The Little Book of Herefordshire E-Book

David J Vaughan

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 263

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

The Little Book of Herefordshire is a compendium full of information which will make you say, 'I never knew that!' Contained within is a plethora of entertaining facts about Herefordshire's famous and occasionally infamous men and women, its literary, artistic and sporting achievements, customs ancient and modern, transport, battles and ghostly appearances. A reliable reference book and a quirky guide, this can be dipped in to time and time again to reveal something new about the people, the heritage, the secrets and the enduring fascination of the county. A remarkably engaging little book, this is essential reading for visitors and locals alike.

Leseprobe

To Sarah

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

There are many people to thank for their invaluable assistance in compiling this book. Melissa Seddon and her colleagues at Herefordshire Council (Historic Environment Record), for setting me straight on their heritage jewels; Tamsin Westhorpe and Joyce Marston of Stockton Bury Gardens, for their endless supply of historical nuggets; Melanie and Ray at Hereford Cathedral, for their generosity of spirit and abundance of time; Heather Hurley, for her sage advice during our all too-brief encounter; Matilda Richards at The History Press, for her editorial guidance; and to past experts and authors (dead and alive), whose own achievements have informed and inspired this new, modest effort.

Last, but not least, my wife Claire Vaughan, professional illustrator and artist. Her incredible drawings have raised this book to another level entirely. Claire, as in so many things, this would not have happened without you. All images (excepting those on pages 67, 82, 84, 104, 106, 146, 150, 169 and 180) are © Claire Vaughan.

Other Image Credits:

Grateful thanks to the following for their kind permission to reproduce images on the pages below:

British Library (p. 150) – © The British Library Board, K.top Vol. 15, 96.h.

Herefordshire Archive Service (p. 106) – BS67/4/2

Library of Congress (pp. 146, 180)

Finally, I have endeavoured (but failed) to include only places that are open to the public. Please always check arrangements (if any) and respect the privacy of present occupiers and owners. All information given has been to the best of my knowledge accurate at the time of writing. I apologise for any errors, oversights or omissions I may have unwittingly made. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy the fruits of my labour.

David J. Vaughan, 2016

CONTENTS

        Title

        Dedication

        Acknowledgements

        Introduction

  1    It’s All a Matter of Time

  2    Heritage I

  3    Environment

  4    Borderlands

  5    People

  6    Leisure

  7    Myths, Superstitions and Legends

  8    A Kind of Muse

  9    Education and Language

10    Economy

11    Transport

12    Crime and Punishment

13    Religion

14    Heritage II

15    Royalty and Politics

Bibliography

About the Author

Copyright

79

INTRODUCTION

When The History Press asked me to write The Little Book of Herefordshire, I was both daunted and proud. On the one hand, my family connections stretch back for more than two centuries, putting me in a good position to gather anecdotes and treasures from this county we love; on the other, I knew there were others more qualified to give the shire its due.

‘Mr Hereford’ himself, Richard Johnson, faced a similar challenge in 1868. In his own preface to The Ancient Customs of the City of Hereford, he summed up his – and my – heartfelt lament:

The writer is aware that criticism may discover many defects in the present work, and that abler pens might hereafter do greater justice to the subject. He therefore requests his readers kindly to concede their indulgence for any imperfections, and only regrets that want of leisure for the thorough prosecution of his researches has rendered it necessary to omit many points of interest.

The infinite things worthy of mention are a source of worry: facts, achievements, successes and failures – all that have made Herefordshire great. As well as these there are the many examples left out: victims of limited space.

Even the most casual reader of the following chapters will glean quite how much the county has meant to the world down the ages …

In ‘It’s All a Matter of Time’, people from before the eons of writing were already making their mark. From cave dwellings to stone tombs, hillforts to bronze work, prehistory laid down the foundations. Our ancestors since then have bequeathed a rich ‘Heritage’ collection – so vast, it demands more than the two chapters it shares.

Even as time passed, so too did its changing ‘Environment’. Land, weather and climate brought both hope and despair: from infertile wasteland to life-giving crops, from the most prosperous sheep to its world-famous bull!

All the while Herefordshire has been a county worth having: a bold claim the truth of which is revealed in no greater way than in its ‘Borderlands’ fights. Hence, the county has the nation’s greatest assemblage of castles and mottes.

Herefordshire has been shaped by its ‘People’. Achieving fortune and fame, there have been stars who have gone on to shine long after their death. And there are those born outside its borders who have been drawn to a place worth making their own.

Sporting successes, present and past, have given rise to a rich world of ‘Leisure’; closely matched by exponents from the world of the ‘Muse’ – art, architecture, theatre and music. All have brought intellectual riches and cultural charm.

Of course, for every success story there are one or two less favourable failures. ‘Crime and Punishment’ may have changed down the years, but the county’s most successful attempts to be rid of bad behaviour came through its ‘Education and Language’ – whether English or Welsh, private or state.

But it is perhaps its deep-rooted ‘Religion’ and its ties with ‘Royalty and Politics’ that sets Herefordshire apart from the other counties of the United Kingdom. Kings have been made, usurpers despatched; religious houses established, political clout won and lost.

Through it all, there has been a singular constant: Herefordshire, this place we call home. A county unmatched.

1

IT’S ALL A MATTER OF TIME

FROM ROAMIN’ TO ROMAN

Period

Dates (c.)

Key Attributes

Upper Palaeolithic

100,000 BP* to 10,000 BCE*

Cave dwelling, hunting, exotic animals

Mesolithic

10,000 BP

Hunter-gatherers, the final thaw, early stages of settlement

Neolithic

4,000 to 2,800 BCE

Farming, long barrows, community

Bronze Age

2,800 to 700 BCE

Hierarchy, round barrows, metals, ritual

Iron Age

700 BCE to 43 ACE*

Hillforts, tribes

UPPER PALAEOLITHIC

Predating the written word, human history developed in the epoch of the Upper Palaeolithic, the final stages of the last Ice Age. In Herefordshire, due in part to its acidic soil, little evidence of our human ancestors has survived. That which has survived has astounded the greatest minds.

With Homo sapiens populating the Welsh Marches since before 50,000 BP, the county’s human story is prodigious. At Doward, near Symonds Yat, two caves from the late Upper Palaeolithic – fancifully named Arthur and Merlin – conceded skeletal remains of woolly rhino, giant deer, hyena (!) and even mammoth. At least one human burial was also discovered, indicating ritual and an early compassion.

The majority of evidence from the period is concentrated at five local sites: Colwall, Kington, Sarnesfield and Tupsley, as well as Doward itself. The truth of Upper Palaeolithic life, though, was far more nomadic and, ultimately, you went where the food was abundant …

MESOLITHIC

The Mesolithic period saw a dissipation of the last tendrils of ice and a great migration of animals and hunters. Predator and prey moved into newly accessible areas with fresh vegetation. Midway through the epoch, it was still possible to walk a direct route from Denmark to France without wetting your feet!

The land now marked by the county boundary was colonised by some of the earliest trees and plants, as revealed by modern pollen accounts:

birch

willow

aspen

alder

pine

lime

oak

hazel

The Golden Valley, Great Doward and the area around Ledbury have provided strong evidence for Mesolithic migration. Though as the area grew rich in natural resources, mobile hunter-gatherers gave way to a more settled way of life …

NEOLITHIC

The Neolithic era was a period not only of sedentary farming but also of a rapid sense of community (egalitarianism). Collective ritual can be seen in the remains of the long barrows, erected as monuments to the ancestral dead, which contained not individuals, but a so-called ‘body politic’ – disarticulated long bones and skulls grouped separately within sealed, stone chambers (see Arthur’s Stone, p.25). Other barrows were built on the site of mortuary houses, ritually burned and supplanted by stone (e.g. at Dorstone Hill).

By this point, Herefordshire was thickly wooded, but the long barrows and earliest stages of farming brought with them the clearance of vegetation, particularly in valleys or on top of the hills. Around Buckton (on Teme) and Staunton-on-Arrow are but two key examples.

With less time spent hunting, it was only a matter of time before the next technological breakthrough …

BRONZE AGE

Bronze Age Herefordshire was, by now, devoid of much of its forests. So too, the community spirit, giving way to a more individual, hierarchical structure. The important and powerful (from war, metalworking, shamanism) were buried in circular barrows, as different to the collective long form as it was possible to get. And with it, great ritual: not just in funereal rites (which now included valuable grave goods) but in the construction of huge sacred centres: stone circles and henges, as suggested at Marden and Clifford. The living and dead monumentally scribed.

Towards the end of the era, great field divisions began to create a landscape, which we might recognise today. With these divisions came the segregation of the population into families, possibly even ‘clans’. The last great deforestation not only produced settled existence but also what grew to become the centre of farming, the agricultural heartland we acknowledge today.

IRON AGE

The succeeding Iron Age brought a new world, a break with what came before: isolated communities and a great retreat into the enclaves of domestic and defensive abodes. Hillforts, like those at Aconbury, Pyon Wood and British Camp, all witnessed great violence: a mass burial in the ditch of Sutton Walls contained twenty-four skeletons. Between 5ft 8in to well over 6ft, these were men that had been strong in the body – and tooth, judging by the relatively few signs of decay.

ROMAN

When the Romans came, the largest (only?) Iron Age tribe in Herefordshire was either the Dobunni or Silures; though it might equally have been neither! Social and cultural evidence of both are still missing. More likely, then, it was the Decangi who Scapula, Roman governor of Britain, attacked before driving on into Wales.

Yet little has been found of Roman life in the county, and it is possible that the region remained a borderland launch – a place from which to conquer the Welsh. Over the border lay precious supplies, of gold, silver and lead.

Only at Ariconium (near Weston under Penyard) has extensive settlement been found (see p.33). Small forts, perhaps for supplying their army, existed at Leintwardine, while only small ‘towns’ have been found at Blackwardine, Stonechester and Stretton Sugwas (not far from Kenchester). Even the roads here were mere tributaries of their main northward thrust – the discovery of Watling Street at Leintwardine arguably the most daring exception.

SAXON

The Saxon age was the last great pre-modern era, whose people gave the county its name. The Mercian Saxons waged war for a land left behind by the Romans. Their great armies and burhs silenced the Welsh, while King Alfred himself made Hereford proud. But it was the Christianised clerics who arguably left more of a mark – men such as St Ethelbert the King (patron of Hereford Cathedral) and Earl Leofric, benefactor of Leominster.

SHIFTING SANDS OF GOVERNMENT

The history of Herefordshire government is more complex than most. With the fall of the Romans, the incoming Saxons at last took control. Swathes of land were absorbed in the province of Mercia – or, literally, ‘land of the boundary dweller’.

Its relations with Wales and the Marches produced misusers of power. During violent engagements, large sweeps of the landscape oscillated between Welsh, English and Norman command. Particular tracts – Arcenfelde or Archenfield included (see p.17) – retained for a long time their own independence, kept apart from the laws of the land.

Herefordshire was not known by that name until the eleventh century, by which time Hereford proper had been a principal town for 300 years. The name (Here-ford) means ‘ford of the army’, most likely formed when the Mercian and Magonsæte dynasties fashioned a pact.

Since then, the county has been capriciously conflated and wrenched from the grasp of its (administrative) neighbours, Worcester, Gloucester and the old county of Shrews.

Athelstan, the first King of all Briton, established a Hereford mint, the first to appear along the course of the Severn.

Rare forays by Scandinavian Vikings occurred in the north of the county, as well as their sacking of Hereford c. 913. Twelve months later, along the Wye and the Severn, they ravaged Archenfield, before suffering defeat at the site known as Killdane Field (Weston-under-Penyard).

Twenty years after William I conquered Britain, by the time of Domesday (1086), Hereford was one of only sixteen great cities.

With the Conquest came a new breed of tyrant: the Marcher lords, whose Norman power controlled as much land as they grabbed. William’s three newest earls – of Hereford, Shrewsbury and Chester – silenced the troublesome borders and took control of the March (land between England and Wales). They did so even in the face of new English resistance from the Mercian magnate, Eadric the Wild.

A SNAPSHOT OF HUNDREDS

The hundred in Herefordshire – a division of land recorded by William I equating to 100 households – is hideously snarled. No sooner had Domesday been written than the lands, and the hundreds, were radically changed. By the Middle Ages, they bore little resemblance to what had gone before.

Up to nineteen Herefordshire hundreds (with courts or moots) were listed in Domesday, though several were later ‘migrated’ into Gloucester and Wales, even Worcester across to the east. One, Lenteurde (Leintwardine), now firmly in Herefordshire, was then listed as Shropshire. The inconsistent spelling of place names was never that helpful, while the anomalies of Arcenfelde and Stradel only muddied the pitch!

Domesday Anomalies

Two anomalies, originally encountered in the Saxon–Welsh divisions, were inherited by Domesday. ‘British’ ‘enclaves’ or commotes (Welsh cwmwd) were recorded in the south and west of the county:

Archenfield (Arcenfelde) remained in practice, like its western ‘cousin’, Ewias, outside the hundred system of England. Its people were considered as Welsh, a claim underlined by the practice of paying rent in the form of sestiers of honey, as was that country’s custom. The measure of land too was different, often recorded in carucates rather than the usual hides.

Punishment for misdemeanours also followed Welsh custom; such as that bestowed on a murderer, whose victim’s ‘kin were entitled to prey upon him and his kin, and to burn their houses, until the corpse was buried about noon of the following day’ (Victoria County History 1908: 267).

Many believe the name Arcenfelde arose from Roman Ariconium (see above). Whatever the truth, it was eventually subsumed by the much later medieval hundred around Wormelow Tump.

Stradel – the River Dore, in the valle Stradelie (the Golden Valley), is thought to have been the boundary between the English and Welsh. Centred on the castle at Ewias (Ewyas) Harold (see p.57), the manorial seat was at Ewias Lacy (now Longtown). Remained outside the English hundreds until much later into the eleventh century.

HUNDREDS AT DOMESDAY

  1  Bromesais/Bromesesce/Bremesse (Brooms Ash/Broxash)

  2  Greitewes (Greytree)

  3  Lene (in Eardisland)

  4  Wimestruil/Wimstrui (Webtree)

  5  Plegeliet

  6  Urmelauia/Wermelau (Wormelow)

  7  Elsedune

  8  Dunre (Dinedor)

  9  Tragetreu

10  Wimundestreu

11  Radelau/Radenelau (Radlow)

12  Hezetre

13  Cutethorn/Cutestorn (the area of Ewias, though it was not included)

14  Wlfagie/Ulfei (Wolfhay/Wolphy)

15  Stapel/Stepleset

16  Tornelaus/Tornlaws

17  Stratford/Stradford (Stretford)

18  Bradeford

19  Broadfield/Bradefelle

20  Arcenfelde/Arcenefelde (Archenfield)

21  Stradel/valle Stradelei (Golden Valley)

The following was then placed under Shropshire:

Lenteurde/Lenteurd (Leintwardine)

THE ANCIENT CUSTOMS OF HEREFORD

Through the Great Custom Book, or charter of King Henry II (1154–1189), the city of Hereford became the seat of medieval democracy. Its citizens, lords, clergy, even the monarch himself, were made to abide by mandated decrees. So successful was it that numerous towns, especially Ruthlan (Drusslan),and others in Wales, adopted its rules.

As well as democratically electing an annual bailiff, it delivered fair justice using the concept of jury, made up of no less than twelve good and true.

In 1189, after Henry had died, his son Richard I sold Hereford to its people – yet the Custom Book remained its principle guidance, and did so until Charles II was king.

HEREFORD MAYORS

An Act in the time of King Edward IV insisted that the Hereford mayor must remain in office no more than twelve months (seemingly to avoid nepotism and corruption). Such tricks to secure the privileges and emoluments of office had previously led to at least one suspiciously ‘elected’ twenty-one times! The rule was enforced ‘upon pain of disenfranchisement’ (made no longer a freeman in the said city of Hereford).

SHERIFFS OF HEREFORDSHIRE

The county’s sheriff appears to have served as deputy to the earl, until the latter became more ceremonial and his once number two took over administering justice and managing the king’s finances in this part of the world.

Here is a random selection of the holders of office since antiquity through to before George IV:

1086 (Domesday)

Bernai

r. Henry I

Hugoni de Boclande

r. Henry II

Walter de Hereford, William de Bello-campo

r. Richard I

William de Braose

r. Edward I

Milo Pychard

r. Henry IV

John ap Harry

r. Henry VIII

Thomas Baskerville

r. Elizabeth I

William Shelley

r. Charles I

Wallop Brabazon

Interregnum

Thomas Cook

r. Charles II

Robert Symonds (as in Symonds Yat?)

r. George III

(the delightfully named) Thomas Beebee

LORDS LIEUTENANT OF HEREFORDSHIRE

Traditionally a military role in the time of Henry VIII (r. 1509–47), the incumbent remains the monarch’s representative in the county:

1690

Charles (Talbot), Earl (afterwards Duke) of Shrewsbury

1702

Charles, Duke of Shrewsbury, re-appointed on the accession of Queen Anne

1704

Henry (Grey), Earl (afterwards Duke) of Kent

1714

Henry, Duke of Kent, re-appointed on the accession of George I

1715

Thomas Lord Coningsby

1727

James (Brydges), Duke of Chandos

1741

Charles Hanbury Williams, Esq.

1747

John Lord Viscount Bateman

1760

Viscount Bateman, re-appointed on the accession of George III

1802

George (Capel), Earl of Essex

1817

John Somers Cocks, 1st Earl Somers

1841

William Bateman, 1st Baron Bateman

1845

John Somers Cocks, 2nd Earl Somers

1852

William Bateman-Hanbury, 2nd Baron Bateman

1902

John Hungerford Arkwright

1904

Sir John Cotterell, 4th baronet

1933

Arthur Somers Cocks, 6th Baron Somers

1945

Sir Richard Cotterell, 5th baronet

1957 

James Thomas, 1st Viscount Cilcennin

1960 

John Francis Maclean

1974–98 

Hereford & Worcester Lieutenancy

1998 

Sir Thomas Dunne

2008– 

Lady Darnley

(Sources: Duncumb 1804 (sic), Herefordshire Council and others)

MAYORS OFHEREFORD (PART 2)

Established by a Charter of Richard II, the Bailiff of Hereford became mayor, subject to annual election. Those in office at the beginning of each monarchical reign (up to and including Victoria) were listed as follows:

Date

Mayor

Monarch

1382

Thomas Whitfield

Richard II

1399

Thomas Chippenham

Henry IV

1413

John Mey

Henry V

1422

John Falke

Henry VI

1461

John Vintner

Edward IV

1483

John Stockton (d.) /

Richard III

John Chippenham

1485

Thomas Mey

Henry VII

1509

Richard Phillips

Henry VIII

1547

Rowland Meece

Edward VI

1553

William Smooth

Mary

1559

Thomas Gibbs

Elizabeth I

1603

John Midson

James I

1625

Richard Veynoll

Charles I

1649

Thomas Seaborne

Charles II

1685

Griffiths Reynolds

James II

1689

Thomas Clark / Henry Smith

William & Mary

1702

Charles Carwardine

Anne

1715

Thomas Paynard

George I

1728

Thomas Ford

George II

1760

Richard Moore

George III

1820

William Pateshall

George IV

1829

James Eyre

William IV

1837

Jonathan Elliott Gough

Victoria

Councillor Charles Nicholls (2015–16) is Hereford’s 634th mayor!

MAYORS OF ELSEWHERE

Kington elects its mayor annually: the current (2016) is Councillor Mrs Elizabeth Banks. Two deputy mayors are the immediate past and the immediate next. Bromyard, Ross, Leominster and Ledbury also have mayors.

HEREFORDSHIRE PLACES CONSIDERED TOWNS(IN C. 1805)

Bromyard

Dorstone

Hereford

Kingsland

Kington

Ledbury

Leominster

Longtown

Orleton

Pembridge

Ross

Weobl[e]y

NINETEENTH-CENTURY ADMIN

There were eleven Herefordshire Hundreds in the nineteenth century:

Broxash, Euras (Ewyas) Lacy, Gremworth, Greytree, Huntingdon, Ludlow, Stretford, Webtree, Wigmore, Woolphy and Wormelow.

Within these sat some 221 parishes, incorporating one city (Hereford), two borough towns (Leominster and Weobl[e]y), and five other market towns (Ledbury, Ross-on-Wye, Kington, Pembridge and Bromyard).

MODERN GOVERNMENT

In more modern times, Herefordshire the administrative county was established under the Local Government Act of 1888. In 1974, it became a combined authority with Worcester but, in 1998, reverted to the unitary authority it remains today.

Since the eleventh century, Herefordshire has also been a ceremonial or shrieval county. Every March a Lord Lieutenant – the monarch’s representative in the county – and a High Sheriff are appointed through the ancient ritual ‘pricking the vellum’. Here the nation’s ruler pricks a hole alongside the name of the successful candidate, using a ceremonial bodkin instead of an erasable pen. Said to originate as a means of denying the unhappy victor an easy way out!

THE CHANGING FACE OF HEREFORDSHIRE

From the Saxons to modernity, the movement of people has shaped and re-shaped the county and, no doubt, numbers will continue to rise and fall as they have throughout its cosmopolitan history.

Herefordshire’s population at Domesday was 4,453 – broken down as follows:

Villeins (villagers)

1,730

Bordars

1,271

Serfs (servants)

   739

Oxmen

   142

Men

   134

King’s Men

     96

Miscellaneous*

   341

TOTAL

4,453

*  includes Welshmen, Freemen, Reeves, Sergeants and Carpenters

(Source: www.herefordshire.gov.uk)

One interpretation sees the majority of the county’s population ‘following the plough’, a peak in numbers frequently found at settlements with the highest number of teams (oxen). Such was the importance of agriculture to the Herefordshire people.

The following is sourced from Herefordshire Council’s ‘Facts and Figures’ reports (www.herefordshire.gov.uk):

Today (as of 2011), the county’s population exceeds 183,000, an exponential rise by any measure.

Between 1831 and 1881, the number rose from 111,000 to just 121,000, and by the turn of the century, actually fell, to 116,000. The industrial revolution, which accounted for rocketing numbers in the cities and towns, cannot be easily attributed to a county with such a rural economy.

More recently, the numbers perhaps show the effect of global migration, with a seasonal demand for agricultural labour being met by workers from other parts of the world. Between 2011 and 2012, the population grew more than 1%, and by 2031 is predicted to reach 205,000, a c. 17% growth since the end of the previous millennium.

The county has a higher proportion, 22%, of people aged sixty-five or more, compared to a national average of just 17%. Nearly 6,000 people are octogenarians or older, while the age of young people (under twenty years old) has fallen, with Leominster, Credenhill, south Hereford and Ross-on-Wye losing the lion’s share. Indeed, the county loses approximately 1,000 under-25s every year – owing, it is claimed, to a paucity of work and a lack of University campus [though see Chapter 9].

The county’s ethnic complexion is, and was, especially diverse. Mobile communities, including gypsies and Irish Travellers, have remained a substantial part of the Herefordshire ‘family’.

IN THIS YEAR …

Some (random) dates from Herefordshire’s history, most of them featured elsewhere in this book. Some are of local importance, others national, still more international:

Date

Event

c. 740

Cuthbert, Bishop of Hereford, erects a memorial to Milfrith, the King of the Magonsaete, and three other bishops - making Hereford the oldest cathedral city in Western Europe

1055 

Gruffydd ap Llywelyn ravages Hereford, destroying its castle, cathedral and most of the town – 'leaving nothing in the town but blood and ashes, and the walls razed to the ground'

1107–58 

Construction of the Romanesque (Norman) Hereford Cathedral, much of which can be seen to this day

1138 

Stephen crowns himself king at Hereford Cathedral, while first the city is burned below the town bridge and later the suburbs on the far side of the Wye

1189

Richard I’s charter to the people of Hereford

1217

New Magna Carta The original great document of civil rights and liberties, signed by King John in 1215. Two years later, after the death of the king and civil war for now quashed, the new child king, Henry III, re-distributed the charter in an updated form. One of only four copies to survive remains in Hereford Cathedral, some eight centuries years on

1326

The oldest surviving dovecote in Britain is erected at Garway

1461

Battle of Mortimer’s Cross near Leominster is a pivotal moment in the Wars of the Roses

1609

Hereford’s famed hobbie-horse race and May Morris Daunce draws thousands of spectators from near and far

1641

The surviving, famed Monnington Walk (1 mile of Scotch firs) is planted by newly elected MP, Sir Thomas Tomkins of Monnington Court

1645

Earl Leven leads his Scots army to their famed siege of Hereford city. Camped outside the walls for six weeks, their failed attempts to breech its defences end with a major retreat when faced with the king and his forces from Worcester

1715

The Three Choirs Festival is (conjectured) to start

1786

On Easter Monday, the entire West End of Hereford Cathedral collapses. Wyatt’s renovations draw unfavourable views

1802

Lord Horatio Nelson is made an honorary Hereford Freeman. During his regional tour with Lady Emma Hamilton, he visits the Swan Inn, Ross-on-Wye, the City Arms Hotel, Hereford, Downton Castle and Pencombe, where he meets the incumbent, his godfather, the Reverend Herbert Glass

1821

Tom Spring, bare-knuckle fighter, becomes England’s heavyweight champion, a title he retains until 1824

1826

Inaugural Herefordshire Bow Meeting is held at Hampton Court Castle, an iconic festival that occurs to this day

1845

The canals reach Hereford in May 1845

1853

The coming of the railways is celebrated in Hereford on 6 December. Some 60,000 people descend on the town for an array of festivities

1903

William Haywood is the last person hanged at Hereford Gaol

1916

Eight schoolgirls are killed in a disastrous fire at Hereford’s Garrick Theatre, whilst performing a charity concert for First World War soldiers

1924

Hereford United Football Club is formed out of St Martin’s and Rotherwas

2

HERITAGE I

Herefordshire has a unique collection of historical features. It has the most castles in the UK, and its Iron Age hillforts are some of the best. Yet it has much else besides. From scheduled monuments to rare treasures; bridges to dovecotes; from prehistory to modernity, there’s something for everyone interested in this county’s unparalleled past.

Note: The listings below can be used as a gazetteer of samples, or as a simple introduction to Herefordshire’s glorious past. Much of the information is informed by Herefordshire Council’s Historic Environment Record (HER) and/or Historic England’s National Heritage List for England (NHLE). Each entry quotes the relevant ‘asset number’ in the form HER#, NHLE#, for future reference. See bibliography for respective websites.

MONUMENTS

(Note: Offa’s Dyke has its own entry – see Chapter 4)

According to Historic England, Herefordshire has almost 100 scheduled monuments, protected in law against unlawful damage and harm. From a selection of a staggering 23,000 heritage ‘sites’ (see also Buildings, p.28) here is a sample of just some of the best:

Arthur’s Stone, Dorstone (1528, 1010720) – Neolithic stone burial chamber, perched high on Merbach Hill. Built in the Cotswold–Severn style, having side chambers. What remains is an evocative blend of fallen stone, surviving chamber and suggestions of the central passage deep into the tomb. The eponymous Arthur’s Stone, a large, prostrate slab seen in the nearby ditch, may be part of the original structure.

Credenhill Camp(906, 1005526) – Iron Age hillfort, on a site easily recognisable for miles around. Occupied c. 390 BCE–75 ACE, it has at least three entrances (the fourth may be modern). With only one defensive rampart, it is a good example of the univallate ringfort style; others nearby include Sutton Walls and Aconbury. An inner bank soars almost 9m high. The camp was later annexed by both the Roman military and by the wider medieval landscape.

British Camp (aka Herefordshire Beacon Camp), Colwall (932, 1001792) – another fine Herefordshire hillfort, straddling two hills high up in the Malverns. It retains the colossal bank and ditch on all sides. Built during the Iron Age, it was augmented in the early medieval and medieval periods. A defined ringwork, nicknamed The Citadel, lies within, and possibly dates to the tenth century. Note also Shire Ditch (3823, 1003812), a medieval boundary dyke, running on the south-eastern side.

Magna, Kenchester (121, 1001768) – Romano-British small town of Magna (modern Kenchester). Occupation on the site began in the first century and lasted till well into the fifth. It is defined today by its clear scarp. Mosaics (seen at Hereford Museum), hypocausts, even cremations reveal this as one of Herefordshire’s most important Roman centres known today. Scapula possibly launched his raids into Wales from here.

Bravonium and Jay Lane, Leintwardine (549, 1005522; 578, 1005367) – Roman town and fort of Bravonium and associated military station known as Bravinium [sic]. Relatively uncommon features, these smaller encampments provided essential men and supplies into the central Marches. Typically used during the first and second centuries ACE, these remained active well into the fourth.

Hereford City Walls, Rampart and Ditch(20249, 1005528) – defined as the ‘wall surrounding the whole medieval city, including several bastion … ramparts and ditches’. Originally the Mercian town of Hereford (‘army ford’), it was first enclosed in c. eighth/ninth century by constructing a simple earth bank and ditch. King Alfred strengthened and enlarged it late in the ninth (for example, to include St Guthlac’s, now Castle Green). The eleventh-century ‘new town’ to the north of this old Saxon burh (or fortified centre) – which it gradually subsumed – flourished after the charter of 1189. It was then Richard I sold the town to its people in exchange for maintaining its defences. In the thirteenth century a ring of stone was constructed, which included six gates and some seventeen towers.

MUSEUMS

Herefordshire museums provide an array of rare treasures, defining both the county’s past and its latter-day life. Included here are specialist museums, including one devoted to cider and another to science fiction and the famed Dr Who! Please check opening times etc. before visiting. This list is by no means exhaustive.

Hereford Museum and Art Gallery

Housed in a splendid Victorian Gothic building, the museum opened in 1874. Its collection includes: a pair of percussion duelling pistols, made c