir being regarded as one of the finest in the world.

The judges of the awards were Debra Orr from the Hereford Times, John Jones from Hereford BID, Simon Whiting from Maylord Shopping Centre, Katherine Thomas from Old Market Shopping Centre, Laurel Oliver from Cargills, David Harlow from Herefordshire Council and David Mutteen from CF Roberts.