Kate Andrew came to talk to us fresh from her Clerk of Works role at Worcester Cathedral. She has also worked as a natural history curator based at Ludlow Museum and been head of Herefordshire Museum Service. The talk was entitled Mortimer Landscape of North Herefordshire and was wide-ranging, seeking to explain the influence of geological upheavals over millennia on the subsequent political history of these shores.
Kate’s original discipline was geology and she explained the way rocks were laid down when Britain was near the equator, creating shale and limestone layers. Limestone doesn’t erode, thus leaving ridges. Our area has unique features including both Aymestrey limestone fossils and plant deposits near the Charlton Arms in Ludlow. In the Ice Age only the tips of hills such as those at Malvern would have shown, but in the warming period hippos and hyenas were here. In the second Glacial Period, 22 thousand years ago, a squeeze of sand and gravel which Kate likened to an icy tube of toothpaste formed through Downton Gorge, now proving profitable to Bromfield Sand and Gravel Co.
Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) filmed during lockdown revealed shapes left by residual debris, some called ‘basket of eggs’ and ‘drumlins’ and the extent of the Wigmore glacial lake which was larger than Lake Windermere. Drumlins such as the one at Lucton are easily mistaken for burial mounds or mottes.
Kate showed pictures of an archaeological find from the lake area: a middle Bronze Age axe head. It was broken. But was this deliberate? Was it sacrificed? So was the lake considered sacred?
Watling Street, manmade in the Roman era was visible in photographs of the flooded lake area. Also known as Hereford Lane, this ran from Kenchester to Wroxeter, through the Aymestrey Gap formed in the Ice Age. There was a small marching camp at Wigmore from which brooches and a fitting from a chariot harness from 41BC were found.
Shropshire Museum holds a dagger handle formed from the same material as that of the Staffordshire Hoard, made of gold and garnet. It is especially fascinating because it has three crosses on each side; on one they are Celtic, on the other Roman thus demonstrating it predates the Synod of Whitby (664 AD) when the Roman church became predominate.
Moving forward in time we came to the reign of Athelstan, the creation of shires and thus sheriffs, the oldest civil role still in existence. One High Sheriff, Bill Jackson, had asked Kate to do this research.
Wigmore church is an early 11th century example of herringbone walls. This too has a geological explanation as the local rock type precludes big blocks of stone, but rather produces flat flakes. This is the most extensive masonry of its type, from the Norman Conquest. This brings us to the era of the famous Mortimer family.
Ralph Mortimer was related to William the Conqueror. With the Conquest came castle-building. Mottes were built to guard crossings and the Marcher Lordships’ territories were designated by them. Hugh de Mortimer formed Wigmore Abbey, and probably also the churches at Pipe Aston, Elton and Leinthall Starkes, with a college of priests at Wigmore church. William Fitz Osborne built the castle which passed into Mortimer ownership. There was a tiltyard next to it for training men for army-readiness. Finds from there include harness studs from jousting tournaments. In Hereford museum there is also a fragment of the castle’s floor tiles. After Roger’s execution his grandson made Ludlow castle his prime residence.
The War of the Roses was due to the equal claim to the throne felt by both sides. Richard Duke of York was descended from the Mortimers and was Protector of the young Prince Edward, son of King Henry (Tudor) VI of the Lancastrian side. Richard of York’s contempt for Henry led to the War of the Roses.
Tudor supporters who amassed at Haverford West marched in 1461 to meet Yorkist supporters in the battle of Mortimer’s Cross. Church towers would have been good lookout posts, and it is suggested that horses may have been stabled in the porch of Aymestrey church. Edward’s symbol at the battle became the ‘parhelion’ an image he saw of three suns together. This is caused by a low sun reflecting through cirrhus cloud. Kate had seen this effect for herself whilst driving into Hereford one day so she understood that one would have to be looking south to see it, and it would have been very low in the sky at the time of the battle, Candlemas, or February 2nd. From this Kate was able to deduce which way the armies would have been facing: thus Edward’s facing south. One find from the site was a weapon which Kate likened to a giant ‘tin opener’ to dig soldiers out of their armour. She also pointed out that the ‘sword of mourning’ carried when Elizabeth II died was that of Owen Tudor from this very same battle. The monument to the battle on the edge of Kingsland is the probable site of Owen Tudor’s last stand. He was executed in Hereford, and was grandfather of King Henry VIII. Thus, this battle changed the course of British history.
Brian Wilkinson, our in-house geologist mentioned that our own water supply comes from the Wigmore glacial lake.
Kate’s talk was very wide-ranging, and if you wished to know more detail, her book of the same title was on sale afterwards. One has been added to the society’s library.
A reminder: local members are able to borrow books from our library by filling in a form in the History Room.
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LEINTWARDINE HISTORY SOCIETY 