In 757 Offa became king of Mercia. A contemporary of Charlemagne, Offa was the leading king of the English-speaking people of Britain in the 8th century. Such was his influence that he persuaded the Pope that a third archbishop should be created in Mercia to join those of York and Canterbury. The see of Hereford formed part of this new province under Hygeberht, the Archbishop of Lichfield. After Offa's death the archbishopric of Lichfield disappeared.

Offa gained a victory over Glywysing in a battle near the site of modern Hereford in 760, and a temporary truce was established. King Ithel ap Morgan had died some time shortly after 745 and the British (or perhaps by this time we may use the term Welsh) would have been led by one or more of his sons - Ffernfael, Rhodri, Rhys and Meurig.

Offa's Dyke on the Herefordshire border north of Kington

Offa built the great earthwork now known as Offa's Dyke on the border between Mercia and Powys. Although various lengths of earthworks in Herefordshire and Gloucestershire are referred to as Offa's Dyke, there is good evidence to suggest that the dyke proper terminates around Kington in north Herefordshire.

Where rivers marked the boundaries with other kingdoms the maintenance and control of the crossing points was of importance, both for trade and in case of war. Offa seems to have built a causeway and paved ford at Oxford on his southern border with Wessex and similar attention was paid to his border with the East Angles.

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Hereford, on the Wye border with Glywysing/Gwent, lies on the north-east to south-west route between South Wales and the centre of Mercian power around Tamworth and Lichfield. It might have been this strategic position which led to the first non-religious development at Hereford.

St Ethelbert

Sutton lies 6km north north-east of Hereford. Here, on this important route, Offa is believed to have built a palace. At Sutton in 794 he is alleged to have murdered Ethelbert, the young King of the East Angles. Tradition has Offa atoning for this deed by becoming a benefactor of the Cathedral at Hereford, where Ethelbert's body was subsequently interred.

Miracles were attributed to Ethelbert. The saint's severed head was said to have fallen off the cart taking his body to Hereford. A blind man tripped over the head and was cured. In Hereford, a spring suddenly appeared at the place where his cortege rested before being taken to the cathedral for burial. Ethelbert was canonised, and his tomb, in what became the cathedral church of St Mary the Virgin and St Ethelbert the King, became a major centre of pilgrimage. The tales also recount that up to this time the English had called the settlement on the Wye Fernleigh, changing the name to Hereford afterwards. The English name for the town means 'Ford of the army' while its Welsh name, Henffordd, means 'the Old road'.

St Ethelbert's Well, Hereford - The spring which originally flowed from this spot was said to have sprung forth when the body of St Ethelbert was laid here on the way to the cathedral.