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Archenfield Archaeology Ltd for the |
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High Town, Hereford |
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The open area which now forms the centre of Hereford originally lay outside the Saxon town, the defensive rampart and ditch of which lie buried beneath the row of shops to the south. After the Norman Conquest the new lord, William Fitz Osbern, laid out this area as a market-place with wide approach roads, and the old defences fell into decay. French immigrants were encouraged to settle in Hereford and a new town grew up centred on the new market place. |
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The medieval churches of All Saints and St Peter were built in the new town, the latter being originally a monastic foundation, and the former to serve the French community. Gradually the open space of the market, which included not only High Town but the triangle of land between Union Street, Commercial Street and St Peter’s Street, became built over as temporary market stalls became permanent and then larger, acquiring cellars and upper floors. By the late Middle Ages a row of buildings occupied the centre of High Town extending up to, and beyond, the Old House at the entrance to St Peter’s Street. In the centre of this area stood Hereford’s magnificent timber 17th century Guildhall, with an open ground floor and a first floor used as courtrooms. The third floor, jettied out and with turrets at the corners, contained rooms for the use of the various trades guilds. |
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The Butchers Row, now incorporated into High Town, in 1814 from a sketch by David Cox. The building in the centre is now the Old House Museum. Butchers Row is long gone |
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The market-place continued to be the focus of important local events and in 1461 Owen Tudor, the grandfather of Henry VIII, was executed here. At first Owen was unable to believe that he would be executed - but when the collar of his red velvet doublet was ripped off he accepted his fate saying ‘that head shall lie on the block that was wont to lie on Queen Catherine's lap.’ In his day Owen was called ‘the handsomest man in England’, which might have inspired what followed. His head was placed on the market cross where a madwoman combed his hair and washed the blood from his face. She lit more than a hundred candles, which she placed around the cross. Owen's body was afterwards buried in a chapel of the Greyfriars priory just outside the town. The town centre attracted people of all sorts, including, much as it does today, the young with nothing better to do, and in December 1628 it was recorded that ‘there is a void place at the west end of the Market House stairs which nightly is defiled by disorderly people’. |
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The western end of High Town in the 18th century |
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Law-breaking was not, however, encouraged and High Town was the scene of public demonstrations of law enforcement. In 1635 Peter Willett was stood on the pillory here with one of his ears nailed to it for three hours before being whipped through every gate in the town for the offence of ‘cozenage and false tokens’. Typical of these public punishments were on June 11th 1777 when William Wibborn was stood on the pillory for perjury and on 5th March 1831 one S Phillpotts was whipped here for stealing cotton handkerchiefs. On the north side of High Town, on the site occupied since 1816 by the Butter Market, stood the Redstreak Tree, one of the principal inns of the post-medieval city. It was the base for one of the early stage coaches, ‘Pruen’s Flying Machine’ and staged popular sporting events such as the cock fight held in May 1775 between the gentlemen of Herefordshire and those of Monmouthshire and another in 1780 between the gentlemen of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire. High Town attracted the better sort of shops and in October 1825 some of these were lit by gas when the new street lights were turned on. The High Town was opened up in the 19th century with the guildhall, already reduced in height, being finally demolished in the 1860s. Now a pedestrian area, High Town continues to provide public entertainments of many types. These on the whole, probable cause less discomfort to the participants than the earlier ones did to Owen Tudor, Peter Willet, or the cocks at the Redstreak Tree.
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maintained by Archenfield Archaeology Ltd |
