Goodrich Castle was known at one time as Castellum Godrici after Godric of Mappestone, the builder of the first castle on the site. Over time the name changed to Goodrich and the castle changed hands many times through the centuries, passing from family to family. In 1646, near the end of the English civil war, the castle was besieged and captured, using a cannon cast in the Forest of Dean called Roaring Meg, from Sir Henry Lingen by Parliamentarians led by Colonel Birch. The castle is now in the care of English Heritage.
Goodrich Castle featured in an advertising poster produced by Train Operating Company ‘one’ in 2005. Unfortunately, the text read ‘Escape to Hertfordshire’, and the company does not provide trains to Herefordshire.
Goodrich church contains the tomb of the Countess of Salisbury, (an altar tomb on the left side of the altar, plain with no inscription or effigy), who was charged by Henry Bolingbroke with bringing up his son, later to become King Henry V, after the death of Mary de Bohun his first wife. The young boy was brought up at nearby Courtfield at Welsh Bicknor.