Late Saxon & Norman Conquest — History of Hereford

Edward the Confessor

Hereford in 1055 AD — 1055 AD — The Norman-educated Edward (the Confessor) is king. Hereford's defences have been extended to enclose St Guthlac's monastery. Edward's nephew, Ralph, now Earl of Hereford, has built an earth and wood castle next to the monastery. There are only three castles in England. Bishop Aethelstan has built a new stone cathedral. Aelfgar's and Gruffydd ap Llewellyn's force of Vikings and Welsh have defeated Ralph's Normans and English and have entered the town, which is starting to burn.

When King Edward "the Confessor" arrived from exile in Normandy in 1042 he brought the beginnings of a new mainland European system to England. His nephew Ralph was created Earl of Hereford in 1052 and built a castle here. Castles were unknown in England and represented the power of a noble family and a military elite rather than the defence of a community as in the traditional Anglo-Saxon system. Ralph was accompanied by a body of Norman-French and attempted to turn the county militia into a mounted force on the continental pattern, but without success.

Hereford Sacked

The experiment was short-lived. In 1055 Gruffydd ap Llewellyn, King of Gwynedd and Powys, led a Welsh army towards Hereford. With him was Aelfgar, the outlawed Earl of East Anglia and son of Godiva — the "Lady Godiva" of naked horse-riding fame. Aelfgar led a force of eighteen ships companies of Vikings that he had recruited in Ireland. Ralph led his force of Normans and English to meet them. In the battle that followed Ralph was decisively beaten and the Welsh, with their Viking allies entered and burnt the town of Hereford. Gruffydd returned home in triumph and laden with booty.

The combined militias of England were put under the command of Harold Godwinson who forced the Welsh back into the Black Mountains, west of Hereford, while he camped in the Golden Valley beneath. The stalemate was utilised by Harold to rebuild the defences of the town of Hereford.

The shock of the events of 1055 may have had a terminal effect on the Bishop of Hereford, Aethelstan, who died early in 1056 and was succeeded by Harold's chaplain, Leofgar. This rash prelate did not wait for help in moving against Gruffydd and moved up the Wye Valley into Wales. On 16th June 1056 he found Gruffydd near Glasbury-on-Wye. In the action which followed Bishop Leofgar, the Sheriff of Hereford, priests, and several leading citizens were killed.

Repulsed, but not defeated, by the English, Gruffydd seized Glamorgan, expelling its ruler, Cadwgan ap Meurig, and for the first time Wales was unified under a single king. On 5th August 1063 Gruffydd was murdered in Snowdonia and his unified kingdom disintegrated.

St Cuthbert's Church, Holme Lacy. In the reign of Edward the Confessor Hamme was one of a large number of manors held unjustly by Earl, later briefly King, Harold. Harold's father, Godwin, was notorious for stealing the church's property, leading his wife to threaten to starve herself to death rather eat the food so acquired.

King Harold and the Norman Conquest

Harold Godwinson was soon to have other problems than that of the Welsh. In 1066 King Edward the Confessor died with no clear successor. Three claimants to the English throne, Harold Hardrada King of Norway, Duke William of Normandy and Harold himself, were to settle the issue in battle. Godwinson defeated and killed Hardrada at Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire. A rapid march south took him to Senlac near Hastings where after a close-fought battle, Harold was killed and the Norman-French duke William "the Conqueror", became King of England.

William Fitz Osbern

The union of England with Normandy was to accelerate the process, begun under the Confessor, which was to replace the Saxon institutions with the Norman feudal system. William fitz Osbern was created Earl of Hereford and a new castle was built at Hereford.

High Town from All Saints Church — High Town, Hereford, from the spire of All Saints Church. The church in the centre, St Peter's, originally stood in an open triangular market place laid out by Earl William fitz Osbern just after the Norman Conquest. Fitz Osbern came from Breteuil in Normandy where the large triangular market place has not been filled in by later buildings. Stalls in the Hereford market gradually became permanent structures, which were the forerunners of the buildings to the left of the church.

Fitz Osbern acquired land to the north of the old Mercian town from the Bishop of Hereford. Here he laid out a large triangular market place in the area now bounded by High Town, Union Street and Commercial Street. Around this market place, and the roads leading to it, he laid out a new town.

Immigration was encouraged by a legal system — the laws of Breteuil — which gave favourable treatment to French settlers. A new cultural element had been introduced which meant that French joined English and Welsh as the languages of the local market places. The language of the ruling class was however French — it would remain so for three hundred years.

It would have been French immigrants who populated the new burgage plots in Hereford. These long, narrow plots appear to have been laid out along both sides of the road approaching the market from the north-east (Commercial Road) and the northern side of that approaching from the south-east (St Owen's Street). Immediately to the rear of these plots were the open fields of Hereford — the "Port Fields". Stimulated by the activity caused by the on-going Norman-French invasions of Wales, Hereford was soon to grow into one of the largest towns in England.

The Castles

Hereford in 1142 AD — 1142 — William fitz Osbern became Earl of Hereford in 1066. He built a new castle near the old monastery and a new town north of the old defences, which have fallen into ruin. Its centre is a large triangular market-place, with two churches, All Saints and St Peter's. A new cathedral has been built to the north of the old one. Since fitz Osbern died, in 1072, the town has suffered in the war between Matilda and Stephen. Fitz Osbern's castle is now expanding, pushing out St Guthlac's monastery which is moving to a new site to the north-east. The town is enjoying a boom time and is becoming one of the largest in England.

Churches in the late 11th century — The black spots are churches and/or priests mentioned in Domesday Book — these were churches of the diocese of Hereford. The red spots are churches where Bishop Herewald of Llandaff was ordaining the priests.

It was perhaps in Herefordshire that the Norman presence was to leave its heaviest imprint. An aggressive policy of castle building along the Welsh border or "Marches" was initiated. Forward of the great castles of Shrewsbury, Ludlow and Hereford a rash of smaller castles was established on the border itself. This has left a legacy of 150 medieval fortified sites in Herefordshire alone. Beyond these, the kingdoms of south Wales fell to the Norman lords who operated in virtual independence of the crown.

Administratively, the town of Hereford was partitioned between the lay and ecclesiastical authorities. The earl's portion of the town — the Earl's Fee — was confiscated by the crown after the rebellion of fitz Osbern's son Roger in 1075. Henceforth this part of the town would be the "King's Fee".