South-east of Hereford lie the old settlements of Hinton, Putson, Bullinghope, Lower Bullingham and Rotherwas where there are archaeological remains dating back to the Neolithic period. A late Neolithic/early Bronze Age enclosure was found when a new housing estate was built on the old Special Air Service camp at Putson a few years ago and Romano-British iron-working sites have also been found in the area.

A new road - The Rotherwas access road - is being constructed across a swathe of this land to connect Hereford's main industrial estate, built on a 20th century munitions factory, with the county's main north to south road, the A49.

Archaeological work during the construction of this road has added a great deal to our knowledge of the archaeology of the area with the discovery of a late Neolithic/early Bronze Age roundhouse, the earliest house ever found in Herefordshire. Even more interesting was the discovery of a late Neolithic/early Bronze Age structure of a unique type. This is a long snake-like structure formed of burnt stones like a series of linked opposing curves. So far 60 metres of this feature have been unearthed and nothing like it is known from anywhere else in Europe. Herefordshire County Archaeologist Dr Keith Ray said 'It's the only structure we have from prehistory from Britain or in Europe, as far as we can tell, that is actually a deliberate construction that uses burnt stones'.

The structure was initially dubbed the Rotherwas Ribbon although there have been some moves to call it the Dinedor Serpent and its fate has provoked a great deal of controversy.

The large quantities of burnt stone used in the construction of this feature imply a major investment of time and labour by its builders. The stones had to be moved; masses of wood prepared for fires; the stones heated and then thrown into water to crack them.

Mounds of burnt stones are known from other prehistoric sites but they usually appear to be waste material rather than deliberate constructions. These have been interpreted as evidence of prehistoric saunas and as the residue from cooking.

Both have ethnographic parallels in North America. In sweat-lodges stones are heated in a fire constructed to do this with the maximum efficiency. A guide on how to construct a sweat-lodge can be found at welcomehome.org/rob/sweat/sweat.html.

Heating stones in order to use them as pot-boilers is also common. Hot stones are used to heat water in order to cook. This was done on a massive scale at the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump World Heritage in Alberta, where tons of burnt stones can be found.

However, the Rotherwas Ribbon is a deliberate construction, not waste material. It doesn't make sense as a trackway - why burn the stones? Archaeologists shy away from glibly using terms like 'ritual' but it is in this area that the explanation for the feature must lie. Heating may have meant 'killing' the stones, which then become a pathway for the dead. Similar interpretations are being given to other prehistoric monuments, notably in the Stonehenge area.

The 4000-year-old 'Rotherwas Ribbon'. It was already over 2000 years old when it was cut through by a boundary ditch during the Roman period.

'This is ... going to make us rethink whole chunks of what we thought we understood about the period.' (Dr Keith Ray)

Demonstration outside Hereford Magistrates' Court 1st August 2007. The hearing of the case against people who had 'sat-in' at a local council meeting about the 'Rotherwas Ribbon'.

The place now called Bullingham may have been called something like Bulla’s Hope by the first English speakers there. The name then became applied to a whole stretch of land to the south and south-east of Hereford, including the modern hamlet of Bullinghope.

By 1066 there were three manors in this area. One was held by a man called Alnoth, who held it in turn from John the Sheriff; the second was held by a certain Rever while the third was held by Edwin.

Domesday records these three manors twenty years later when they were all held by Norman-French lords. In the hundred of Dinedor, these were:

10.19               Boniniope, once held by Alnoth, this was now held by Roger de Lacy.

21.6                 Rever’s manor of Boninhope, held by Ansfrid de Cormeilles.

25.2                 Boninhope, held by Gilbert filii Thorold, Edwin held it.

Both Roger’s and Ansfrid’s manors had two thirds of two mills and while the entry for Gilbert’s manor has two thirds of only one mill, this is almost certainly an error, and the entry should also read two thirds of two mills. A third part of the mills is valued at 14 shillings and 8 pence in each of the three entries with the implication that there was an original valuation of 44 shillings.

The other details of the Boninhope manors are:

Roger’s – 2 hides which pay tax. One plough in demesne. Four villeins and four bordars with 2½ ploughs. Five slaves. The woodland is in the King’s Forest. Value TRE 50 shillings – now as much.

Ansfrid’s – 2 hides, and one plough in demesne. Three villeins and five bordars with 2 ploughs. Woodland there, but placed in the King’s Forest. Value TRE 50 shillings – now as much.

Gilbert’s – 2 hides, and two ploughs in demesne. Four villeins and three bordars with 2 ploughs. Four slaves there. Value TRE 50 shillings – now as much.

The absence of any reference to the ‘King’s Forest’ in Gilbert’s entry may be significant.

The Forest is Haywood (left) – the King’s Forest of Haye. In the late 13th century the bounds of this forest are recorded in the records of Bishop Swinfield of Hereford. Starting at the Wye Bridge in Hereford the boundary follows the right bank of the Wye downstream as far as the township of Putson (which is not in the forest). From Putson the boundary ran by way of the King’s Highway to the village of Callow. It is now difficult to trace the route of this road, but its route seems unlikely to have diverted far enough to the east to encompass what is now Lower Bullingham. The identification of Lower Bullingham with the Domesday manor of Gilbert filii Thorold seems therefore reasonable and could easily leave the other Bullinghope manors within the forest.

Immediately to the east of Lower Bullingham was another manor of Gilbert filii Thorold – Retrowas, now Rotherwas. This manor seems to have declined since the reign of Edward the Confessor when, a manor of Sigeric, it had ten villeins with thirteen ploughs and was valued at six pounds. By Domesday the valuation had halved, to three pounds, and the population declined to two villeins and three bordars.  

Although there were three Bullinghope manors in the 11^th century, there appear to have been only two foci of settlement by the 13^th/14^th century – Neathere Bullyghope (Netherebolinghope, Bullyng(es)hop(e) Inferior(i)) and Ballynghope Superior (Bullyngeshop Superioris, Bullinghope Sup’ior).

These manors are, in Henry VIII’s 1523 Subsidy Act the vills of Ov(er) Bolynghope and Nether Bolynghope, in Webtree Hundred. The assessment shows Nether Bolynghope to be the more valuable – 35 shillings and eight pence as opposed to 15 shillings.

The second payment under the Act, in 1525, was for a total of 37 shillings and 4 pence from Nethir Bolynghoppe. The richest man in the township was Roger ap Robyn, who had goods to the value of 18 pounds on which he paid 9 shillings in tax.

By 1543, the wealthiest men were Richard Love, taxed 8 shillings on goods worth 12 pounds, and Richard Barrow, taxed 7 shillings an 4 pence on land worth 11 pounds. Two servants of Barrow, William and Margaret, are also taxed – 2 pence and 4 pence on goods worth 20 shillings and 40 shillings respectively.  40 shillings appears to be the valuation on the goods of the poorer people; ten out of the twenty named people share this valuation.

The first payment in 1546 of the 1545 Subsidy Act, records Richard Barrow, armiger (gentleman) at the same assessment.

The residents of Lower Bullingham in 1851 included Mrs Elizabeth Prince, occupation not recorded and therefore a member of the gentry, and two farmers, Philip Parmiter and Elizabeth Pugh. There were also a mason, Samuel Elleman, a blacksmith and Samuel Ford, victualler and joiner.

Bryant's 1825 map of Herefordshire shows two roads leading towards Ross-on-Wye from Bullingham. One ran for a distance beside the River Wye before turning east.

The other ran south-east, past the old village marked 'x', and up over Dinedore Hill.

One of the oldest houses in Lower Bullingham, Manor Cottage, among the trees in the centre of the picture, now stands on an island surrounded by roads.

This is part of the Bullingham tithe map from 1840: Manor Cottage is marked with an 'x', The photograph was taken from 'A'

Looking back towards Manor cottage from position 'B'. This is the old road.

Looking east from position 'C' on the map along the old road which was also the towpath for the river Wye Navigation.

Further along this road was Rotherwas House, home of the Bodenham family. Prominent Herefordshire Roman Catholics, they supported the local RC community and had their own chaplain who said mass in Rotherwas chapel and in the chapel of the local convent.

In World War I the house was used as a barracks. A munitions factory grew up around it. The house was demolished in 1926.

The Royal Ordnance factory at Rotherwas in 1941. At the far left is the railway.

With the coming of the railways the road was straightened: the new alignment ran immediately to the north of Manor Cottage. The riverside road was abandoned.

The 1850s road looking towards Putson and Hereford. Manor Cottage is hidden in the trees on the left.

With the development of a government munitions factory at Rotherwas, just to the east of Bullingham, pressure on the road increased. The road was straightened by a new stretch, this time immediately to the south of Manor Cottage.

Looking along the new road towards Rotherwas. The old road which ran over Dinedore Hill is now called Watery Lane. It runs to the right here.

After turning right the road turns left here in front of the white house just visible behing the willow. This is the Manor House and in the later 19th century was the residence of the right reverend Thomas Joseph Brown, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Newport and Menevia, the diocese which covered Wales and Herefordshire. The cathedral was the church of the Benedictine monastery at Belmont, near Hereford.

Belmont was designed by E W Pugin, the eldest son of the architect A W Pugin, a Roman Catholic convert. It was paid for by Francis Wegg-Prosser of Belmont House near Hereford another Roman Catholic convert,

Passing the turning to Watery Lane and standing outside the old bishop's house looking back to the main road

The arch of the mid 19th century bridge, visible behind the mid 20th century one. The building on the left was originally built as a convent, part of a group of 19th century Roman Catholic properties here.

This was the house of the Sisters of Charity of St Vincent and St Paul and was built in around 1860, the chapel, left was added in 1905.

Opposite the Sisters of Charity was another house of nuns, the convent of Poor Clares, a community which moved to Bullingham from Notting Hill in around 1880. This community first used the old manor house (Bishop Brown had died and his successor lived elsewhere). They must have seemed an exotic and mysterious group of women to Herefordians at the time. Their head, aged 42, was Frances Parker from London. Other nuns came from Scotland, Ireland, Belgium and Spain. Their purpose-built house was ready for them to move into in 1887. It was demolished a few years ago and is now a housing estate. The community has a new house in the Herefordshire village of Much Birch.

Heading along Watery Lane from the old Manor House. Watery Lane Farm is on the right

Further along the lane is crossed by the railway line

A scrap-yard at the foot of Dinedor Hill where the old road starts to climb. On Dinedor is an Iron Age hill-fort.

Looking back towards Bullingham and Hereford. Just visible on the horizon, to the left of centre, is Credenhill, the site of another, very large, Iron Age hill-fort.

This was the view looking back from Dinedor Hill towards Hereford in the early 19th century

Further up the hill, away from Hereford, the view was even more spectacular

St Charles' Homes, almshouses in Bullingham designed by Pugin's company for the Bodenham family.

The 19th century Roman Catholic establishments at Bullingham

In 1850 a Roman Catholic diocesan structure was reintroduced to England and Wales. A major local landowner who held an estate stretching from the Wye at Hunderton on the edges of Hereford as far as Dewsall, Francis Wegg-Prosser was an enthusiastic convert to Rome. On his property at Belmont in Clehonger Parish south-west of Hereford he planned a large church which would become the Roman Catholic pro-Cathedral of the Bishop of Newport and Menevia. The church was designed by Edward Pugin and built by Hereford builder Arthur Maggs. Attached to the church was a Benedictine monastery, but, as in the medieval church the institutions were distinct. The bishop had his pastoral duties while the monastery was headed by a prior elected by the community.

Another prominent local Roman Catholic family was that of Bodenham with their own chapel at their mansion of Rotherwas. It was the manor house of Lower Bullingham, on the road to Rotherwas from Hereford and Belmont that became the residence of Dr Thomas Brown, the first bishop.

North of the main road at Lower Bullingham another Roman Catholic institution was founded. This was the convent of the Sisters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul. Nuns were not originally held in high esteem locally and in 1863 some had been stoned in the streets of Hereford. The 1871 census lists seven sisters. There was 32-year-old Josephine Cody the superior, born in Cork. 21-year-old Mary O’Connell was also from Ireland as was Millicent Byrne, 26. The other nuns were Frances Nelson, 28 (Bristol), Clara Ranhomme, 24 (Liverpool), Ellen Mann, 27 (Pimlico) and Winifred Scott, 22 (Clapham). These young women, with no live-in staff to aid them, taught a large school of boarders and day pupils. The injustice of local prejudice against the sisters became obvious: education was provided free to the children of the poor. There were 43 girl boarders aged 3 to 16 and 10 boys aged 5 to 10 and they came from far and wide. There were a handful from Ireland but the majority were from Wales, mostly the south. One or two boarders had been born in Hereford but there were a few children with more exotic provenances: Eleven-year-old Norah Bain hailed from ‘North America’, Mary Ann Cicily, also eleven, had been born in Bengal and Jane Taylor, fourteen, had been born in Australia.

In the 1871 census is also listed the household of the bishop on the other side of the road. It was small. Apart from the 72-year-old bishop Brown himself there were just two servants: Ann Faraday, 36, from Ireland, and John Riggs, 20, from Worcestershire.

Next door to the Episcopal residence at the manor house was Manor Farm. Here lived the farmer, Richard Mumford, who farmed 540 acres and employed 20 labourers and 4 boys. Richard was 39 and had been born in Hook Norton, Oxfordshire. His wife Mary was 30 and had been born in Worcestershire. Something of their recent movements can be traced by the birth places of their children. Their oldest children John, 8, and Alfred, 7, had been born at Haywood in Herefordshire, while Mary, 4, Catherine, 2, and Richard, 1, had all been born at Bullingham. One other family member lived with them – Sarah Smith, Mary Mumford’s unmarried sister, 27. The household also included two domestic servants – Ann Minard, 19, and Bridget Smith, 16.

While Thomas Brown remained bishop his residence remained the manor house at Bullingham, despite the fact that he believed it to be haunted. He died on 12^th April 1880. A new bishop was appointed after a period of ten months. The Right Rev Dr Hedley removed the Episcopal residence from Lower Bullingham to Cardiff.

The house was soon put to new use and the census of 1881 records its new inhabitants. These were members of another community of nuns led by their superior, 42-year-old Frances Parker who originally hailed from London as did Charlotte Keeley, 39, and Margaret Reardon, 34. The oldest nun, Johanna Delaney, 54, was Irish and the youngest, Jessie Miller, 27 was Scottish. Sybilla Atkinson, 49, was from York and Eliza Turner, 39, was from Birmingham.  Finally, two of the nuns had come from outside the United Kingdom, 30-year-old Francisca Múnsa was Spanish and 33-year-old Eliza Tratsaert, Belgian.

Next door too there were new residents. In the preceding few years Richard Mumford had died and his widow Mary, described as a retired farmer, had moved elsewhere in the village. The eldest son John was now apprenticed to a cabinet maker and Alfred a general clerk to a solicitor. Mary was now 14 and Richard 11. There were also four other children born since the previous census – Nicholas, 9, Francis, 8, Florence, 7, and Gertrude, 5. There were no servants but Mary’s sister Sarah Smith was still with the family. The also had a lodger, Eustan Bardet, a Roman Catholic priest.

The new family at the Manor Farm, now called Bullingham Farm were the Andrews. Thomas Andrews, 44, employed fewer men and boys than Richard Mumford had, 11 and 2 respectively. Thomas and his wife Ursula had recently moved from the Golden valley where the children and their mother had all been born. Mother, 43, and the eldest children Emily, 16, and Arthur, 15, had been born in Turnastone and William, 12, Frank, 11, Frederick, 7, Charles, 1, in adjacent Vowchurch.

Their servants were Alice Watkins, 18, and a general servant and the 19-year-old nurse, Lucy Page.

North of the main road the establishment of the Sisters of Charity had expanded. There were now 8 sisters rather than 7. Frances Nelson, Millicent Byrne, Clara Ranhomme and Winifred Scott had gone. The remaining three nuns had been joined by five others.

The real growth was more than one more nun though. There was also a lay certificated teacher and two pupil teachers. A domestic staff of two needlewomen, a laundress, a cook, two kitchen maids and two dressmakers had also been added to the establishment. The cook was the Australian-born Jane Taylor who had been a pupil in 1871 and one of the dressmakers, Rose Taylor, had also been born in Australia and was presumably Jane’s sister.

The borders now numbered 107 girls, aged 5 to 18, and 75 boys aged 4 to 13. Day pupils do not of course appear on the census but Kelly’s directory for 1885 records 100 of these.

Down the road at Rotherwas House, the family, which had been absent for the 1871 census, is recorded.  This was another Roman Catholic household headed by 67-year-old Charles Bodenham. His 48-year-old wife, Irena was Polish and most of his servants were Irish – Ellen Kelly the cook and the three housemaids, Ann Murphy, Hannah Lyons and Alice Fitzpatrick. Although the coachman and the footman, the brothers Joseph and Frank Fryer, were Herefordians, the gardener Patrick McCabe, who, unlike the others, had a cottage of his own, was also Irish.

Near the great house was the house of the family priest, William Driffield, who said Mass at the family chapel at Rotherwas and also attended the communities at Bullingham. His servant, Margaret Dalton, was also Irish.

Reporting

Unpublished Report - Manor Farm, Lower Bullingham, Hereford: an archaeological and historical assessment 
- P J Pikes

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