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Archenfield Archaeology Ltd for the |
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Castle Street, Hereford |
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Hereford may have extended eastward from its original core in the 10th century. From this time, what is now Castle Street would have formed the eastern part of the main east-to-west street of the city. We presume that the late Anglo-Saxon east gate stood at its eastern end. |
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After the Norman Conquest a new east-west route was established through the new market place north of the Anglo-Saxon town and a new cathedral blocked the old east-to-west street. The street is Castle Street because Hereford Castle, which was originally built by the Normans, stood on its south side. Hereford Castle was strengthened and extended by later monarchs and became one of the strongest in England, being as great in circumference as Windsor. |
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Hereford Castle – an imaginative birds-eye view. The River Wye is in the foreground; Castle street runs behind the castle. |
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By the end of the 11th century the castle, originally a possession of the Earl of Hereford, had been confiscated by the crown. Thus in the later middle ages Castle Street had Hereford’s major ecclesiastical structure - the cathedral - at its western end and it’s major state structure - the castle - at the eastern end. As the castle was the centre of administration for the county, the street would have seen much coming and going – particularly when the king was in residence. |
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The site of the keep of Hereford Castle. There is now no trace of the enormous mound - the 'motte' - on which the keep once stood. |
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A lane ran south from the western end of Castle Street, around the western side of the castle, to the river. This lane is now represented by Quay Street. On the river bank here was Castle Wharf, one of the two lengths of wharfage within the walled town. All transport carrying goods to and from the Castle Wharf had to negotiate either the narrow Ferrers Street or the (originally) almost as narrow St Ethelbert’s Street to reach the rest of the town. It would thus have been a busy commercial area as well as a residential one. Traffic problems were certainly not unknown and there were the occasional tragedies – in July 1822 an eight-year-old girl killed by a horse in Castle Street This means of transport served Hereford until the 19th century when the coming of the Hereford and Gloucester Canal reduced its importance and finally the railways killed it off entirely. Many of the houses were of the more respectable kind however. In March 1803 the Hereford Journal announced that a ‘freehold messuage or dwelling house with garden and appurtenances’ opposite the entrance to the Castle Green was to be auctioned. It would ‘suite a small genteel family.’ |
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The Castle Green which was once the outer bailey of the castle. |
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maintained by Archenfield Archaeology Ltd |
