Gateway to the Welsh Marches, the City of Hereford has had a turbulent past stretching back over 1300 years. It was one of the principal towns of the Saxon kingdom of Mercia, with the diocese being founded in AD 676. This strategic city was one of the sixteen Shire towns ranked as cities in the Domesday Book. Evidence of the very early formal plan and successive defences can still be seen today. During the Civil War, Royalist Hereford used these defences to withstand a prolonged siege by the Scots Army. After the Civil War the gates and walls became neglected and Hereford lost its castle, which was, according to Leland, 'one of the gayrest, largest and strongest castels in England.' In the late 18th century the city's gates and much of the walls were demolished 'to allow the free circulatiojn of air.' The city expanded in the 19th century, and this selection of photographs gives an insight into the lives of ordinary people as well as special events...