HEREFORD and WORCESTER 2.

 

 

The delightful Cathedral city of Hereford is situated on the River Wye.



 

 

The old stone five arch bridge dates to the 15th century.

 

The 'Old House' is a timber framed Jacobean building which was built in 1621 and is now a museum.

Church Street leading to the Cathedral contains many medieval buildings.

Lots of character to be seen in this street with an old pub, a cobbler's shop, a barber's shop and an ironmongers shop.

The imposing Town Hall was opened in 1904.

The spire of St Peter's church dominates the city centre.

Between 1788 and 1862 an unusual weather vane graced the top of the spire in the shape of a huge key, a symbol of St Peter. The vane was removed in 1862 during George Gilbert Scott’s renovations and is now preserved inside the church.

 

 

 

 Hereford Cathedral is a Grade 1 listed building dating from 1079. Its most famous treasure is Mappa Mundi; a medieval map of the world, drawn when  it was thought the world was flat. There is also a chained library.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thomas de Cantilupe c.1218-1282 was a controversial Bishop of Hereford. He was canonised in 1320 and his tomb has long been a place of pilgrimage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Sir Richard Pembridge who died in 1375, fought at the battles of Crecy and Poitiers and was made a Knight of the Garter by King Edward 111. His epitaph is a fine alabaster tomb and effigy in Hereford Cathedral. Originally the effigy correctly showed him wearing the Garter insignia only on his left leg. However, following damage during the Civil War, the right leg was replaced, but the wooden replacement wrongly included the garter. In the 19th century the wooden replacement was replaced by a new alabaster leg without the garter, and the incorrect wooden leg now stands nearby.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During the Civil War parliamentary troops overran the cathedral determined to desecrate the building. Dean Herbert Croft made an eloquent and passionate plea from the pulpit persuading the roundhead commander to intervene. The event is commemorated on a stone plaque on the west front of the cathedral.

 

 

 

 

 

On Easter Monday in 1786, the west tower collapsed creating a ruin of the whole of the west front of the cathedral and part of the nave. Restoration work commenced in 1841 and the west front was rebuilt between 1902 and 1908

 

 

 

 

 

 

Classical composer Sir Edward Elgar is commemorated with this statue in Cathedral Close. He lived in  Hereford between 1904 and 1911 and wrote some of  his works during that time. He was a great friend of cathedral organist Doctor George Robertson Sinclair. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elgar wrote one of his Enigma Variations at the inspiration of

his friend's bulldog Dan

 

 

Wooden carving of Dan on the riverside.

 

 

 

 

 This fine suspension footbridge commemorated Queens Victoria's Diamond Jubilee when it replaced a ferry across the river.

 

There was a mighty castle at Hereford as early as c1052 when the bailey was probably on what is now known as Castle Green. It was a Royalist stronghold in the Civil War but afterwards went into decline. It seems to have been destroyed in the mid 17th century when the stone was used for buildings in the city. In 1746 the area was totally cleared and the site was transformed into the present Green leaving nothing of the castle except part of the moat.

Lord Nelson and the Battle of Trafalgar were commemorated by a fine column on the green in 1809 but funds ran out and the proposed statue of Nelson was replaced by a simple urn.

 

The remains of the castle moat are now known as Castle Pool Lake.

 





 

Christian King Ethelbert of East Anglia was assassinated by King Offa and his body was hidden. Offa asked the Pope for absolution and was commanded to build a church where Ethelbert's body was buried and his body was then buried at Hereford Cathedral. A well had formed at the burial site which is now known as St Ethelbert's Holy Well.