Although Godwin’s return from banishment in 1052 had been followed by the putting forth of most of the Norman intruders, Richard Fitz-Scrob, one of the most offensive, seems to have remained, and long afterwards to have put down Edric the Wild; and his son Osborn, after a short exile in Scotland, came back to Herefordshire, and held office and dignities both before and after the Conquest.
In 1055 Godwin was dead, and to Harold, as Earl of the West Saxons, it belonged to redeem the disgrace incurred by Ralph the Timid. He lost no time in preparation. In the course of the same year he mustered his forces at Gloucester, and by his mere presence cleared Hereford of the Welsh and Ælfgar. He at once fortified Hereford. Whether he restored the castle is unknown, but he surrounded the city with a wall, no doubt along the line of the later structure. Mr. Freeman supposes Harold’s work to have been a mere “dyke of earth and loose stones,” Florence of Worcester describes it as “Vallum latum et altum.” Domesday, however, records a “murus” at Hereford as having stood in the time of the Confessor, so that Harold, when Hereford came under his immediate government, may, as Mr. Freeman suggests, have replaced his vallum with a wall of masonry. Harold’s defences probably did not include the suburb, which even then must have existed, since we read in Domesday of burghers within and burghers without the walls; though the latter would derive a not incomplete protection from the broad belt of marsh which then surrounded the city.
Griffith had sought and received terms of peace. Nevertheless it did not suit him to allow Hereford to become a strong post. Early in 1056 he again crossed the border. He was opposed by Leofgar, the new bishop, who, however, was slain in the first combat. His successor, Ealdred—a man of equal determination with better fortune,—held the Welsh in check, and negotiated a peace, and the fortifications of Hereford were completed.
In 1062 Griffith again appears upon the scene. Probably he traversed Herefordshire, for he crossed the Severn in the diocese of Worcester. On this occasion Harold—appearing, not as the defender of this or that province, but of the whole kingdom—executed a counter movement, and invaded North Wales. This was followed in 1063 by Harold’s great invasion, in which Griffith was murdered by his own countrymen, and Wales submitted, having deprived herself of her greatest son. It was at the conclusion of this war that Harold employed himself in constructing a sort of hunting-lodge for his sovereign in the low lands of Gwent, at Port-skewet, where earthworks are still seen. The lodge was attacked and destroyed while in progress by Caradoc-ap-Griffith-ap-Rhydderch, of South Wales.
Hereford played no part in the Conquest; but the city and shire occupy a respectable place in the Domesday Survey, where the customs are related in great detail. The king had six moneyers there, and the bishop one. Of the city burgesses 103 held of the king, and twenty-seven had held of Earl Harold. All the tenants of the burgh were liable to military service against the Welsh.
The customs called of the Welsh in King Edward’s land in Arcenefeld, or Irchenfield, also there recorded, are curious, and show not only the early existence of a local militia to resist the Welsh, but that the people were mostly of Welsh blood, and were employed against their countrymen. The king held three churches there, and the priests of them were to be the king’s legates or ambassadors in Wales, and when the army marched against an enemy, to the men of Archenfield was committed the post of trust and danger. During the advance they were to form the “Auantwarde,” and in retreat the “Redrewarde.”
Such, then, having been the antecedents of Herefordshire, it is not to be wondered at that it bristled with strong places, nearly all of which show indications of early dates, and in many may be traced the mount or motte, which in England there is strong reason to regard as in favour in the tenth century. Domesday, usually so silent as to fortresses, and enumerating only forty-nine in all England, mentions in this county eight, and two strong houses. There were, however, many more, and at this day there remain traces more or less considerable of twenty-eight, of which many preserve the mount, and others earthworks of an early character. Similar works are found at Brecon and Builth, places known to have been held by the English at an early period. No doubt these strongholds, originally strengthened with timber, were burned again and again by the insurgent Welsh; but the positions of most of them were well chosen, and each had its surrounding estate, so that when, after the Conquest, the great Norman barons marched into Wales, they constructed upon these sites castles of masonry after their fashion, of which a few remain, though many, having been destroyed, have been rebuilt in the reign of Henry III., or later.
William’s arrival no doubt confirmed and extended any local power that may have been allowed to Richard Fitz-Scrob and his son, under Harold. Osborn, as sheriff, held Hereford, and either he or the first Norman earl probably rebuilt the castle in the Norman manner.
William FitzOsborn, the great Norman chief, “Magister militum bellicosus,” Earl of Hereford from 1067 to 1071, was a fearful scourge of the Welsh, whom he drove back and vanquished on the banks of the distant Rhymny. To him are attributed the castles of Strigwil, Clifford, Wigmore, and Ewias—that is, the Norman part of them, for some at least preserve older earthworks.
Roger de Bretuil, William’s third son, succeeded him in the earldom. He plays no part in the history of shire or castle. Failing in rebellion in the eastern counties, he ended his days in prison.