In Our Age

06/09/2026

HWT at Queenswood have more copies!

03/09/2026

Celebrating a fine traditional Herefordshire drink.

Save the date!

Perryfest will be back on Saturday the 3rd October 2026, for a day of talks, tasting, music, food, and above all... PERRY! 🍐

31/08/2026

This promises to be an entertaining event.

To Provide a Suitable Home for the Valuable and Ancient Volumes of Hereford Cathedral
Saturday 19 September, 3 pm - 5 pm

2026 marks the 130th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone for the Dean Leigh Library and the 30th anniversary of the opening of the New Library Building which houses the Mappa Mundi & Chained Library Museum, Reading Room and Cathedral Archives.

In this lecture, cathedral archivist Elizabeth Semper O’Keefe will commemorate these significant anniversaries by exploring the history of these two spaces and the wider library provision within the cathedral site.

A small selection of books will be on display.

Tickets cost £12.
www.herefordcathedral.org/Event/to-provide-a-suitable-home-for-the-valuable-and-ancient-volumes-of-hereford-cathedral

28/08/2026

FREE Oral History Training in Hereford under the friendly guidance of Herefordshire Lore. Get in touch to book your place. Where: HARC Hereford. When: Friday September 11th, from 10.30 to 1.30.

28/08/2026

VOLUNTEERS - WE NEED YOU!

Help uncover Hereford’s brooks and waterways

Herefordshire Lore and Herefordshire Wildlife Trust are looking for volunteers to join our new River City project, exploring the history of the Eign, Widemarsh, Yazor, Canny and other city waterways.
Help us delve into old maps, photographs, newspapers and local memories to uncover lost streams, mills and bridges, floods, pollution, wildlife and stories of everyday life beside the water.
🔎 No research experience needed – just curiosity!
Your discoveries could help a lasting record of Hereford’s watery heritage.

Interested? Come and help us put Hereford’s hidden waterways back on the map.

Photo: Dave Cotton and his friend standing on the bridge over the Canny.

Herefordshire HistoryHerefordshire Wildlife Trust Herefordshire Histories Festival

25/08/2026

How Fox Hunting Aided the War Effort - 1916

All sports were banned in the First World War, except fox hunting. Hunting, according to the Director of the War Department’s Remount office, supplied valuable light horses for cavalry work. And as Dudley Smith, secretary of South Herefordshire Hunt, explained: “Hunting is the best training an officer can have for the sterner duties of war.”

Letters supporting a hunting ban were published locally. However Col Clowes of Burton Court insisted: “Many of the soldiers in France today proved all the better soldiers through having ridden straight to hounds in England.” (His only son 20-year old Warren ‘Pat’ Clowes was killed in France only days before.)

Most war horses faced a terrible fate (as depicted by Herefordshire’s greatest war artist Brian Hatton before his death at the Front) and in 1916 the Blue Cross Fund for injured horses benefitted from a £62 gift from Mr Duncombe of the Hereford Cloisters.

(Sources: Thomas Winterbourne/Herefordshire’s Home Front in the FWW, and Herefordshire Lore Archive).

20/08/2026

The tree is still there - the area behind has changed beyond recognition. (Pic: Dave Cotton)

We are delighted to be working with Herefordshire Lore on our Heritage Fund-supported project, Hereford ~ River City, to uncover and share the social histories linked to Hereford's waterways.

Throughout River City's development phase, Herefordshire Lore is reaching out to communities to build an oral archive of everyday stories from local people, keeping important memories alive for future generations. They will also be to research beyond living memory to past centuries when the brooks running through the city were vital for industry, transport and for play.

Check out our new blog, Hereford's Hidden Waterways, to find out more (link via our LinkTree).

If you are interested in learning more about Herefordshire Lore, or have a social history of your own to share, you can contact the team via emailing [email protected] or calling Marsha on 07989 733870.

Want to develop your skills within social history research? Herefordshire Lore will also be running training sessions on research (Monday 7 September, 10.30am–12.30pm) and oral history ( Friday 11 September, from 10.30 to 1.30) at HARC.

With thanks to David Cotton for this image

12/08/2026

Eighty-six years ago in August 1940 Betty Ramsay of Elton Hall, Herefordshire, died on active service. She seems to be one of the seven Herefordshire service women who died during World War Two.
(Image: recruitment poster from www.historyguild.org)
According to our limited research the others were Winnie Malin (Stretton Sugwas), Hilda Peregrine (Hinton Court, Hereford), Lily Pyne (Much Dewchurch), Elsei Langford (Eardisley), Annie Chamberlain (Kingsland) and Mary Weale from Winforton. (Mary Weale’s family, Ezra and Florence Weale, also lost their son David Thomas, killed on active service. )
It’s difficult to find information on these women who served variously with the ATS, VADs and FANNYs (Transport) but, according to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Hilda Peregrine was the oldest at 26, Winnie Malin and Mary Weale the youngest at only 19.
Hilda Peregrine may have been married - she was the daughter of James and Eliza McDougall. Betty Ramsay certainly was; her husband was Major R D Ramsay and her father, Brigadier Edward Custance fought in several of the North African campaigns.
We would welcome more information on any of these women.

04/06/2026

Last chance to check out the entries for the Young Historian Award, on display at Hereford Library in the Town Hall. They’ll come down next week so pop by and see what wonderful histories these ten- and eleven-year olds come up with!

30/05/2026

Pick up a copy of In Our Age while you’re there!

Our next talk is on the 10th June in the Brewery Room at The Barrels at 7:30pm. It will be given by journalist and author Marsha O'Mahoney. We'd love to see you there.