Hereford Castle Hereford means "military ford", a mention of turbulent times of its foundation once the Kingdom of Mercia was pushing westwards into Welsh territory. Excavations have uncovered the Saxon town rampart. For hundreds of years the British settlers and also the Welsh past the River Wye were uneasy neighbors, as well as in 1055 the city increased in flames. Harold Godwinson, later King Harold, drove back the intruders and reconstructed the shattered protection. In Norman occasions, the enclosed area bending in dimensions along with a walled circuit changed the earthwork protection from 1224 forward. Hereford rebuffed a Scottish military in 1645 but fell to Parliament in the finish of the season. Broken throughout these sieges, the town wall experienced the most popular fate of demolition and concealment after that. However, clearance within the sixties for that Victoria Street bypass has brought towards the re-appearance of great importance and from the western area of the circuit, stretching in the river almost to West Street. The wall is mutilated however it preserves two semi-circular bastions. All of the gatehouses have perished, including one which guarded the medieval Wye Bridge. There is no wall around the riverside, but remains of the ditch reveal that the medieval city were built with a suburb around the opposite bank. Based on John Leland, Hereford Castle was among the "biggest, fairest and most powerful" in England, so its virtual disappearance is a superb pity. Castle experienced from too close a closeness towards the cathedral. In 1140 the Empress Matilda's supporters fired gemstones and arrows in to the bailey in the central tower, a forerunner from the present one. Henry III found themself a prisoner here after of Fight of Lewes, but his boy Edward steered clear of and rallied the royal forces to victory over Simon p Montfort at Evesham.The protection of the royal stronghold were torn lower in the Restoration.