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HEREFORD

M D Lobel BA FSA FRHistS

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CONTENTS

The Site and Situation of the Town

The Saxon City and its Origins

The Post-Conquest City

The Thirteenth Century

The Later Middle Ages

The Tudor and Stuart City

The Eighteenth-century City

Maps and Plans

The Situation of Hereford

Anglo-Saxon Burh and The Site

Medieval Street Names

Hereford c 1800 with major features in late medieval times

The Liberty of the City of Hereford

Parishes in the 18th Century


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HEREFORD The modern county lies on the border land between the Upland and Lowland districts between the Midland plain

and the Welsh mountains The plain of Hereford is an undulating lowland lying on the rich red marls of the Old Red Sandstone it is traversed by the River Wye and its tributaries and is broken by isolated tabular hills and by the escarpments of Silurian Rocks round W oolhope There is rugged country to the north and west to the east the Malverns rise above 1000 feet The city stands in the centre of its county It is not one of our earliest towns for it rose to prominence only in the early Saxon period as the seat of a bishop and later of the shire reeve It became a flourishing market~town and appears to have reached the highest point of its medieval development by the 13th century From Tudor times until the Railway Age it was a pleasant small provincial town largely dependent for its livelihood on the cathedral and the surrounding countryside

Herefords situation has always been of major importance in its history Like many ancient cities it was situated on a large river it lay near the junction of the Wye with its tributary the Lugg at a point where the main river could be forded at two separate places and at the south~eastern end of a gravel terrace 900 acres in extent The terrace now rises about 30 feet above the summer level of the Wye but formerly the river level is likely to have been lower The site is ery dry and well suited for timber~built houses it could be easily defended and there was no difficulty in obtaining water from wells River transport was of special value in the citys early history and remained of use throughout most of the subsequent periods but its development might have been greater had it not been for the difficulties of navigation on the Wye It was not until the 19th century that the problem of water transport was finally surmounted The Wye and its tributaries had other uses the meadows between the arms of the Wye and Lugg were particularly fertile the marshland (Widemarsh) to the north of the city once cut by the Eign and Yazor Brooks provided extensive common land I and there was ample power for water~mills There were at least six corn mills in the Middle Ages and in the later Middle Ages there were ful1ing~mills 2 The brooks and the city ditch which they supplied were also used extensively by tanners The rivers furthermore were rich in fish

The county was thickly wooded in prehistoric times and did not attract much settlement There were Iron Age camps on several of the neighbouring hills3 but only the sparsest evidence for early settlement has yet been found in Hereford itself Nor is there adequate proof of Roman occupation though there is some evidence that the Romans drove a major road through the site Watling Street (West) can be traced from Chester by Wroxeter to Leintwardine and possibly as far as Hereford Between Burghill and Hereford a road must have branched off to the Roman town at Kenchester (Magnis) and eventually reached Caerleon The Hereford branch crossed a Roman west east route from Clyro by Magnis to Stretton Grandison and proceeded southwards over Widemarsh Common It is thought that this road was making for Monmouth and that much of the modern main road to the south of Hereford must follow the line of the Roman road 4 When the medieval road system developed Hereford dominated its county with roads radiating out from it in six directions Of these the road west out of Friars Gate was a minor country one but the others were important links with some of the chief towns of Wales and England The main west route followed the Wye valley into Wales another went north by Leominster and Ludlow to Chester a third north~east to Worcester a fourth eastwards by Ledbury to the Midlands and a fifth southwards This last much~ used road to Monmouth branched eastwards to Ross and Gloucester and south~west to Abergavenny

The Saxon City and its Origins The origin of the place is extremely obscure There is a tradition that it was the centre of a British diocese and later

the 7th~century seat of a bishopric of the kingdom of the Magonsrete a Saxon people but it is not until the early 8th century that there is reliable evidence for either a town called Hereford or for a bishopric theres On a fine cross erected by Cuthbert Bishop of Hereford (736AO) Milfrith king (regulus) of the Magonsrete and his Queen were commemorated with three earlier bishops of the diocese 6 Milfrith may have deliberately chosen this site both as a capital city and the centre of a diocese because of its water and road communications and its central position between the Welsh speaking and English speaking people of his kingdom The subsequent history of the place makes it clear that however important the part played by the church the city was pre~eminently a royal foundation The Saxon name means Army Ford an indication that it was above all the strategic importance of the site with its command of the approaches to central Wales that most struck the new settlers

The following special abbreviations have been used

Balliol MS 271 St Guthlacs Cartulary Balliol College Library Cal Cath Mun Cal of the earUer Hereford Cathedral Muniments (1955) vols 1-3 compiled by B G Charles and H D Emanuel Cal City Arch MS Calendar of City Archives Hereford City Library and Museum Charts and Recs ed Capes Charters and Records of Hereford Cathedral ed 1 Capes (1908) Duncumb Hereford John Duncumb Collections Towards the Histories and Antiquities of the County of Hcrecrd (1804) vol i Glouc Cart Historia et Cartularium Monasterii Sancri Petri Gloucestriae (RS) ed W H Hart HMe i iii An Inventor of Historical Monuments in Herefordshire i (SoLith est) iii (North West) Hist MSS Com Historical ManLiscrij)ts Commission 13th Report appendix 4 WT Transactions of the Wool hope NatLiraUsts Field Club

We are greatly indebted for help and criticism to the Hereford Research Committee convened bv Mr F Noble (1EA Tutor) Miss R E Hickling Mrs J ODonnell Mr H J Powell Mr 1 M Slocombe ~1r and Mrs J W Tonkin and the City Surveyors Department We should also like to thank Mr S L Beaumont formerly Mayor of Hereford and Mrs Diana Currie President of the Woolhope Society and Mr J F W Sherwood Curator of the Hereford City Library and Museum for their support Much help was given by Dr Jennifer Tann research assistant

1 eg Cal City Arch and Cal Cath Mun passim 2 See map of the Liberty For mills see also Cal [n1 Misc i nos 2911087 Cal Pat 1258middot66427446 Balliol Ms 271 nos 224 311 313 3 VCH Herefs i 157-66 K M Kenyon Arch 1nl ex I 1 D Margary Roman Roads in Britain ii 53-54 VT 1933 lxxvi In eXClt1ations in 1963 remains of corn-drying kilns utilizing massive stones and two altars from

some Roman site were found underlying the earthworks of the western rampart-defences They may be of 4th century date see below n 38 bull F M Stenton HMC iii Iv-lvi VCH Herefs i 349 for the Magonscete see also H P R Finberg Lucerna 70-11 bull Wm of Malmesbury Gesta Pontif (RS) ed Hamilton 299 Malmesburv saw the cross in c1140 7 The modern 1elsh form is Henfford (Old Road or Way)

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On the extinction of the local dynasty of the Magonscete and the incorporation of their kingdom in Mercia the Mercian kings appear to have given their full support to the city Among them was fEthebald (716~757) He is the most likely founder of the pre~Conquest collegiate church of St Guthlac the saint who was said to have spent part of his early manhood in fighting in the Welsh Marchess Again early tradition makes Offa a lavish benefactor in expiation of the murder in 794 of his guest King Ethelbert of East Anglia 9 This crime may have been perpetrated at Offas supposed palace at Sutton Walls four miles distant from the city it certainly gave the minster its patron saint and martyr and it is likely that the origins of the citys Liberty (3500 acres including eight townshipslll) should be sought in this early period It is likely too that after the Battle of Hereford between the Welsh and English in 760 Offa fortified the city as part of his defensive works against the Welsh 11

Whatever the earliest fortifications may have been it is evident that in 914 when men from Gloucester and Hereford and the nearest burhs repulsed a Danish raid Hereford was reckoned as a burh 12 It continued as a stronghold under Athelstan in about 930 he summoned the Welsh princes to meet him there exacted tribute and made the Wye the boundary between Welsh and English ll As an English outpost the importance of Hereford was thus still further enhanced Moreover in this century it became a shire town it was the sole minting place west of Severn 14 it almost certainly had a market I it is probable that the Saxon kings like Edward the Confessor in the next century already had a residence in it and there is evidence at the end of the century of the beginnings of a cult of St Ethelbert and St Guthlac 11i Indeed the relics of Saint Ethelbert and the miracles worked at his shrine attracted so many pilgrims that just before 1040 probably Bishop Athelstan (1012~56) was able entirely to rebuild the minster on a more magnificent scalel~ Further important developments took place under Edward the Confessor The royal interest and the military need to keep a close control over the city is shown by the kings appointment of his nephew Ralph the son of the Count of Vexin as Earl of Hereford in succession to Swein Godwinson 18 Ralph almost certainly built the castle one of the first in the country before 1052 and established a Norman garrison in it 19 After his defeat in 1055 by a combined army of Welsh and disaffected English the city was sacked and burnt and he was replaced by Harold Godwinson who refortified the place and made it the base for raids on the Welsh which were eventually successfu1 2u The king himself evidently often stayed in the city probably in the castle the burgesses had to provide guards for his hall and beaters when he went hunting and the villeins of Kingstone had to carry to Hereford the spoils of the chase 21 The minster was especially favoured by him Under a new bishop Walter of Lorraine (1061~79) the re~organization may have begun by which it became one of the nine English secular cathedrals to be served by chaplains and dignitaries similar to those in Normandy22

The Domesday Book account makes it clear that Hereford had many of the special characteristics of Saxon shire towns23 The lordship was divided between the king the bishop and the earl but the king was paramount It was his peace that reigned in the city and those who broke it fined 1005 to him whose soever man he was A very clear distinction is made between the Civitas24 the kings and the earls share of the city with its royal and comital burgesses owing semi~military services and the bishops port and his men residing there who strictly speaking were not burgesses at all The customs of the 103 kings burgesses and the 27 owing allegiance to the earl are listed in unusual detail They resemble those of Shrewsbury another town prominent as a military outpost on the Welsh border and mostly concern the public duties of the burgesses These included serving in the army if the sheriff led an expedition into Wales This emphasis on the military aspect of the burgess does not however mean that he was not also a trader His tenure has the main characteristics of later burgage tenure he was personally free he held his burgage (masura) within and without the walls at a fixed ground rent he could sell it with the reeves consent provided the buyer undertook to do the services attached to it and he could devise his property The account is obviously selective but some reference is in fact made to craftsmen in the Civitas There were the six royal moneyers as the bishop had one the citys complement was equivalent to that of Canterbury or Oxford and was an indication of its size and im~ portance25 There were six smiths who made the kings iron (presumably from the Forest of Dean) into horse shoes there were women brewers within and without the city and there was trade in salt with Droitwich where the church of St Guthlac seems to have had nine burgesses 26 The trading character of the city is moreover fully established by the description of the bishops share It is recorded significantly under the heading Hereford Port (or market) a name already twice found under the years 1055 and 1056 in the Anglo~Saxon Chroniclen The bishops men held 98 masurae and as he received a rent of 94s it looks very much as if they were all free traders and craftsmen paying only a ground rent What the population of the city was at this date it is impossible to say the information given is too imprecise28

bull Felixs Life of St Quthlac ed B Colgrave 2-8 S H Martin WT 195367 sqq bull M R James Two Lives of St Ethelbert EHR xxxii 214-44

10 See map Par Rep on _ Boundaries of Boroughs (1832) pt 2 p 227 11 For excavations of the western rampart see below n 38 12 Two SaxOll Chrons ed Plummer i 99 13 F M Stenton Anglo-Saxon England 336 Stenton HMC iii lix For the mint see S H Martin WT 1958 129 16 The holding in Hereford annexed to an estate at Staunton-on-Arrow in 958 suggests the existence of a market Cart Sax ed W de G Birch no 1040 1 A bequest was left to both the minster and St Guthlacs in c 1000 Anglo-Saxon Vills ed D Whitelock no xix p 164 The original dedication to St Mary had

been superseded by the 11th century F Arnold Forster Studies in Church Dedicutions ii 323 17 Two Saxon Chrons ed Plummer i 187 For the miracles see Liber Vitae of Hyde ed Birch 89 M R James EHR xxxii 214-44 18 HMC iii lix The first earl was traditionallv made before 1041 Chron Flor Wore ed B Thorpe i 195 19 Two Saxon Chrons ed Plummer i 176 and ibid 200 for the castle men of Hereford in 1067 A sergeantv oi measuring the ditches of the astle and wermiddotseeing the

workmen was said to have been held since the Conquest Testa de Nevill 70 Chron Flor Wore ed Thorpe i 213-5 Two Saxon Chrons i 186-7 21 Domesday Bk i 179 VCH Herefs i 295 A T Bannister Cathedral Church of Hereford 25-6 For Normand see D C Douglas l1illiam the CUIIlmr 329 The bishop Iso built a double cbapel aiter the

pattern of that at Aachen see below p 10 23 Domesday Bk i 179 181 b 24 The name is given to only sixteen other towns 25 Cpo H R Loyn Anglo-Saxon England and the Nonllun Conquest 126-7 2 VCH Wore i 268 For other property of St Guthlac see DOlliesduy Bk i 182b-183 Two Saxon Chrons ed Plummer i 186 Domesday Bk i 179 181b C Stephenson (Borough and Town 221) basing his calculations on the recorded ligures places Hereford 37th instead of 24th in his table

of ranking boroughs Domesday figures for boroughs in general however are very misleading

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Any consideration of the extent of the AngloSaxon city and of its street plan can only be conjectural cut the preceding historical facts form a firm basis on which to build It can be said with some probability that the earliest settlement was concentrated on the gravel terrace near the river bank later expansion being northwards to the higher ground to High Town as it was called in the later lv1iddle Ages In the south lay the first Saxon minster and in the area of the later castle was St Guthlacs church and probably the royal residence The bishops tenants might be expected to live mainly in the centre round the minster and it is possible that the boundary ditch enclosing an area of about twentyfour acres of which traces have been found 9 in fact marked out his original early8thcentury holding It is significant that the boundary of St John the Baptists church which was in the patronage of the bishop later roughly followed this supposed boundary line and that the North Gate which would appear to have been the principal entry by land to the enclosure was under episcopal control in the 13th century when documentary evidence first becomes available The exact position of the Kings Ditch mentioned in charters and marked on Speeds map is uncertain but the name could reasonably be applied to this boundary line for it must have separated the bishops from the kings property lying on either side and inhabited by the kings tenants who were responsible for the citys defence Together the two properties or fees as they were later called covered an area of some 50 acreslI The main approach to this early settlement must have been the northsouth Roman road which presumably crossed the river by Palace ford some 500 yards upstream from Castle ford It may be supposed that an eastwest trackway follmved the line of the later road through West Gate (later Friars Gate) passed over the site of the Norman cathedral (the sites of the preious Saxon minsters lying to the south of it) along the line of the later Castle and Brutton Streets to the lower ford from which Hereford as Leland probably rightly thought took its name As in other AngloSaxon cities the plots (masurae) of the burgesses had a number of houses built on them3Z and traces of an arrangement of large plots of land diided bv lanes can perhaps be detected in the surviving street plan33

There can be little doubt in vie of the citys known importance that the medieval road system was already largely in existence by the Confessors time The four main routes north of the Wye met the old Roman road from Chester on the level ground to the north of the cathedral where the later High Street ran34 These trackways led of course not only to distant towns and villages but provided access to the fields common pasture and mills lying round the city which were indispensable to its existence3s They must also have dictated though at what period of time is uncertain the siting of the citys four northern gateways Eign Gate Widemarsh Gate Bye Street Gate and St Owens Gate West Gate North Gate and a presumed East Gate which would have been removed when St Owens Gate was made may have similarly been partly dictated by the earlier trackways Tenements were laid out at various dates along both sides of these roads Thus was formed in all probability the pattern of building plots apparent for instance between High Street and St Owens Street on the north side and Behindthewall Street (later Packers Lane) on the south side which is so notable a feature of the citys plan36 How far the area to the north of Behindthewall Street was occupied before 1066 it is at present impossible to say AngloSaxon charters have been lost probably in the conflagration of 1055 and no substantial amounts of AngloSaxon pottery have been found in this area But it is at least likely that it was here that some of the bishops thirtyeight deserted tenements (masurae) lay37

The main topographical problem is the extent of the AngloSaxon defences and their chronology The Domesday Survey mentions the wall (murus) of Hereford and it may be that at least from the time of Offa the city had been enclosed by a ditch and earthen bank no doubt with a palisade (see Map EFGH) It is probable that these early defences in part still standing were many times repaired and strengthened Recent excavations of the western rampart support this hypothesis It appears to be a complex structure possibly dating back to the 8th century Pottery of the late 10th century found on the tail of it may suggest that the bank here was already in existence by that date3s The eastern rampart which is of similar massive construction but so far undated presumably once extended to the Wye but the building of the castle and its outer defences would have led to great changes There are no remains above ground of the supposed northern rampart but the existing street plan and other reasons make its existence a practical certainty Fairly substantial archaeological evidence for a deep ditch along its line (see Map FG) has been found 39 a street named in the Middle Ages Behindthewall Street ran inside and parallel with it40 On the north side of it were two other parallel streets the High Street and Hongrey Street (later St Owens Street)

Granted that the earliest defences enclosed an area of about 50 acres and that on the east and west apart from subsequent alterations they were identical with the later medieval ramparts the date of the extension so as to include the 93 acres of the walled medieal city remains a major problem There is little doubt that stone gates were erected in 1190 and that the stone walls were built at arious dates after the charter of 1189 (see below) the problem is when the earthen bank was thrown up There is slight archaeological evidence pointing to its erection in the second half of the 12th century41 but so late a date would mean that the market area with the conventual church of St Peter and

See Anglo-Saxon Burh map (ABCD) A Watkins WTT 1920 249 sqq f G Hevs and J F L Norwood T 1958 117 sqq for a recent excavation 30 The suggestion (G Marshall (TT 1940 67 sqq) that this inclosed area represented a Roman fort and later the early Saxon burh has nothing to recommend it So

far few Roman remains have been found and these can be explained by the proximity of Magnis or the supposed Roman road Small burhs of similar area were certainlv built as military forts at strategic points (Stephenson Borollgh and Town 201) but none were ci-il and ecclesiastical administrative centres

31 Tie nal~e Kings Ditch was in use as a street name up to the time of Henrv VIII hut its position is uncertain Speeds lahelling on the Hereford map is in general crv inexact and in this case the representatie letter might he intended to appk to the western rampart to the lower half of Vroughtall Lane (which would agree with the archaeological eidence) or to a road at right angles to it

C2 Domesc(lY Bk i 179 The latin term llldSll1(1 persisted into the 13th centun ltIt Hereford Cal Cath 11lt11 i pp 1 14Q eg heteen Ferrers Lane and SL Ethelbert Street he tween Pipewell Lane and Xve Bridge Street between Plow Lane and Broad Street on main plan See above Gloucester p 1 See map of Liberty 16 See main map J7 See below n 56 Since this account was printed 11rs M Gravs excavations in 1968 discovered a wide range of late Saxon pottery fabrics a coin of Canute

furnaces and other e-idence of metal working under the rampart to the north of Eign Gate Mrs Gray anJ Mr Raht favour the 1055 date for these northern earthworks

38 See the report on excavations hv F Noble and R Shoesmith in WTT 1967 and note on excavation of July 1968 by P A Rahtz in Current Archaeology July 1968 No 19 242-46

39 ~Tatkins WT 1920 249 sqq Marshall (TT 1940 67 sqq Hereford Public Library Pilley Collection passim ltII The identification with Packers Lane (see main map) is definitek established bv a deed of 1510 Car Anc Deeds -i C 7557 A recent excaation in Bath Street (ie the Street running outside the wall between Bve Street and St Oens Gates) found potten- believed to be of mid-12th

centurv date heneath the earth bank into which the later wall had been inserted S C Stanford CT 1967240 sqq

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most of its streets was laid out outside the defences~ In view of Herefords exposed position this might seem foolhardy There are also two pieces of evidence which are difficult to fit in with this date First the four gates of the northern circuit appear to have been sited at the same time as the Vest (or Friars) Gate in the western rampart All are unusual among the gates of walled towns in that they are not in alignment vith the banks which if continued would overlap4l This similarity of construction would appear to favour a Saxon date for the bank of the northern circuit Secondly there is William of Malmesburys eye~witness description of the city probably written by 1125 Not large but still such as to show herself by the ruins of broken ditches to have been something great 44 His meaning is obscure but it seems that he must have had in mind either the northern circuit or the defences south of the Wye known as Row Ditch (see Map) At the date of his visit the city had certainly expanded beyond Behindthewall Street towards the northern medieval boundary St Owens church had been built outside the eastern rampart and across the Wye to the south earthworks of considerable size would have been visible Traces of them can still be seen They appear to have stretched from the Castle Ford in the east to St 1lartins Street where they probably turned north~ wards to join the Wye opposite the southern end of the citys western rampart across the river The date of these earthworks is uncertain but their purpose the defence of the two river crossings is clear45

Until further excavation can establish with greater certainty the date of the northern circuit other possible dates for the enlargement of the first defences based on historical considerations only may be suggested They could have been extended at the end of the 9th century during the Danish onslaught when the whole border country was in danger and particularly the peasants living in the Liberty surrounding the city The enclosed area would then have been comparable in size with such burhs as Cricklade Oxford and Wareham and would have given adequate protection to all the folk the phrase used when Worcester was fortified at about this date 46

Another and perhaps more likely possibility is that the extension was made in 1055 The Anglo~Saxon Chronicle records that Harold had a ditch dug about the port and Florence of Worcester adds that he surrounded it with a broad and deep ditch and fortified it with gates and bars 47 The words might be interpreted as a reinforcement of the old fortifications whether they enclosed an area of 50 or 93 acres or they could mean that Harold found a city which in the course of time had outgrown its ancient defended area of 50 acres that he strengthened the ancient defences to the east and west and encircled the dwellings outside the old embankment with a new ditch pierced by four new gates (EignWidemarsh Bye Street and St Owens)48 Yet another possibility is that the northern circuit was constructed soon after the Conquest by the all~powerful William Fitz Osbern Earl of Hereford and governor of the castle 49

The PostConquest City The immediate effects of the Conquest on the city appear to have been drastic The bishops fee suffered great loss

When Bishop Robert succeeded in 1079 he found 60 burgage plots instead of the 98 leased in Bishop Walters time and rents amounted to less than half his predecessorssn His lands in the county also suffered badly and this may have encouraged him to sell to William Fitz Osbern at a high price some of his city land and with it probably his rights over the market51 Fitz Osbern one of the Conquerors closest friends and an outstanding organizer had been made Earl of Hereford in 1067 and given supreme powers He refortified the castle established a Norman garrison there and took steps to develop trade He moved the market perhaps from an original site in Broad Street to a level site to the north where the roads into Hereford met confirmed to the English burghal community their ancient customs and at the same time introduced a number of French settlers52 To these he gave the free customs of his native Breteuil53 and for a time there must have been two separate burghal communities as at Norwich and Nottingham The most likely area for the Norman settlement would appear to be near the new market54 Rapid fusion followed under the unifying influence of the common market the customs of English and French were welded together and came to serve as a model for more than a score of newly formed towns 55 Indications of economic advance in the last quarter of the century are already strong the citys render was raised to the comparatively high sum of pound60 compared with its preConquest pound18 and various payments in kind the refortification and garrisoning of the castle brought trade in its train the value of the bishops agricultural land outside the gates of Hereford was doubled56

This last fact is but one example of progress in the county as a whole and of the new wealth from which the citys market could not fail to benefit Before 1085 a new church St Peter in the market had been built and endowed by Walter de Lacy who took a leading part in the development of the city after 107507 Walter built another church that of St Owen (St Audoen the patron saint of the mother church of Normandy at Rouen) outside the castle walls

2 See below

This is evident on Taylors map (1757) and has been confirmed by observations by the Hereford City Excavations Cttee The first gates would probably have been made of timber

Non grandis qUltE tamen fossatorum praeruptorum ruinis ostendat se aliquid magnum fuisse Wm of Malmesbury Gesta Pontif (RS) 298

C Fox Offas Dke (1955) 182-3 The similarity between these defences and the Cambridge ones across the River Cam were pointed out to me by Mr M Biddle The eastern Row Ditch on the north side of the Wye by Bartonsham Farm mav have been a boundary ditch round the Liberty the Customs of Hereford (13th14th century) mention a site at Rough Ditch as a place for holding the bailiffs inquisitions (see Liberty Map) T Curleys map (1858) shows an entrenchment on this line turning northwards just west of Eign mill and running nearly as far north as Bye Street Gate It is suggested that this was used as an artillery and infantry breast-work in 1645

bullbull J Tait Medieval English Borough 20 47 Twa Saxon Chrans ed Plummer i 186 Chran Hor Worc ed Thorpe i 214 8 See main map Recent archaeological discoveries support this hypothesis see notes 37 38 bullbull See below Domesday Bk i 181 b 51 Ibid under Etune 52 Ibid 179 53 Ibid 269 where Rhuddlan is said to have the laws and customs of Hereford and Breteuil For these customs sec viary Bateson EHR xv 303 and A Ballard The

Law of Breteuil EHR xxx 646 bullbull M Bateson suggested Brutton Street near the Castle mill and outside the walls as the French quarter bullbull Bateson EHR xv 395 56 Domesday Bk i 182b If the bank and gates of the northern circuit were not in existence this Lmd must lie outside West Gate and the supposed East Gate The

reference is more likely to be to the Port Fields on the north and northmiddotcst and so indirectly supports the argument for the erly construction of the bank of the northern circuit

67 Glouc Cart i 73 84 for the Churchs endowments see D1l i 182b For the family see W E Vightman The Lacy Family 1066-1194

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as well as a garrison chapel within the ambit of the castle58 Four tenants in chief now found it worth their while to have city property and burgesses Roger de Lacy for example had twenty the lord of Ewias Harold had five 59

In the next century despite a temporary set back during the troubled early years of Stephen (11351154) when all the city east of Wye Bridge and its suburb across the Wye were laid waste60 Herefords expansion clearly continued The building of the new cathedral begun by Bishop Reinhelm (110715) and worked on almost continuously during the first half of the century gave a great impetus to the citys growth The stone bridge across the Wye constructed about 1100 to replace the pre~Conquest wooden bridge1must have greatly facilitated trade and after 1121 there was the attraction of the bishops three~day fair (extended to seven days in 1161) Henry I gave it national status by issuing the unusual invitation to all his barons and burgesses to attend it~2 There is evidence of immigration from the country side of diversified occupations particularly of those connected with the building tanning milling weaving and wine trades~3 By the end of the century the city seems to have become a considerable centre of the cloth industry and had attracted not only a Jewish community but a very wealthy one A4

The organization of the parochial system is another sign of increasing population St Peters became a parish church in 1143 when Bishop Robert de Bethune (1131A8) founded St Guthlacs Priory and transferred to it the endowments of St Peters a conventual church since about 1100 and of the mother church of St Guthlac in the Castle arean5 Presumably the four other city parishes with parishioners both inside and outside the walls were made at the same time though there is direct evidence for the 12th~century existence of only the churches of St Owen and St Nicholas The latter is mentioned before 1155 66 its dedication to a saint who was the patron of sailors suggests that its erection was connected with the increasing late 11 th and 12th~century traffic by road and river particularly after the grant of the fairn7 No reference to All Saints and its chapel of St Martin across the Wye Bridge has been found before 1214 when they were said to be vacant6S Both were in the gift of the king and Henry I or II would have been likely founders As for the parish of St John9 sandwiched as it is between the parishes of St Nicholas All Saints St Peters and St Owens it must surely have been formed at the same time as St Peters and the others

There are signs that the city was getting crowded before the end of the century Apart from evidence for contiguous houseso the siting of three religious houses outside the city suggests that large open spaces were no longer available St Guthlacs Priory was placed well out in the country in 1143 the Hospitallers house was established some way out along Widemarsh Street and the Templars house was at an even farther distance along St Owens Street the one by Henry IIs reign and the other by Richard 1S71 By Johns reign at the latest the Jews were settled on the northern edge of the market arean a fact which strongly suggests that the lay~out of the northern part of the city and the main street pattern of modern times had already been largely completed

The Thirteenth Century Because of the increased volume of documentary evidence it is possible to get a much clearer picture of the

topography of the city in this century73 By the end stone walls and bastions with six stonebuilt gates encompassed it This work probably began soon after the charter of 1189 which obliged the burgesses to assist with the construction of fortifications (ad claudendam villam)4 and from 1224 the work was financed by regular murage grants which licenced the bailiffs to levy special to11s75 When completed perhaps well before 1263 apart from the bastions the walls were 2350 yards in length The seventeen semi~circular bastions about 20 feet in height probably date from the reign of Edward 176 These fortifications remained intact until the end of the 18th century The varying com~ position and thickness of the walls confirms that they were built over a period of years The northern circuit is a simple construction with a communication lane running round inside it but the sections from the Wye to West Street and from the castle to just south of St Owens Gate are backed by massive banks of rampart construction77

Inside the walls the life of the city centred on the great market place in the north and the cathedral precincts in the south The market place stretched from St Peters church to All Saints in the west To the north of it lay the Jewry with the synagogue (schala) with its chest (area) for chirographs78 At least some of the Jews houses were of stone9

58 Glouc Cart i 85 123 Charts and Recs ed Capes 13 59 Domesday Bk i 184 (Lacys 20 is based on the payment of Is each) ibid 185 186 60 K Norgate England under the Angeltin Kings i 294 sqq HMC i 127 62 Reg Regum Anglo Nonnannorum ed H W C Davis ii no 1267 63 Deeds in Cal Citymiddotarch and Cal Cath Mun passim Pipe Roll 1189 (Rec Com) 141 143 ibid 1230 (PRS NS iv) 219 Scandinavian names (eg Ketel Sweyn

Thurgrim) it may be noted are not infrequent 64 E Miller Thirteenthmiddot century Textiles Ec HR (1965)66 and see below n12 Pat R 121625 157 and see below n 78 65 After the strife of the Anarchy the Castle site was considered no longer suitable for the religious life Glouc Cart i 85-6 S H Martin W T 1953 219 sqq

For the conventual status of St Peters see Balliol MS 271 f 93v no 412 (ex info Mr Martin Brett) 66 Letters and Charters of Gilbert Foliot ed Dom A Morey and C N L Brooke no 302 Prof Brooke kindly called my attention to this reference 67 The advowson belonged to the king until 1249 Cal Chart 122657345 Rot Litt Pat i 116b See also ibid 13 Iband A T Bannister WT 1914 275 It has been assumed that this chapel of St Martin is the chapel of St Martin in the

Castle moved to a new site but it is not uncommon for towns to have two churches with the same dedication Furthermore St Martin in the Castle was given by Hugh de Lacy to the Priory of St Guthlac Abb Plac 75 For a royal confirmation c1150 see Reg Ricardi de Swinjielcl ed Capes 48

69 See map 70 eg see grant of land and houses to the monks of Malvern C 1150 Charts and Recs ed Capes 15 71 The Hospital appears to have been in existence in 1159 Pi)e R 1159 (PRS i) 49 see Abbret Plac 53 for a reference to it in Richard Is reign For the Templars

see Testa de NetJill 70 72 Pat R 1216-25 157 73 Many lanes named in I3thmiddotcentury deeds cannot be located with certainty eg Vicus super murum Scole Lane Oldscole Lane Bythebroke Strete Crosshulleswaye

and see Medieval Street Name map For a complete list see J W Tonkin CT 1967 236middot51 The allowance to the sheriff in 1190 for work on four city gates and a castle gate may have been for repairs or for making new stone gates supposing the northern

circuit of the bank to have been in existence Pipe R 1190 (PRS NS i) 49 In 1215 100 marks were remitted to the burgesses ad villam sUQm jirmandum Rot Litt Claus i 231 cpo the writ concerning the strengthening of the castle ibid

75 Pat R 1216-25473 Hereafter grants were made at frequent intervals but were it appears not always used for the intended purpose eg Cal Pat 1232-47224 76 HMC i 126 sqq Duncumb Hereford 224 We are indebted to Miss R E Hickling and the County Planning Dept for the line of the walls shown on the main

map which corrects the OS plan Excavations by Miss H Sutermeister and others will be reported in VT 77 See report by F Noble and R Shoesmith as n 38 above 78 Cat Inc Misc i nos 185 2042 For the size and wealth of the community see Pat R 1232-47512474 Close R 1234-7307 1237-42353-4 Rot Litt Claus ii

135b H G Richardson The English jeH under Angein Kings index 79 Cal Inq Misc i no 328

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In the market itself were the stalls or shops of butchers (bocheria later Butchers Row) fishmongers (piscaria) and drapers (draperia) and of cooks (rangia cocorum later Cooken Row)80 Here too was the Tolsey (broken into and robbed in 1339)8 the High cross and St Peters cross and presumably the Guild Hall though no 13th~century reference to it has been found 82 Early in the 12th century the burghal court was being held in front of St Peters church in the open air83 but after the royal charter of 1189 a permanent building must have been erected The recorded encroachments on the kings highway84 are likely to have been in the market where sites were coveted and may have been the beginning of the Rows such as Butchers Row Frenchmens Street may have been a continuation of Eign or Bewell Streets if it does not commemorate the quarter where Fitz Osberns French burgesses originally settled it may have been so named from a group of Normans following some special craft8s Corvesers Rowand Sadelwrites Street took their names from crafts and the general traders the Mercers gave their name to Mercers Row8S Of the many trades connected with cloth~making such as dyers fullers and weavers or others like the skinners and glovers whose names frequently occur in deeds none apparently gave their name to streets87

The rapid development in the market area is demonstrated by the rebuilding and enlargement of the chancel and nave of St Peters and the addition of a tower and by the work done at All Saints8S For the latter there is no archi~ tectural or direct documentary evidence for a 12th~century building If it existed then as has been suggested above it was rebuilt early in the 13th century on a large scale and with much rich ornament It may have suffered damage in the Barons War for there was further rebuilding in a simpler style at the end of the century

From the south side of the market Caboche Lane (later the more elegant but less correct Capuchin Lane) with many canons houses in it led off to the cathedral precinct89 To the south of the cathedral to which important additions were made in this century was the Bishops Palace with its 12th~century timber hall and to the west adjoining Pipewell Lane was his prison The canons houses apparently mostly lay along the northern boundary of the precincts in Vicus Canonicorum90 Twenty canons are known to have resided all the year at the end of the 13th century and in 1321 their houses were described as 0Id 9 The graveyard was walled but there was evidently easy access to it by wide gates In 1389 licence to inclose it and lock it up at night was sought because among other enormities pigs were digging up the bodies of the dead and unbaptized infants were being secretly buried at night It was also complained that it was used as a threshing floor and a cattle market92 To the east of the precincts in Castle Street lay the Hospital of St Ethelbert founded by a canon in about 1225 in order to feed 100 poor persons daily93 so too possibly was the Cornmarket for in 1395 it was said to have long been held there94 Whether the Cathedral precincts were walled or not has not been established There is certainly no sign of any inclosure on Speeds map

The castle received almost continuous attention in this period and was probably already in Lelands words one of the fayrest largest and strongest castels in England A record of 1265 gives an idea of its extent Besides the great tower there were the kings and queens halls chambers and kitchens a larder the knights chambers the kings chapel (built in 1233) a chamber for the kings clerks a stable and two turrets a bake~house an almonry a hall for the county courts an exchequer chamber and a prison All this was surrounded with a strong wall and towers9S Since at least 1190 there had been a vineyard attached to it96

It is difficult to gauge the extent of the suburban development in this century as the word suburb was often used to designate the whole Liberty There were certainly small concentrations of houses outside all the gates Outside Eign Gate houses were pulled down to prevent the rebel barons using them in an attack on the walls in 1263 and there too was a hospital for lepers97 Outside Widemarsh Gate was the Hospital of St ]ohn98 and beyond Bishops Gate (later Bye Street Gate or Byster) the king the bishop and the Prior of St Guthlac had property and houses99 Without St Owens Gate there was a community gathered round the church of St Owen with houses both in Brutton Street and St Owens Street In the latter there was the Templars Round Church and the Hospital of St Giles founded before 12632 It is possible that it was here the Dominicans attempted to settle in 12463 before they finally occupied their Widemarsh site in 1322 Beyond Wye Bridge the settlement may have been mostly of Welsh seven or eight Welshmen were said to have perished in the fighting in 11384By 1227 a hospital had been built next to St Martins Chapels Outside West or St Nicholas Gate (later Friars Gate) there seems to have been little but the friary of the Friars Minor who settled there in about 12376 Houses were also scattered along the city ditch at various points between the gates7

Outside the walls lay the extensive common lands of Widemarsh in the north The two common fields lay one to

80 City Archives MTvii3 etc Cal Cath Mun passim 81 ie Custommiddothouse Cal Pat 1338-40 228 82 For a 14th-century reference see Cal Chart R 1347-1417383 83 Balliol MS 271 no 330 84 eg Pipe R 1230 (PRS N s 4) 217 85 It was described as against the church of All Saints Cal Cath Mun and see above p 4 and n 54 86 Cat Anc Deeds vi c 6428 Cal City Arch and Hist MSS Com 296 87 See Cal Cath Mun City Arch Cat Anc Deeds passim 88 HMC i 120-25 89 Cal Pat 1377-81 120 1396-99345 90 HMC i 90 sqq ibid 116-17 Reg Thome de Canti1upo ed R G Griffiths 268n 91 Charts and Recs ed Capes x 197 bull bullbull Ibid xxxii 249-52 Cal Cath Mun p 1095 bull 3 Charts and Recs 56-62 Close R 1231-34 H7 91 Cal Pat 1391-6 591 Cal Lib 1226-40 230 ibid 1260 67 175 ior detailed account of the castle see The Kings Works cd H M Colvin ii 673-7 Pipe R 1190 (PRS NS i) 45 bull 7 Cal Inq Misc i no 291 HistMSSCom 284 98 See above n 71 The surviving wing of its building seems to date from the 13th century HMC i 129 CaL Inq Misc i no 291 1 See above n 71 Cpo N Pevsner Herefordshire 2 CaL Inq Misc i no 291 The cult of St Giles was at its height in the 12th century and the Hospital may have been founded then The date 1290 on the Hospital

building may commemorate repairs 3 Cal Lib 1245-5145 bull See above n 60 6 Cal Chart R 1226-5734 G Close R 1234-37 504 7 Cal Inq MiSe i no 291

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the north Widemarsh Port Field and the other to the east near St Guthlacs-called Priors Port Field or simply Port Field In these fields the bishop the canons the Hospital of St John St Guthlacs the burgesses and others had arable strips intermixed The burgesses also held land in the fields of the vilIs in the liberty and it is evident that the rich burgess constantly invested in land and that the poor one used it to supplement his earnings as a craftsman

For purposes of government the city was divided into four fees The residents of the kings fee were the burgesses proper-the kings men who leased the greater part of the city from him The castle remained in his own hands Residents on the other fees were not burgesses-they were the bishops men or the men of the dean and chapter or of the Hospital of St John The hospital fee only came into existence in the mid12th century but the other three dated from before the Conquests All in varying degrees were independent of burghal control

The earliest information about the organization of the ward system comes from the customal drawn up towards the end of the 14th century9 but the system then used was almost certainly in existence by the 13th century There were five wards named after the five gates and they included land in the suburbs For the view of frankpledge the tenants of all the fees had to attend in their respective wards and the townships within the Liberty were also answer able to the wards The tourns were therefore held at four places outside the walls between Michaelmas and All Saints and between Easter and Whitsun at four other more remote places lo

Several factors were responsible for the spectacular growth of the city Most important was the general revival of trade in the country and the increase in agricultural production which were outstanding features of the late 11th and 12th centuries 11 Increased prosperity was followed by a growth in population and the citys numbers were swollen by the great influx of immigrants from rural villages in the county and from neighbouring towns such as Cirencester Gloucester Leominster Ledbury and Evesham 12 Its growing wealth was a lure not only to the able bodied and ambitious but also to the needy and sick In 1250 Pope Innocent IV prohibited the settlement of the Dominicans on the grounds that Hereford had a great college of Friars Minor many hospitals for the poor a great multitude of needy and consequently no alms to spare 13

Apart from the advantages of the site the chieflocal factors contributing to the citys expansion were the pacification of the Welsh border the citys status as a free borough and its connexion with the cathedral and the castle As regards the first point trade with Wales and the Marches was considerable and had been since the 12th century4 when Wales had an ill reputation for bestiality and faithlessness-hominum nutrix bestialium fide semper instabilium As a borough the influence of the burgess community was greatly enhanced by a series of royal charters in 1189 it virtually secured the right of selfgovernment in 1215 its right to control the market and trade through its guild merchant was recognized in 1226 it acquired a twoday fair Is Originally governed by a royal reeve the citys chief officers were now a capital bailiff and two bailiffs frequently described as the kings bailiffs until the charter of 1383 empowered the election of a mayor instead of the chief bailiff The city court held at the Boothall was known as the kings court of Hereford and on the bailiffs fell the responsibility for the preservation of law and order the upkeep of the city walls and the defence of the city Hereford was among the first towns to send representatives to a national deliberation it was summoned in 1275 and again in 1283 From 1295 it regularly returned two members to Parliament 16

The citys relations with the church fees were of paramount importance for nearly half the city was under the control of the bishop and chapter The bishops fee along with that of the dean and chapter had clearly defined limits though they cannot now be ascertained Within them the church had minor rights of jurisdiction its own bailiffs and other officers prison and stocks 17 There there resided a large clerical population-the cathedral hierarchy vicars choral numerous chaplains and priests and their lay tenants This community formed in many respects a rival to the burghal oligarchy and disputes between them were frequent though these in contrast to many other towns where there were two or more selfgoverning communities dwelling side by side were conducted with comparative moderation The main matters of contention were whether the churchs tenants should share in the tallages and other taxes laid on the citizens i l8 whether the citys bailiffs should be allowed to enter the church fees to make arrests and imprison the tenants for crimes and misdemeanours whether the bishop had the right to hold the assize of bread and ale for his tenants and take the profits whether the city had an exclusive control of trade and so the power to prevent the churchs tenants from trading freely in the market and whether the bishop had jurisdiction over the whole city during his fair After a long and bitter struggle an agreement on most of these points was reached in the settlement of 1262 made with Bishop Peter of Aigueblanche before the kings judges19 A later settlement with the Lord Edward and his council as arbitrators was confirmed in 139420 The 1262 agreement in particular was an undoubted triumph for the bishop and was frequently appealed to by his successors It successfully prevented any extension of burghal authority over the whole city and was largely responsible for the support given by the burgesses to Simon de Montfort

8 For the church fees see below n 17 The limits of the Hospitals fee and its jurisdiction in the Widemarsh area in 1505 were Widemarsh Street the Town ditch and Bye Street City Arch Rental I am indebted to Mr 1 M Slocombe for a transcript

9 W H Black and G M Hills Jnl Brit Arch Association (J 871) 479 sqq 10 See map of the Liberty 11 A Poole Domesday Book to Magna Carta 55-6 65 and passim cpo Mary Bateson EHR xv 74 M Beresford Net( Towns 55 sqq R H Hilton A Medieml

Society J2 See names of craftsmen in undated () 12thmiddotcentury and 13thmiddotcenturv deeds in Cal City Arch and Cal CatlL Mun 13 Charts and Recs ed Capes 85-6 U eg Dugdale Monasticon i 550-1 15 Cal City Arch Rot Chart i 212b Rot Litt Claus ii 131 b (altered to 3 davs in J227 ibid ii 17 8b) in 1237 Leominster was forbidden to compete with Herefords

Saturday market Close R 1237-42 2 3 16 Cal Pat and Cal Close Rolls passim The best printed version of the citys customs is by Black and Hills in Jn1 Brit Arch Ass (187 J) 479 sqq cpo Duncumb

Hereford 317middot344 For MPs see May Mckisack Parliamentary Representation of tie English Boroughs 1 6 11 For the church fees in general see Duncumb Hereford 293 299 305 HO-12 Close R 1242-47226 Reg Thome de Cantilupo xxx-xxxi 18 eg in ante 1234 1238 1272 For these disputes see Cal Cath Mun pp 247 452 456 496 510-11 5731096 Charts and Recs ed Capes xix 63128 Reg Thome de Cantilupo 91 20 Cal Pat 1391-6 425

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against the king and his Savoyard favourite Bishop Peter To them as to Matthew Paris the bishop exhaled a sulphurous stench

This opposition was a sign of the political ambitions of the burgess community and its growing economic strength That this strength was partly derived from the presence of its rivals there can be no doubt Since the Conquest the market shared by both communities had been under royal and later burghal rule but the wealth of the clergy and their tenants must have been a decisive factor in its growth The bishops sevenday fair was another source of wealth and more lucrative still perhaps were the pilgrims The strenuous promotion of the cult of St Ethelbert which reached its zenith in the Life of the Saint written before 1216 by the Hereford canon Giraldus Cambrensis attracted large numbers1and so too at the end of the century did the fame of the saintly bishop Thomas of Cantilupe The incidental benefits to the burgesses as well as to the bishops craftsmen were incalculable The pilgrims needed food drink lodging such luxuries as the market could provide Their offerings enabled the great building works at the minster to go forward and these were themselves a source of employment22 It has been estimated for example that in the last two quarters of 129091 there were 50 or more masons employed on the fabric of the cathedral The dual origin of the city is a fundamental reason for its expansion

The castle was also an undoubted source of wealth to the townsmen It was not only frequently a royal residence~3 especially beloved by Henry III who spent lavishly on its enlargement but it was also an administrative centre for the shire a prison a lodging for the garrison and a military workshop and storehouse Petraries mangonels and quarrels were made there the raw material-iron steel wood charcoal and feathers-had to be supplied and workmen were needed to do the work and to convey the finished articles to their destination Barrels of quarrels for instance were despatched to Ireland and elsewhere24 All this activity brought employment and profit More must have come from provisioning the castle particularly when the court was there from transporting large quantities of wine from Bristol and other towns and from acting as the kings agent in provisioning numerous castles on the Welsh border 2S

In the Baronial war the castle was the centre of the countrys government for a time the city was occupied by the rebellious barons in 1263 and in 1265 the captive king and his son were lodged in the castle while Simon de Montfort ruled26

The Later Middle Ages After Edward 1s conquest of Wales the castle lost its military importance and though it was still used occasionally

as a royal residence it ceased to play so large a part as formerly in national history and the city consequently suffered some material loss There are many indications however of economic activity in the 14th century which suggest that it had found other sources of profit and that at least in the first half of the century its population continued to expand27 Its prosperity can in part be attributed to the flood of miracles performed at the tomb of Bishop Thomas of Cantilupe who died in 1282 to the indulgences offered by almost every bishop in England to those who would visit his tomb and make offerings for a sumptuous shrine for him and to the subsequent great influx of pilgrims He was canonised in 1320 after papal commissioners had visited the city to investigate the alleged miracles 28 As late as 1348 the Pope was petitioned to remit the sins of those who would visit or send oblations29 and in the following year Edward III himself was present at the translation of the saints bones to the new shrine30 Once again a saint enriched numerous innkeepers farriers and other tradesmen and craftsmen whether burgesses or mere townsmen Prominent among them were masons plasterers glaziers and carpenters31 for the inflow of money enabled work to be carried on during the first half of the century on the cathedral building as well as on the city churches numerous chantries priories and domestic houses The Friars Preachers for instance were planning to erect buildings on their new site in 1320 where their Preaching Cross the only one of its kind to survive in England was put up soon after32 and in 1336 a house in Castle Street was taken over for the vicars and clerks of the church33

The growth of population was seriously checked by two devastating attacks of the bubonic plague in 13489 and 1361 So many clergy died or resigned that arrangements had to be made by St Peters church for the canons to take services and in 1362 the bishop spoke of the recent unprecedented and outrageous plague34 Nevertheless there is evidence that Hereford continued to be economically prosperous and it is likely that this prosperity largely arose from the revival of the English wool trade and cloth industry Various allied crafts are frequently mentioned in this century-dyers fullers weavers tailors hosiers cappers and there were at least two fullingmills at work in the mid14th century35 There is specific evidence of royal and foreign buying of wool at Hereford and of Hereford merchants trading in it at London and Bristo136 The fine house which the city bought in 1392 from Henry Cachepole a leading merchant and former mayor may well have been built from the profits of the wool trade for a Henry Cachepole burgess of Hereford was a wool merchant in the 1350s37 The house known as the Boothall was used as a hall of pleas a freemans prison a mercers guild hall and a centre for the sale of woo1 38 The citys affluence is

21 A T Bannister The Cathedral Church 109 (App A) Bannister W T 1904 377 Ciraldus Cambrensis (RS) ed J S Brewer iii 407 sqq 22 See below n 31 HMC i 90 sqq Cal City Arch passim 23 For Henry III see references to castle passim for Edward 1s visits in 1283 12137 1291 1301 see H Gough Itinerary G Marshall WT 193040 24 Cal Lib 1226-40313951101209 1240-4567299 Rot Litt Claus ii 129b i 593 Cal Lib 1226-40 95 220 etc for prisoners Cal Lib 1267-72 no 780 for

garrison 25 Close R 1231-4 173252 1242-7303 ibid 1288-96 11 Cal Lib 1240-452478237 1251-6042121159 Cpo Rot Parl iii 330b 2 Sir M Powicke King Henry III and the Lord Edward ii 472 sqq Hist MSS Com 285 27 For tax figures in 1327 and 1377 see W G Hoskins Local History in England 176 In 1377 1903 persons paid tax making an estimated population of at least 21354 28 Bannister Cathedral Church 70 167-175 Charts and Recs ed Capes xxii 2 Cal Papal Regs Petitions i 163 30 G Marshall WT 193043 31 For the bishops own craftsmen see Cal Cath Mun passim 32 Cal Close 1318-23 174 See Cal Pat 1330-3469 for licence to enlarge the buildings HMC i 128-9 L A S Butler WT 1960334 sqq 33 Cal Pat 1334-38 247 HMC i 141 (99) S H Martin WT 1956 (pt ii) Cpo Cal Papal Letters iv 390 35 Cal City Arch Cal Cath Mun and see above n 2 3 eg Cal Close 1337-39499 Cal Pat 1343-45 164 Hist MSS Com 296 37 Hist Mss Com 286 291 Cal Pat 1354-8225 Cachepole was alleged to be the leader of a conspiracy of local men to defraud a Venetian merchant trading at Bristol 3 HMC i 133 (21) Watkins WT 193449 sqq

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reflected in the almost continuous work on the fabric of the cathedral during the century in the restoration and beautification of the city churches in the foundation of chantries and of a grammar school in 138439 In 1399 it paid pound100 to the king as a loan and consequently received an important new charter4o

In the next century despite the unsettled state of the Marches the city seems to have prospered It had long established connexions with Vales and all the neighbouring counties from Bristol in the south to Chester in the north which enabled it to share in the wealth derived from the trade in both wool and cloth especially as its county produced some of the finest wool in the countryl During the revolt of Owen Glendower Hereford became once again a base for the Welsh campaigns and its bowyers fletchers butchers and the like were greatly in demand Later the struggles of Yorkists and Lancastrians brought the city into prominence Queen Margaret and the king were there in 1452 and again in 1457 with the whole court when burgesses and country gentry alike rallied to the king 42 At the end of the century the traders prosperity can be seen in the elaborate arrangements made for the annual Corpus Christi procession in which about twenty craft guilds took part 43

The Tudor and Stuart City Judging from the Tudor subsidy returns of 1523 Hereford was a moderately prosperous country town It seems

to have been about as wealthy as Worcester or Gloucester and a good deal more so than Shrewsbury44 Lelands picture of the city in 1538 is of a wellkept and beautiful place He found it large and strongly walled compassed with a dike always filled with morisch water the walls and gates right well maintayned by the burgesses of the town but the castle perhaps of as great a circuit as Windsore tending to ruine though the great tower of the keep and the ten towers of the outer ward were still standing He mentions the faire chapell of St Guthlac with its circular apse45 the four parish churches within the walls and gives some account of the suburbs outside the six gates Without Wye Gate he mentions the chapel of Our Lady of Alingtre (prope furcas) a name which is otherwise unknown He notes that there were but few houses outside Friars Gate that outside Widemarsh Gate was the fayrest suburbe of the towne and that the one outside Bishops (Bye Street) Gate was prayte40

The Reformation had a marked effect on the social structure of the town and was accompanied bv serious economic loss The land of the dissolved priories passed to country gentry and leading citizens The buildings soon became ruinous but in the case of the Blackfriars Priory the stone was later used to build Sir Thomas Coningsbys Hospital for old soldiers and servants Reformers complained of the citys conservatism not one of the city council was favourable to the new religion no work was done or shops opened on the Vigil and the Feast of the Assumption priests driven out of other places found asylum in Hereford and were feasted as if they were Gods angels This attitude doubtless accounts for Henry VIIIs authorization of the destruction of four mills two corn and two fulling mills belonging to the dean and chapter There followed the consequent decline of the former extensive trade in bread with Wales and the ruin of the cloth industry The petition by chapter and town in Marys reign for the restoration of the mills by Thomas Kerry highlights the damage done the fullingmills they said had greatly increased clothmaking in the city had set many people to work so that the inhabitants became wealthy and rich After their destruction clothmaking utterly ceased and the city fell into extreme ruin and decay and was filled with poor Bishop Scories bequest in 1585 of stock to two substantial clothiers to set the poor at work testifies to the continued depression and in the same year the weavers complained of their distressed condition because of the admission of strangers and persons not duly apprenticed47 The market nevertheless continued to be well frequented a petition of 1589 states that the High Causey was almost impassable because of the piles of merchandise and asked for the re moval of the fruit and iron markets to St Peters CrosS48

The policy of economic protectionism of the later Middle Ages was continued and elaborated The citizens were vigilant in excluding all foreign competition and in reorganizing themselves in exclusive companies Now the sadlers for instance threatened that if the mayor did not take steps to prevent the admission of foreign saddlers they would not make any contribution to the payment for the renewal of the citys charter the clothmakers molested the Welsh clothiers when they brought their packs of friezes and white cloth to the Boothall for sale49 This tendency to exclusiveness was further strengthened by the charter of incorporation of 159750 and its effects combined with the shift of industry from the towns to the countryside is seen in the absence of much suburban development on Speeds map of 1610 He depicts continuous houses on both sides of the road outside Eign Gate for about 200 paces continuous houses on the west side of Widemarsh Street for 150 paces as well as on the east side beyond the Black Friars inclosure outside Bye Street Gate they are continuous for 75 paces and similarly outside Friars Gate In each of these cases the houses may have extended beyond the limits of his map Outside St Owens Gate all are included and they are thinly scattered for just over 200 paces

Speed also shows an important new building the magnificent markethouse and guildhall erected shortly before 16025l and two hospitals for the workless and aged poor Kerrys founded before 1600 and Williamss of about the

39 HMC i 91 sqq For contracts made with local masons and burgesses in the later 14th century see Charts and Recs ed Capes 230-31 The site of the Grammar school is unknown

0 City Archives Col Chart 1347middot1417 382middot3 eg Rot Par ii 397a iii 4Sb 330b VCH Herefs i 369 370 sqq 3 Hist MSS Com 288 Hoskins Local History 176-7 He calls it by mistake St Cuthberts Leland Itin ed Tllulmin Smith ii 65 For the maintenance ot St Guthlacs chapel and shrine by the Prior of St Guthlac see

Kings Works ed Colvin ii 676 4ti Leland Itin ii 64-9 iii 47--8 R Johnson Ancient Customs of Hereford (1868) 122middot3 J26- 7 Hist MSS Com 332 33S PRO S P Dam Eliz xix 24 F C Morgan W T 1936 13 Hist MSS Com 327 317 Cpo 319 322 323 326340 sqq 5 Miss E M Jancey kindly provided a precis ] Demolished in 1862 it has been described as one ot the finest examples of its type in the country N Drinkwater VT 1949 i with reproduction of a drawing in

the Hereford City Library

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same date5~ Coningsbys (1614) Mary Prices (later Aubreys 1636) and Weavers (1641) were later efforts to deal with this problem The Civil War put an end to both philanthropy and trade Highly prized by both armies the city exchanged hands several times and suffered a five weeks siege by the Scottish army53 When peace came its economy was in a desperate state The highways leading to the city were in a ruinous condition the Wye Bridge required heavy expenditure to repair it in the town itself the streets were foul and nastye with dung and filthy miskins causing more trouble than usual and there was a multitude of sturdy beggars j there was also overcrowding and householders were forbidden to take inmates 54 As regards buildings there were four direct casualties of the Civil War-the castle the churches of St Owen and St Martin and the Cathedral chapter house the most beautiful chapterhouse of a decagonal form55 All were badly damaged and were later demolished56

Economic stringency forbade much development or improvement before the 1670s and even then the changes were of a modest kind The Hearth Tax returns of 1665 reveal a startling decline in the citys position in respect of wealth and taxable population in relation to other towns 57 Although there was an Independent (later Presbyterian) Congregation in 1660 the only new public building erected was a Quaker meetinghouse (1689) The medieal hospital outside 1yebridge Gate was reendowed and rebuilt in 1670 Williamss Hospital was rebuilt in brick in 1675 and the chapel of St Giless Hospital was rebuilt in 1682 on the site of the Round Church58 The numerous substantial houses taxed on five to eleven hearths each which are recorded in the Hearth Tax return of 1665 were for the most part probably put up in the prosperous Tudor and early Stuart period before the outbreak of war Many of them still remain and their fine plaster ceilings and richly carved woodwork testify to the wealth of the upper-class burgess and the resident gentry and to the high standard of craftsmanship59 In Bye Street Gate ward there were sixteen of them including two taverns in Wye Bridge ward seven in Eign ward fifteen in St Owens ward fifteen and in videmarsh ward nine The College of the Vicars Choral had as many as 40 hearths but the great majority of the 364 householders taxed had two or onehearthed houses and there were undoubtedly many hovels too poor to be taxed60

The Eighteenthcentury City John Beale writing in 1 724 ascribed the root cause of the citys poverty to lack of transportation61 The county

was exceptionally fertile and possessed of enterprising landlords hops had been introduced in Henry VIIIs time under Charles I as Evelyn notes the county had become almost one entire orchard and Lord Scudamore had popularized cider its Ryeland sheep were famous and its breed of cattle stemming from near Hereford were later to have a world reputation Hereford as the market town should have benefited greatly but at a time of national growth on an unprecedented scale it was unable to make itself much more than a local market The main causes for this were the difficulty of improving the navigation of the Wye and the fact that the cost of maintaining proper roads and bridges in the face of adverse natural conditions was too high for the resources of the county62 Since the 14th centuryiS unavailing efforts had been made to surmount the difficulties caused by the rapid variations in the rivers volume and depth of water Something was achieved in 1695 and this greatly cheapened the import of coal from Lydbrook by barge and the export of goods64 A local report of 1809 actually stated that the quay walls of the city were thronged with bargesS5 but the impression of prosperity was comparative only Although the new turnpike roads had also done something to improve communications66 Hereford at the end of the 18th century was still a remote county town with no good connexions with the ports or with the expanding industrial towns It continued to be a general market sending goods sometimes as far afield as Wiltshire and York but it had many competitors The main market for hops was Worcester Ledbury and Upton upon Severn took most of the cider perry and fruit and Ross the wool Leominster as always remained a rival general market67

Another reason for the stagnation was Herefords lack of any substantial manufacture of its own In 1700 gloves were the towns principal manufacture but as Cox observed that is too poor a trade to make a place to flourish and the industry was in any case declining by the end of the 18th century68 This position was radically altered in the first half of the 19th century by the completion of neighbouring canals69 and by the coming of the railways The citys population in 1757 was 5592 of which 3878 were within the walls and 1714 outside by 1801 it was no more than 6828 but by 1851 it had nearly doubled iu

These economic factors had a definite effect on the citys aspect It preserved much of its medieval character to the end of the 18th century and later Its walls and gates its narrow streets and numerous timberframed houses were all there until the last two decades of the 18th century when radical alterations were set on foot When Defoe isited Hereford in 1725 he spoke disparagingly of its unmodern appearance he found a large and a populous city

IJuncumh Iltlford 417 427 I-list SS COil 33S OJ Dllncllrnb op cit 405 390 392 J 1 Xebb Tlte Ciil Velr ill HereforJshire i 157257274middot6 ii 252 F e Morgan XT 194079 ibid IlJ47 144 05 Ym Stukelev itinerarill7n Cllriosllln (1776) 71 amp6 J Price An Historical Account of tlte City of Hereford (Heref 1796) 51 139 141 The castle was demolished in 1661 (Kings Varks ed Colvin ii 677) the remains

of the chapter house in 1769 (1 Drinkwater ArcL Jnl cxii 61 sqq) 57 Huskins Local History 177 the city does not appear among the 42 largest provincial towns listed Duncumb Hereford 427 429 Price Hereford 58 61-2 69 HMe i 133 sqq 60 Hereford Co Arch Office Hearth Tax 1665 I am greatly indebted to Mrs J W Tonkin for an analysis of this 61 John Beale Hfrefordshirc Orchlrds A Pattern for all England (1724) 32 36 bull E L Junes T 196132 sqq Rot Parl i 315 I N Jackson VT 195828-41 Quide Book 1809 The first regular coach to London dates from 1774 and its speed was very slow (W H Howse VT 194638) Jackson C T 1958 28-41 G 1 Cox Melgna Brittania (1720) ii 926 sqq Price Hereford 64 For the high number of apprentices to the trade see R Johnson Ancient Customs 158 G9 The canal begun in 1790 to connect Hereford with the Forest of Dean coal field (Hereford Quide 1808) was never completed 70 Taylors Map (1757) Census 18011851

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HEREFORD

but mean built and very dirty for the chief city west of Severn1 During the century however many dwelling houses were rebuilt and refronted in brick and a number of new institutional buildings were set up first in date were the Blue Coat School (1710) and Mary Shelleys Hospital (1709~1O) Before 1796 a Congregational church (1740) the Countess of Huntingdons chapel a esleyan Methodist chapel and a Roman Catholic church had appeared a reflexion of the revived spiritual awareness in the cityn A new Guild Hall was built soon after 1759 which was to be used not only for official purposes but also for meetings of the three choirs of Hereford Gloucester and Worcester an Infirmary was added in 1776 an up~to~date County Gaol designed by the architect John Nash replaced in 1793 the old County Gaol near St Peters church and in 1794 came the new Lunatic Asylum3 All these were indications of the lively public spirit and social conscience of private benefactors

There were two serious losses to the citys medieval architecture First Bishop Henry Egerton partly demolished in 1737 the Romanesque double chapel of St Mary Magdalen and St Catherine to the south of the cathedral In the face of the strong disapproval of the Society of Antiquaries of London he desisted after the destruction of two~thirds74 Secondly the west front of the cathedral collapsed in 1786 The architect James Wyatt rebuilt it one bay east of the old front s

After the Lamp Act of 1774 much general improement was taken in hand Town Commissioners were appointed to see to paving lighting and cleaning the streets and lanes including the removal of the open brooks which ran through the streets filled with refuse they were also to pull down projections overhanging the streets and to remove other nuisances Writing in 1796 John Price perhaps slightly prejudiced in his native citys favour reckoned that there were nine good streets which were broad and well paved--St Owens Bye Street High Town Widemarsh Street Eign Broad Castle King and (yebridge Streets that other minor streets and a great many lanes and courts were far from being meanly built He rightly noted that the street plan was as regular and perfect as any city in the kingdom and was so contrived that at the end of almost every street you have a view of a church He considered that the removal of Butcher Row would make the market~place already spacious one of the best in the kingdom 7li

Within a few years all these timber~framed houses were demolished except for the fme one which terminated the row-Butchers Hall built in 1621 and bearing the arms of the Butchers Company77 A major change was made between 1783 and 1789 the city gates were taken down to improve the entrances to the city but Price thought this a mistake The venerable aspect of the city was injured without an adequate acquisition of elegance By 1806 the cross and bull~ring in the centre of High Town and the Tolsey in Bye Street were no more It was further planned to make the narrow Cabbage Lane a handsome avenue from High Town to the cathedral by taking down houses on the west side78 Like many other plans this came to nothing and the internal street plan remained remarkably unaltered The only important alteration was the widening of Norgate Street between Broad Street and All Saints so as to make it a continuation of Broad Street The main aim at this time was to widen the streets so as to let in air and light thus lessening the dangers of epidemics As the city was by now something of an educational and cultural centre with its grammar school for boys refounded in 1583 its private boarding schools for young ladies its theatre and its musical festivals this was particularly necessary Thus Hereford made some attempt to keep abreast of con~ temporary movements of reform and town~planning but it was not until much later that an adequate sewage and water supply system was installed At the same time many of its citizens were conscious of their citys historical heritage and of the need to preserve its beauty

71 D Defoe A TOltr Through Grt Britain (Everyman Libr 1962)50 Duncumb Hereford 391 395 Price Hereford 60 73 Hist MSS Com 353 Duncumb Hereford 433-6 Hereford Guide 1808 The Bridewell in the Castle bailey in use in 1757 (Taylors map) may perhaps have been

abandoned now An Engraving was ordered by the Soc of Antiquaries of London Min Bk 1737 p 74 and published in Vestuta MU)llnnenta i (1747) Cp N Drinkwater Hereford

Cathedral The Bishops Chapel Arch JJlI cxii 129 sqq A J Winnington Ingram VT 195342 sqq 71 Price HerefordS 7 59-62 HMC i 132-3 71 Hereford Guide 1806

In compiling the maps and plans reference has been made to documentary sources to archaeological and other printed articles to 18th and 19th century prints and to the following map sources -Map of Hereford bv John Speed Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine 1611 Plan of Hereford Castle by John Silvester 1677 Plan of Hereford by I Taylor 1757 scale 1 inch to 66 yards New and Correct English Atlas by John Cary 1793 Map of the Citv of Hereford and Inclosures within the Liberties by H Price 1802 Plan of the City of HerefClrd by T Curley 1858 scale 16 inches to 1 mile Ordnance Survey Plans First Editions 25 inches to 1 mile scale Ordnance Survey inch to 1 mile series Ordnance Survey Roman Britain Series scale 16 miles to 1 inch

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CONTENTS

The Site and Situation of the Town

The Saxon City and its Origins

The Post-Conquest City

The Thirteenth Century

The Later Middle Ages

The Tudor and Stuart City

The Eighteenth-century City

Maps and Plans

The Situation of Hereford

Anglo-Saxon Burh and The Site

Medieval Street Names


The Liberty of the City of Hereford

Parishes in the 18th Century


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