Map

The overlays that highlight 17th century London features are approximate and derived from Wenceslaus Hollar’s maps:

Open location in Google Maps: 52.055992, -2.717547

3 Annotations

Second Reading

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Hereford (Listeni/ˈhɛrᵻfərd/) is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately 16 miles (26 km) east of the border with Wales, 24 miles (39 km) southwest of Worcester, and 23 miles (37 km) northwest of Gloucester. With a population of 58,896, it is the largest settlement in the county. The name "Hereford" is said to come from the Anglo-Saxon "here", an army or formation of soldiers, and the "ford", a place for crossing a river. If this is the origin it suggests that Hereford was a place where a body of armed men forded or crossed the Wye. The Welsh name for Hereford is Henffordd, meaning "old road", and probably refers to the Roman road and Roman settlement at nearby Stretton Sugwas.
During the civil war the city changed hands several times. On 30 September 1642 Parliamentarians led by Sir Robert Harley and Henry Grey, 1st Earl of Stamford occupied the city without opposition. In December they withdrew to Gloucester because of the presence in the area of a Royalist army under Lord Herbert. The city was again occupied briefly from 23 April to 18 May 1643 by Parliamentarians commanded by Sir William Waller but it was in 1645 that the city saw most action. On 31 July 1645 a Scottish army of 14,000 under Alexander Leslie, 1st Earl of Leven besieged the city but met stiff resistance from its garrison and inhabitants. They withdrew on 1 September when they received news that a force led by King Charles was approaching. The city was finally taken for Parliament on 18 December 1645 by Colonel Birch and Colonel Morgan. King Charles showed his gratitude to the city of Hereford on 16 September 1645 by augmenting the city's coat of arms with the three lions of Richard I of England, ten Scottish Saltires signifying the ten defeated Scottish regiments, a very rare lion crest on top of the coat of arms signifying "defender of the faith" and the even rarer gold-barred peer's helm, found only on the arms of one other municipal authority: those of the City of London.[11]
Nell Gwynne, actress and mistress of King Charles II, is said to have been born in Hereford in 1650 (although other towns and cities, notably Oxford, also claim her as their own); Gwynn Street is named after her. Another famous actor born in Hereford is David Garrick (1717–1779). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Her…

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

As of November, 2020 this project is not complete so at the time of posting there are more house, windows and doors to add, and you may spot some missing details: however, overall, this is special. You are invited to explore the medieval city of Hereford, England as it was in 1642 in this 3D role-playing game on PC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t…

Jack Hodges is attempting to bring history alive with this detailed and historically correct model of Hereford. For more information on the project, including concepts and processes, please contact him on Artstation.com or email him at jhodges3278@gmail.com .

Music: Another Division on a Ground by Mr. John Banister (1630–3 October 1679) and Harmonia Mundi by Robert Fludd (born 1574-1637)

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One of the annotators already noted that, until the 18th century, Hereford cathedral had a tall spire, and the west end had a small tower, so those are details already caught.

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References

Chart showing the number of references in each month of the diary’s entries.

1668