History of Herefordshire

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Not to be confused with History of Hertfordshire.

The history of Herefordshire starts with a

Severn valley. The Magonsætan were said[original research?] to be in the intervening lands between the Rivers Wye and Severn. The undulating hills of marl clay were surrounded by the Welsh mountains to the west; by the Malvern Hills to the east; by the Clent Hills of the Shropshire borders to the north, and by the indeterminate extent of the Forest of Dean to the south. The shire name first recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle may derive from "Here-ford", Old English
for "army crossing", the location for the city of Hereford.

The area was absorbed into the

tenth-century reformation.[citation needed] Hereford's geographical location at the hub of the shire allowed Anglo-Saxon ealdormen to manage affairs; and Hereford played a vital role in the Scandinavian wars until Ralph, Earl Hereford was deposed (1055) by the regal Earl Harold Godwinson
.

In the feudal

Welsh border (and before that the ancient boundary of the Welsh Marches
).

In the modern era the boundaries of the Forest[

English Civil Wars
it acted as a royal treasury.

During the medieval period the county had been defined in law by violence and cruel punishments.[

Lollardism.[citation needed] A fiercely independent folk and a position on the border with Wales gave the county a reputation for a frontier mentality. Many were hanged for hayrick burning, owing to the relatively low agricultural wage, during the Swing Riots and later[citation needed]. However, in contrast to Norfolk, for example, it did not form a militant agricultural workers' union.[citation needed
]

Herefordshire continued to be backward in industrial development: the canals and railways arrived later than elsewhere in England. Development reflected local needs: processing cider apples, manufacturing agricultural machinery. It was not until the 1930s that the first female councillors were elected, and that a rural bus service could provide a short journey into Hereford.[clarification needed] The population remained static for 150 years until 2000, at about 150,000.[citation needed]

Historical setting

Welsh control

Before the arrival of the

Welsh place names and the historic Welsh commote of Archenfield.[2]
In 1887 it was written:

"Archenfield was still Welsh enough in the time of Elizabeth for the bishop of Hereford to be made responsible together with the four Welsh bishops for the translation of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer into Welsh. Welsh was still commonly spoken here in the first half of the nineteenth century, and we are told that churchwardens’ notices were put up in both Welsh and English until about 1860."[3]

Welsh was spoken by individuals until comparatively recently. The photograph shown is of a plaque in Welsh on display in St Margaret's Church, near Newton, which was dismantled from the roof of the nave during restoration in 1902. The plaque is dated 1574.

Plaque in Welsh '‘Karka Dy ddiwedd’, trans. 'Be mindful of your end', and dated 1574

A bilingual printed notice of the duties of churchwardens is also displayed in St Margaret's Church. It is likely to be at least 170 years old, since the churches transferred from the

diocese of St David's to that of Hereford in the middle of the 19th century. Two fire-damaged Welsh bibles from Rowlestone are kept in the Herefordshire County Archives.[citation needed
]

Notice of duties of Churchwardens in English and Welsh, in St Margaret's Church, Herefordshire

Anglo-Saxon control

At some time in the 7th century the

Magonset, which was later absorbed into Mercia. The district which is now Herefordshire was occupied by a tribe, the Hecanas, who congregated chiefly in the fertile area about Hereford and in the mining districts round Ross-on-Wye. In the 8th century Offa extended the Mercian frontier to the Wye, securing it by the earthwork known as Offa's Dyke.[4]

Danish and Norman control

A report in the Herefordshire Archaeology and Historic Environment Record provides this chronology of 9th Century involvement with the Danes:[5]

During the 9th century the Vikings were able to make incursions into the south of Herefordshire by sailing up the Severn and Wye rivers. Between AD 866 and 874 King Burgred of Mercia was involved in almost constant battles with the Vikings. By 877 the Vikings were in the position of being able to establish one of their own leaders, Ceolwulf, as king.

In 2015, two individuals (operating without landowner permission), using metal detectors, found a large hoard near Leominster consisting primarily of Saxon jewellery and silver ingots but also coins; the latter date to around 879 CE. According to a news report, "experts believe it [the hoard] was buried by a Viking during a series of raids known to have taken place in the area at that time", while Wessex was ruled by Alfred the Great and Mercia by Ceolwulf II of Mercia. Imperial coins recovered from the treasure hunters depicted both Alfred the Great and Ceolwulf II of Mercia, indicating "a previously-unknown alliance between the kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia" according to a news report.[6] "These coins enable us to re-interpret our history at a key moment in the creation of England as a single kingdom," said Gareth Williams, curator of early medieval coins at the British Museum.[7]

A listing about the Archenfield area of Herefordshire appeared in the 1870-72 Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales with the following specifics about early incidents involving the Danes:[8]

IRCHINGFIELD, or ARCHENFIELD, a quondam liberty and a rural deanery in the S of Hereford. The liberty was known to the ancient Welsh as Urging, to the Saxons as Ircingafeld, and at Domesday as Arcenfelde; was ravaged in 905 by the Danes, and given afterwards, by the Crown, to the Earls of Shrewsbury; and had the custom of gavelkind, and some other peculiar customs.[citation needed]

In 914 CE the

Weston-under-Penyard and the raiders left the area, leaving some hostages as a peace bond.[9]

In 921 CE, the Danes besieged Wigmore, which had been rebuilt in that year by Edward the Elder.

From the time of its first settlement the district was the scene of constant border warfare with the Welsh, and

Edric the Wild, in conjunction with the Welsh, prolonged violent resistance against him for two years.[10]

Return to English control

During "

Puritan feeling induced the county to favour the royalist cause. Hereford, Goodrich and Ledbury all endured sieges.[1]

Earls of Hereford

The earldom of Hereford was granted by

Lollards, was sheriff of Herefordshire in 1406,[1] before arrest and execution for treason by Henry V
.

Diocese

Herefordshire has been included in the

Archdeaconry of Shropshire. In 1877 the name of the Archdeaconry of Shropshire was changed to Ludlow, and in 1899 the Deaneries of Abbey Dore, Bromyard, Kingsland, Kington and Ledbury were created in the Archdeaconry of Hereford.[1] The Bishop held a number of Peculiarities in another jurisdiction: Dymock in Gloucestershire was named after a Queen's Champion from Lincolnshire who fought in the Welsh Wars for Edward I but the manor long had connections with the Talbots, manorial landowners and familial relations from the county, proven by recent archaeology.[11]
The manor was also occupied by the Roundheads and Scots during the Civil Wars, was on the railway line, and on the earlier canal from Hereford city.

Politics

Herefordshire was governed by a

Act of 1885 Leominster was disfranchised, and Hereford lost one member.[1]

Economy

Herefordshire has always been esteemed as an exceptionally rich agricultural area; the manufactures were comparatively unimportant, except for the

Elizabeth, to encourage local industries, insisted on her subjects wearing English-made caps from the factory of Hereford. Hops were grown in the county soon after their introduction into England in 1524. In 1580 and again in 1637 the county was severely visited by the plague, but in the 17th century it had a flourishing timber trade, and was also noted for its orchards and cider.[1]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f Chisholm 1911, p. 357.
  2. ^ "CC0980e Gwefan Cymru-Catalonia: Euas ac Ergyn - Cymru yn Sir Henffordd / Ewyas and Archenfield - Wales in Herefordshire". www.kimkat.org (in Welsh).
  3. ^ Transactions Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club, 1887, page 173
  4. ^ Chisholm 1911, p. 356.
  5. ^ "The Vikings in Herefordshire". Herefordshire. 13 July 2014. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
  6. ^ "Millions of Dollars of Viking Treasure That Could Rewrite History Stolen, Metal Detectorists Convicted". Newsweek. 22 November 2019. Retrieved 24 November 2019. An example of a rare two emperor coin, hinting at a previously-unknown alliance between the kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia.
  7. ^ "Detectorists stole Viking hoard that 'rewrites history'". BBC News. 21 November 2019. Retrieved 25 November 2019. Experts say the coins, which are Saxon and believed to have been hidden by a Viking, provide fresh information about the unification of England and show there was an alliance previously not thought to exist between the kings of Mercia and Wessex.
  8. ^ "History of Archenfield in Herefordshire". Vision of Britain - University of Portsmouth et al. 11 July 2017. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
  9. ^ "The Vikings in Herefordshire". Herefordshire. 13 July 2014. Retrieved 24 November 2019. Other than this there is very little mention of Viking presence in the county, and we are distinctly lacking in Viking place-names or settlements that were characteristic of places elsewhere in the country where the Norsemen's presence was more noticeably felt.
  10. ^ Chisholm 1911, pp. 356–357.
  11. ^ Transactions of Woolhope Naturalists Field Club

References

  • Aylmer, G., & Tiller, J., (eds) Hereford Cathedral: A History, (London, 2000)
  • Bannister, A.T., Herefordshire and Its Place in English History, (Hereford, 1905).
  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Herefordshire". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 355–358.
  • Cooke, W.H., Matthews, J.H., and Watkins, Morgan G., Collections Towards the History and Antiquities of the County of Hereford (Hereford, 1882, 1897, 1913–15)
  • Duncumb, John, General View of the Agriculture of the County of Hereford, (1805)
  • Duncumb, J., Collections Towards the History and Antiquities of the County of Hereford [1804] (Cardiff, 1997)
  • Heath-Agnew, E., A History of Herefordshire Cattle and Their Breeders, London, 1993
  • Hopkinson, C., Herefordshire Under Arms, (Bromyard, 1985)
  • Smith, B., Herefordshire Maps 1577-1800 (Woonton Almeley: Logaston Press, 2004)
  • Williams, W.R., The Parliamentary History of the County of Hereford, (Brecknock, 1896)

External links

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