RUARDEAN, a parish in the hundred of ST-BRIAVELLS, county of GLOUCESTER, 6 miles (N.W.) from Newnham, containing 729 inhabitants. The living is a perpetual curacy, annexed to the vicarage of Walford, in the archdeaconry of Hereford, and diocese of Gloucester. The church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, is partly Norman, but principally of later date, and the west window is finely enriched with tracery. There is a place of worship for Independents. The navigable river Wye forms the eastern boundary, and the Severn and Wye railway passes through the parish. A small school is endowed with about £5 per annum, the united bequests of the Rev. Richard Greenaway, in 1744, and Thomas Richards, in 1763. There are a few remaining fragments of an ancient castle.