King Arthur's Cave, located in the Doward area of Whitchurch parish, is a site of archaeological interest, with the discovery of an
Upper Palaeolithic human burial and the remains of
mammoth,
woolly rhino,
giant deer, and
cave hyena. Evidence of a Roman settlement, including a
tessallated pavement thought to be the remains of a Roman villa, has been found in a meadow to the side of the road to Monmouth. Whitchurch is named after the church of
Saint Dubricius which was originally white in colour. St Dubricius parish church dates from the 13th century, with Victorian restoration and additions. As the churchyard directly backs onto the river Wye, St Dubricius Church has experienced several instances of flooding, with particularly serious damage occurring in episodes of flooding in 1947 and 2020. Until the 9th century, when it was taken over by
Mercia, Whitchurch was within the
Welsh kingdom of
Ergyng. After the Norman conquest, the area became known as
Archenfield and was governed as part of the
Welsh Marches. It became part of Herefordshire, and England, in the 16th century, although the use of Welsh in the area remained strong until the 19th century. The Welsh name for the village,
Llandywynnog, means "church of Tywynnog", derived from a personal name Gwynnog. Within the parish in Symonds Yat (West) is the Old Court (now the Old Court Hotel), which was built in the 16th century and is a Grade II* listed building. The Old Court was the ancestral home of the Gwillim family including
Elizabeth Posthuma Gwillim. Thomas Gwillim built the Gwillim family burial enclosure at St Dubricius church in 1744.
John Graves Simcoe, first Lieutenant Governor of
Upper Canada (1791–1796) and founder of
Toronto, named
Whitchurch Township in
Ontario after the family home of his wife, Elizabeth Gwillim. The
Wye Tour, an excursion route popularised in the late 18th century by
William Gilpin, passed through the Whitchurch area along the river, drawing tourism to the scenic area. == Amenities ==