In the early 12th century, great churches were being built in the Romanesque style at many places in England. Some of these churches, including those at Reading Abbey, Tewkesbury Abbey and Hereford Cathedral, exhibited sculptural decoration of a most varied and often flamboyant kind. Aspects of these sculptures have been linked to work in western France, Ireland, Scandinavia, Italy and Santiago de Compostella, but also with earlier Celtic and Anglo-Saxon art in England. Initially this exuberant and costly sculpture seems to have been largely restricted to the great churches, but in Herefordshire something special happened. A group of cultured men, probably including Robert de Bethune, Bishop of Hereford (1131-48) sought to apply this new style to much humbler places of worship. So was created the famous Herefordshire School of Romanesque Sculpture that thrived in the middle Marches in the 12th century. There are many outstanding examples of their work remaining, their carvings displaying an eclectic mix of styles, with Kilpeck church as the prime example.

Hugh Mortimer’s steward was called Oliver de Merlimond. He was an able and cultured man and he encouraged Hugh to patronise the Herefordshire School. Examples of their work are still to be seen at the Mortimer properties at Orleton, Pipe Aston, Rock, Ribbesford and Alveley. Hugh granted Oliver the manor of Shobdon, not far from Wigmore in Herefordshire where Oliver began to build a church. A visit to Santiago de Compostella in Spain will have done nothing to cool his enthusiasm for the new style. He incorporated it in the priory he went on to build at Shobdon. Little remains of Oliver’s priory church but, when it was pulled down in 1756, the chancel arch and two other arches were set up at the top of a nearby rise as a folly. Shobdon Arches still retain their Herefordshire School carvings but they are now badly eroded.

During the Anarchy, life wasn’t easy for the Augustinian canons of Shobdon. Exactly what happened is not clear as there are conflicting stories. Oliver de Merlimond changed his allegiance and began to support Matilda. This made him Hugh’s bitter enemy and, in his anger, Hugh not only took back Shobdon but, for a time, he seems to have reclaimed the gifts he had made to the priory, leaving the canons destitute. He subsequently relented and made new grants for their wellbeing. Shobdon lay at the very south of the Mortimer lands and therefore was vulnerable to attack by Matilda’s supporters in the south. It may have been for their safety that Hugh moved them further north. Over the next few years they settled at several places in the area before Hugh finally established them on a new site a mile or so north of Wigmore and upgraded the priory to an abbey. The foundation stone of Wigmore Abbey was laid in 1172 and the church consecrated in 1179. Little now remains of this important abbey that was the burial place of generations of Mortimers.

Only ten years after Hugh had rebuilt Cymaron castle in Maelienydd it was retaken by Cadwallon ap Madog and a personal feud seems to have developed between the Cadwallon and the Mortimers. In 1179 Cadwallon was called to court by Henry II to answer charges about disturbing the king’s peace. Returning to Wales under a safe conduct from the king he was ambushed and killed. The attack on Cadwallon was instigated by Hugh’s son Roger. By now a very old man, Hugh had at least some of his lands confiscated, but the consequences for his son were much more serious as he was imprisoned in Winchester.

It is not known for certain exactly when Hugh died. The financial records of the Exchequer (the Pipe Rolls) note that from 1181, his son Roger became responsible for his father’s debts. One chronicle states that Hugh resigned his lands to his eldest son and became a canon of Wigmore Abbey, dying in February 1185. Whether he died in 1181 or 1185, the earlier year marks the termination of his active life; he was buried in the church of Wigmore Abbey.

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