BROMYARD -ITS BUILDINGS, INSIDE OUT
In
the Domesday Survey of 1086, Bromyard was recorded as a large
agricultural manor held by the Bishop of Hereford.
There were two priests and a
chaplain who would have ministered to a large surrounding area or
‘parochia’ of the church.
There was then no mention of the
town.
The Saxon minster church had
already been in existence for some considerable time, being recorded
as early as 840. It was situated on high ground close to two
crossing places of the R. Frome at Broadbridge and Petty Bridge
where ancient roads converge and from an early date, men would have
brought their produce here to trade. A small village probably
clustered round this core.
The Saxon minster church had
already been in existence for some considerable time, being recorded
as early as 840. It was situated on high ground close to two
crossing places of the R. Frome at Broadbridge and Petty Bridge
where ancient roads converge and from an early date, men would have
brought their produce here to trade. A small village probably
clustered round this core.
Richard de Capella, Bishop of
Hereford 1121 – 1127, was an experienced administrator who tried to
improve the financial position of the diocese. He is the man who is
thought to be responsible for the foundation of the planned town.
The rents and market tolls thus generated would have been a
profitable enterprise for the Bishop.
In 1280, after only some 160
years, a survey was carried out of the Bishop’s estates known as the
Red Book and this shows an established town at Bromyard with
7 streets and a ‘seldae’ or Market Square, much larger than
today’s Square. The survey was carried out street by street with
each street name being followed by the names of the burgage holders
and their holdings. There were 230 named tenants who held whole,
parts or multiples of burgages. The layout of High Street and Broad
Street, with their long burgage plots on each side was arranged in
an unusual curve that reflected the church precinct. It is probable
that there was a first phase of burgage plot layout that stopped on
the line of Frog Lane and that the development to the east on both
sides of Broad Street and the Market Square itself constitutes a
later, separate phase of expansion extending to meet the north-south
road of Sherford Street/Church Street, known in the late 13th
century as Veteri Vico (Old Street).
These ancient houses and shops
have been rebuilt, divided, altered, and refaced according to
commercial & domestic need and fashion throughout the centuries.
This survey has been carried out
in the heart of the ancient borough, in Broad Street, High Street
and the Market Square. It was commissioned by the Local History
Society and funded by Awards for All. The object was to investigate
a range of buildings with a view to understanding their phasing,
design and where possible, their original and subsequent function.
It has allowed patterns of building that are possibly unique to
Bromyard to be identified. The exhibition displays many new
unpublished photos.
THE VICTORIAN & EDWARDIAN
TRADES PEOPLE
The second part of the
Exhibition concentrates on the late 19th and early 20th
century shopkeepers, publicans, and other tradesmen who lived
and worked in Bromyard in the days when it was a buzzing market town
serving its agricultural hinterland.
