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| Hereford
in the 18th and 19th centuries |
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Celia Fiennes |
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Celia Fiennes (1662 - 1741)
visited Herefordshire
in 1696. She saw a countryside
in which apple and pear
trees were growing everywhere
'even in their corn
fields and hedgerows'.
She described Hereford
as a 'pretty little
town of timber buildings'
with well-paved streets
'handsome as to breadth
and length'.
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The old town hall in Hereford as it would
have appeared when Celia
Fiennes visited the city |
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Daniel Defoe
In the 1720s Daniel Defoe
was less impressed with
Hereford which he described
as 'large and populous'
but also as 'an old,
mean built, and very
dirty city'. However,
in the countryside around
he found things more
to his liking when he
discovered the purpose
of all the fruit trees
which Celia Fiennes
had seen. Defoe developed
a taste for the local
drink, cider. 'We
could get no beer or
ale in their publick
houses, only cyder;
and that so very good,
so fine, and so cheap
that we never found
fault with the exchange.
Great quantities of
this cyder are sent
to London, even by land
carriage 'tho' so very
remote, which is an
evidence of the goodness
of it, beyond contradiction. |
A cider mill reconstructed near Hereford
livestock market.
The Normans had introduced cider
into England and by
this period cider-apple
trees were even grown
in the hedgerows of
Herefordshire. The story
of cider is illustrated
in the Cider
Museum in Hereford.
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Broad
Street, Hereford, 15th
July 1799, by James
Wathen |
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The
River Traffic |
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In the late 18th century
much of Hereford's trade
with the outside world
was carried on barges
on the River Wye. The
Wye had been used for
many years for transporting
heavier goods, and stone
for Hereford's larger
medieval buildings would
have been brought up it.
There were wharves in
Hereford by the mid 13th
century, and acts of parliament
for improving the navigation
were passed 1661, 1696
and 1727. In the early
1770s exports from the
city included timber,
wool, hops and cider.
Imports included coal,
slate and luxury goods. |
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River traffic on the Wye
at Hereford. In the
early 19th century bargees
drank in the Bell Inn
in Gwynne Street (then
Pipe Lane). |
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River Wye barges were shallow
draught vessels with
sails. They carried
between 18 and 40 tons.
When sail could not
be used men hauled the
barges. Barge work was
dangerous and many men
were drowned. In February
1796 a bargeman was
drowned at Foy. In early
February 1804 another
drowned when a coal
barge sank at Eign below
Hereford and at the
end of the month one
was killed unloading
coal at a city wharf.
In 1806 three men were
drowned downstream at
Monmouth. |
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A
busy day on the Wye at
Hereford in about 1800
by James Wathen. |
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At a time when employers
could have their workers
imprisoned for breach
of contract, sometimes
bargemen were given a
difficult choice between
going out in dangerous
conditions and prosecution.
In April 1771 Thomas Basset
was imprisoned for a month
for refusing to navigate
a boat down the river. |
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The Wye was only tidal as
far as Brockweir near
Chepstow. Above that,
the navigation was always
liable to interruption
either from insufficient
water to float the barges
or from floods. Even so
the Wye was used for the
transportation of goods
to and from Hereford and
above, to Moccas, Whitney
and Hay. In 1805 it was
estimated that about 500
men were employed in hauling
barges up the Wye and
bringing about 15,000
tons of goods annually
to Hereford. |
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The passing of the Rivers
Wye and Lugg Navigation
Act in 1809 permitted
the creation of a riverside
towing path as far upstream
as Hereford. This meant
that barges could now
be towed by horses rather
than men with a considerable
cost saving. In January
1811 two barges belonging
to Mr Crompten of Hereford
completed the voyage from
Lydbrook to Hereford by
the new towing path, using
two horses for each barge. |
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In 1989 local businessman Frank Barton
brought the 'Wye Invader'
to Hereford. At 230 tons
it is the largest vessel
to have come up the River
Wye. |
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Shipbuilding
on the Wye
Piggot's Directory for 1830
lists six barge-owners
in the town. One of
these men, John Easton,
also built barges. By
1830 Easton had progressed
beyond barges. In February
1822, 3,000 people had
watched as his first
sea-going ship was launched
into the Wye - a 47
feet long sloop called
the Hereford. More followed,
the Champion, the Collinoque,
and the Paul Pry - the
last a steam-powered
tug.
A
Hereford-bult ship,
the Water Witch was
believed to still be
in service in South
Africa at the end of
the 20th century. The
Water Witch was built
in 1834. |
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Stage
Coaches
Passengers on the Hereford
coach were injured in
an accident at Oxford
in 1771. In 1828 the
Shrewsbury Mail Coach
was nearly overturned
by rubbish in the road
and in May the following
year did overturn, when
an axle-tree snapped.
In May 1830 an outside
passenger was seriously
injured when the Carmarthen
coach hit a post on
the corner of Broad
Street and Eign Street
(now confusingly called
Eign Gate) and in August
that year the ‘Champion’
coach was in a collision
in Bridge Street which
seriously injured three
horses. Also in August
1830, an accident upset
the mail coach from
Cheltenham at Tupsley.
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Although usually fairly safe,
journeys were not always
completely without hazard.
In May 1777 a highwayman
stopped the London to
Hereford coach three miles
outside Oxford and robbed
the passengers of their
watches and money.
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getting
a coach out of the River
Frome |
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People who couldn’t afford
the stage-coach could
ride on carrier’s wagons.
In the 1770s Thomas Yeates’
wagon left Hereford for
London every Sunday at
midnight. Passengers paid
just eight shillings (40p)
with children sitting
on their laps charged
at half price. The wagon
would be shared with goods
bound for the capital
- parcels under 12 pounds
in weight cost 9 pence
(3.75p) and geese, fowls,
hares and other game could
be sent for the same price.
Yeates’ wagons reached
the Black Bear in Piccadilly
on Thursday evenings.
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| The horse-drawn
railway from Abergavenny
In 1825 Hereford’s gas-works
had been built in Commercial
Road and in October
gas lighting was lit
in the streets and city-centre
shops. The only way
to get coal to the gas-works
was by river barge to
Hereford and by horse-drawn
wagon through the city
streets.
Before October was out
£25,000 had been raised
to connect the horse-drawn
tramway from Monmouth
Cap on the Monmouthshire-Herefordshire
border with the city
and an application made
to parliament to obtain
an act. |
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The trees stand on the embankment of the
old horse-drawn tramway
from Abergavenny as it
approaches the River Wye
at Hereford |
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The
Hereford and Gloucester
Canal
In January 1796, the Oxford
Arms Inn in Widemarsh
Street was for let.
The newly renovated
inn boasted stabling
for 30 horses and was
sited 'nearly opposite
the spot where the basin
of the intended canal
is to be formed'. Waiting
for trade generated
by the canal would have
required some patience.
49 years later, in 1845,
the canal from Gloucester
and the River Severn,
the last main line canal
to be built in southern
England, reached Hereford
By March 1844 the canal had
reached Withington,
a few miles to the east
of Hereford. The canal
was an additional dangerous
attraction for the local
children and in September
one drowned in the canal
near the mouth of tunnel
which took it beneath
Ayleston Hill. In May
1845 the last sections
were filled with water.
The opening of the new
basin generated little
interest in the town.
By now it was the age
of Railway mania and
a canal was not going
to satisfy the locals.
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The
old canal basin at Hereford |
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The canal, although not profitable
to its owners, nonetheless
was in fact an asset
to the city. The council
was able to purchase
road gravel for half
its previous cost after
it opened. Barges continued
to use the canal well
after the opening of
the railways. On the
night of the 1881 census,
two barges, both working
the timber trade had
people sleeping on board
in the basin at Hereford.
On the ‘Emma’ was her
captain, Thomas Bayliss
and his sons, Samuel,
15, and George, 13.
The other barge was the home
of Charles and Mary
Deane and their children.
These were John, aged
11; Charles aged 8;
and their 7-year-old
sister Jessie. It was
probably a cause of
considerable satisfaction
to the little girl that
the barge of which her
father was master, and
on which they all lived,
was also named the ‘Jessie’.
The canal is currently
being restored by the
Hereford
and Gloucester Canal
Trust. A slight deviation from
the original course
has been constructed
at a retail park at
Newtown Road, north
of the city centre.
Here two new bridges
one for motor vehicles
and one for pedestrians
have been built. |
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Haymaking
on Lugg Meadow
Photograph
from the Alfred Watkins
collection courtesy
of Herefordshire
Library Services |
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Scythe
stocking (sharpening)
Photograph
from the Alfred Watkins
collection courtesy
of Herefordshire
Library Services |
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Eign
Street (now called Eign
Gate) Hereford, with
proper snow. There is
no global warming?
Photograph
from the Alfred Watkins
collection courtesy
of Herefordshire
Library Services |
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The
improvements |
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The railway finally arrived
in 1853 and as the construction
contracts ended, a young
engineer, Timothy Curley,
who had been working
on the Newport, Abergavenny
and Hereford line, became
available for employment.
He was engaged by the
city, after a 12 to
6 vote by the Sanitary
Improvements Committee
of the Council, to undertake
several projects. One
of these was the creation
of a new cemetery, one
was the construction
of a new market place
and the third was the
surveying of the city
in order to introduce
mains water, sewerage
and drainage.
Despite numerous local ordinances,
Hereford had continued
to have problems of
cleanliness for centuries
and orders for the removal
of miskins from the
streets are common in
post-medieval city records.
Emptying of cesspits
was particularly problematic;
in 1829 a fine was imposed
for removing the contents
of a privy outside the
hours of 12 midnight
to 6 am. The close proximity
of livestock would have
exacerbated the problem
and there were plenty
of horses and other
animals within the city
walls. Pigs in the street
had been a constant
nuisance – in 1670 it
was recorded that ‘we
of the great inquest
taking notice of the
multiplicity of swine
in this city’ wanted
some action taken. In
1832 a dwelling in Maylords
Lane was for sale with
a feeding stall for
8 cows and a piggery.
Curley moved rapidly,
and reported in February
1854. He quoted a consultant,
Mr T Rammell who said
of Hereford ‘I witnessed
such scenes of filth
and uncleanliness in
this city as I did not
before believe could
exist in a civilised
community’. During the
next few years mains
water and drainage were
introduced. Only then
did the cesspits and
wells, which had previously
served the inhabitants,
gradually go out of
use. |
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The
proposed new reservoir
meant diverting a road
at Broomy Hill |
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A new cemetery was planned
to replace the overcrowded
city parish burial grounds
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1897
- Hereford lit by gas.
Far-sighted Victorian
councils purchased utilities
from their private owners
for the benefit of the
public.
Photographs
from the Alfred Watkins
collection courtesy of
Herefordshire
Library Services |
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