Hereford - Cathedral

Hereford became the seat of Putta, Bishop of Hereford, some time between 676 and 688, after which the settlement continued to grow due to its proximity to the border between Mercia and Wales, becoming the Saxon capital of West Mercia by the beginning of the 8th century.

Hostilities between the Anglo-Saxons and the Welsh came to a head with the Battle of Hereford in 760, in which the Britons freed themselves from the influence of the English. Hereford was again targeted by the Welsh during their conflict with the Anglo-Saxon King Edward the Confessor in 1056 when, supported by Viking allies, Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, King of Gwynedd and Powys, marched on the town and put it to the torch before returning home in triumph.


A church has existed on this site since the 8th century or earlier. The present building was begun in 1079. Substantial parts date from both the Norman and the Gothic periods. The cathedral is dedicated to two saints, St Mary the Virgin and St Ethelbert the King. The latter was beheaded by Offa, King of Mercia, in the year 794. Offa had consented to give his daughter to Ethelbert in marriage, but he changed his mind and deprived him of his head.

Of this Norman church, completed around 1150, the surviving parts are the nave arcade, the choir, the south transept and the crossing arches. Scarcely 50 years after its completion the east end was altered by constructing a retro-choir and a lady chapel. 1226 - 1246, the Lady Chapel was rebuilt in the Early English style. Around the middle of the century the clerestory, and the vaulting of the choir, were rebuilt, having been damaged by the settling of the central tower. Under Peter of Aigueblanche (bishop 1240–68) the rebuilding of the north transept was begun, being completed later in the same century.

On Easter Monday, 1786, the greatest disaster in the history of the cathedral took place. The west tower fell, creating a ruin of the whole of the west front and at least one part of the nave. The restoration work took more than a century. The west front was restored over the period 1902 and 1908.

The carving of graffiti on effigies was probably a kind of political statement and a form of contempt for the deceased.