‘Regular Features’ Archives
The Black Death and the Great Plague strike
When researching last month’s article on Welsh Newton, a recurrent theme from previous researches, is the shortage of recorded buildings in the periods approx. 1300 to 1500 and 1600 to the late 1700s. This could of course be a lack of surviving records but even without this written evidence, we might well expect to see buildings of these ages [...]
Up the Garden Path, October 2010
Narcissus in Greek mythology was a hunter who was renowned for his beauty. He was exceptionally proud in that he disdained those who loved him such as the wood nymph Echo, she wasted away to a mere voice for the unrequited love of Narcissus. As divine punishment he fell in love with his own reflection in a pool not realising it was an image, and [...]
Up the Garden Path
Exterminate Exterminate! A somewhat spinechilling pronouncement. Who would have thought that, when Dr. Who was first created in 1963, it would have become so immensely popular. Now the Doctor, in his eleventh reincarnation in 2010 has become incredibly fantastical thanks to up to the minute computer technology. But it still includes those sweet [...]
Welsh Newton – a village of change
Some villages in our area have changed relatively little over the centuries yet others have changed dramatically. One such village that has changed is Welsh Newton. The parish of Welsh Newton sits high above the River Wye and covers a large area from Buckholt Wood (north of Monmouth) in the South, Welsh Newton Common in the East to Pembridge [...]
Llangarron – A lost treasure, literally!
In last month’s article I wrote about Herefordshire Council’s Sites and Monuments Record (SMR) as the major source of historical information on buildings and artefacts in our area. This month I will begin an exploration of this important record. Before I forget, since I last wrote, the Council has had an upgrade of its website and the [...]
Searching our history – National Monuments Record (NMR)
It is a year since I first wrote an article on local history for the Village News. From the feedback I have received they are proving popular so a big thank you to all you readers. I have plenty of more ideas for articles so I hope to carry on writing for some time to come as long as you and the editor still want. The major problem is finding [...]
A pocket guide worth buying
In last month’s article on The (Ye) (Olde) Hostelrie Hotel in Goodrich, I made reference to Sir Nikolaus Pevsner and the Herefordshire edition of his guides “The Buildings of England”. For those readers who have not heard of these books, they are a comprehensive regional architectural series which were written between 1951 and 1974; each [...]
The Wye trow – The workhorse of the River Wye
As I have mentioned in previous articles, river transport was vital for the industry in the Wye Valley. Our communities would not have developed as they have without a ready means of moving the heavy raw materials such as coal, limestone, iron ore, building materials and wood and for the finished products made from them. Because of their weight [...]
Sustainability and recycling are not new
We often hear of the words “sustainability” and “recycling” as being new ideas that will save the planet. What we sometimes forget is that these activities have been going on since mankind began. It is only over the latter half of the 20th century that we began to develop more of a “throwaway” culture as our standards of living [...]
The Golden Age – 45 years of great building
When I was reading the headlines in the last edition of Village News about the Whitchurch Clock Tower petition and appeal, it came to my mind that this was yet another major local building constructed in the forty five year period between circa 1830 and 1875. This was in the middle of Queen Victoria’s reign when Great Britain and arguably the [...]