Ike goes to Hereford

Recently Ike has been adventuring around Pembrokeshire in southwest Wales with Sharon & Gareth. In this blog they pop over the border into England:

Ike spent a few days in Hereford on a mini break.  Lots of river features to take a look at, and he also got to take in some of the historic sites of this beautiful city.

Hereford sits on the River Wye and is famous for its cathedral, cider, and having one of the earliest examples of map-making in the form of the Mappa Mundi.  Ike went for a quick look at the town centre then spent some time examining local river features.

Ike va à Hereford. Ike a passé quelques jours à Hereford pour un mini-séjour. Il y avait beaucoup de caractéristiques fluviales à étudier et il a également vu certains des sites historiques de cette belle ville. Hereford se trouve sur la rivière Wye et est célèbre pour sa cathédrale, son cidre et l’un des premiers exemples de cartographie sous la forme de la Mappa Mundi. Ike a visité le centre-ville, puis il a passé du temps à examiner les caractéristiques de la rivière qu’il pouvait voir.

Ike besucht Hereford. Ike verbrachte ein paar Tage in Hereford auf einem Kurzurlaub. Dort gibt es viele Flusselemente und Er sah auch einige der historischen Stätten dieser schönen Stadt.Hereford liegt am Fluss Wye und ist berühmt für die Kathedrale, den Apfelwein und einen der frühesten Beispiele der Kartenerstellung in Form der Mappa Mundi. Ike besuchte das Stadtzentrum und untersuchte eine Weile die Flussmerkmale.

Translation by Sharon Williams at Languages For Living.

The Black and White House shown above is in the heart of Hereford.  It was built in 1621 as part of Butcher’s Row.  Now a museum of local daily life in Jacobean times, it is the only house remains of the original row; the rest were torn down in 1816.

Geography Cat received this lovely postcard of the same place from his friends Abigail and James:

The postcard also show the bronze bull which Ike is sitting on in the photograph below. The bull is a symbol of the town as it lies at the heart of an agricultural region.

Hereford Cathedral. The site of this cathedral became a place of worship in the 8th century or earlier, although the oldest part of the current building, the bishop’s chapel, dates to the 11th century. It is home to the world-famous Mappa Mundi. The Mappa Mundi is a circular map of geographical, historical and spiritual features, and more, dating from around 1300:

Ike, Sharon and Gareth also went looking for some river and flooding features on the Rivers Lugg and Wye. Much of the River Wye forms the border between Wales and England, and is a tributary of the River Severn.

This is a picture of the confluence of the Wye and Lugg just outside a small village called Mordiford.  A confluence is the place where two rivers meet:

Here’s Ike on the oldest surviving bridge in Herefordshire, dating in part to around 1352. It is on the edge of the village of Mordiford which grew here because the River Lugg could be crossed here. Settlements often grow where a river can be crossed, either at a bridging point or a ford, and often at a confluence too.

Nearby is a levée. This is a feature of river deposition, formed during flood events when the flood waters lose energy as they spread out across the flood plain. As the water slows down it drops, or deposits, its load of sediment and these linear mounds form over time.

This part of the floodplain is often under water after heavy rain events:

The levées just outside Mordiford protect the farmland on the fertile floodplain.  Building on the floodplain is often prohibited in Herefordshire due to regular flooding.

Next we see Ike admiring the “old” bridge over the Wye in Hereford.  There has been a bridge here since the late 15^th century:

Hereford is at risk of flooding and the next pictures show flood defences along the River Wye:

This image gives you a better idea of how these flood defences are used:

Due to the flood risk, much of Hereford has been zoned to aloow only certain land uses on the flood plain. Land use such as playing fields being permitted so that those fields are inundated during flooding, thereby easing some of the pressure on the residential and commercial districts. This picture shows one such area:

  The following clip shows Hereford during the flood in February 2020:

This is the last post from Ike’s Adventures with Sharon & Gareth, all in Pembrokeshire apart from this one. If you missed any of the previous posts here they are:

• At home with Languages Cat in Haverfordwest
• Checking out the Haverfordwest flood defences
• Pentre-Ifan Neolithic Tomb
• Pembroke and Carew Castles
• Pembrokeshire Coast
• Brunel at Neyland
• St David’s
• The bluestone of the Preseli Hills