Hereford
The House
Hereford House was established in 1996 to accommodate the growth of the School. Mrs Wendy Hunt was the first Head of House and led her beloved Hereford to many heights before leaving the School in 2002. Although a fairly young House its members have made great contributions on the sporting fields and in the classrooms. As with its namesake, Hereford looks forward to a long and fruitful future.
The Cathedral
"Hereford Cathedral is full of surprises. It houses many treasures..."
Standing on the peaceful banks of the beautiful River Wye in the West country near the Welsh border, Hereford Cathedral occupies a site where cathedral buildings have stood since Saxon times.
The See of Hereford has been quoted as being "one of the few bishoprics which have come down almost without interruption from the first establishment of Christianity in our land until the present day." It is certainly considered the most ancient in England. Traditionally, the erection of the first Cathedral at Hereford or Caerfawydd, as the city was then known, was paid for by King Gerren Llyngesoc of Dumnonia (Devon & Cornwall) in AD 542. Much prized by medieval pilgrims and modern episcopal authorities alike, is a chasse, or reliquary, of early 13th century Limoges work still kept at the Cathedral. It consists of a small enamelled casket depicting the Martyrdom of the other St Thomas, Thomas A'Becket of Canterbury; and once, no doubt, contained some small relic of this man or his life.
Hereford Cathedral's greatest treasure, however, is the celebrated "Mappa Mundi" preserved in a modern building tastefully erected, at the end of the Bishop's Cloister, to blend with the rest of the Cathedral architecture. This late thirteenth century world map, one of the oldest in existence, is drawn on vellum (animal skin) and depicts the history of life from Creation to Doomsday. It summarises the major topics of intellectual interest of the period and may best be regarded as a “Map of the Medieval Mind".
The Chained Library at Hereford Cathedral is a unique treasure. Originally located in the Lady Chapel, its books date back to the eighth century. The Hereford Gospels, which were made in England in the Welsh Border area, were given to the library in 1012 by the Bishop of Hereford. These handwritten manuscripts written by quill on pages of vellum are bound between wooden boards and chained individually to the shelves.
Hereford is well known as the place of origin of the indigenous Red Cattle which roamed the Welsh Border Counties and the western extremities of England. The origins of a special breed of cattle in the County of Herefordshire have been mentioned by various agricultural authors from the early 1600's. During the 18th and early 19th century documented records of the breed were maintained by various individuals in and around the Herefordshire area, leading to the publication of the First Herd Book of Hereford Cattle in 1846 by Thomas Eyton of Wellington, Shropshire. These white faced cattle are the basis of the herd at Kirrikee, the School's Outdoor Education Centre in the Southern Highlands.
The creation of the See of the City suggests that the Hereford Cathedral School would have been established by 700AD. The first extant record of the school's existance dates from 1384 when Bishop Gilbert appointed Richard Cornwaille as schoolmaster. Since that time the school has been variously housed in and around the Cathedral, its Close and Cloisters.
The Junior School was founded as an independent school in 1898. Since 1987 it has been under the aegis of the Cathedral School Governors when the school also became co-educational. The school's choristers continue the fine liturgical traditions of the Cathedral.
