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Grafton
Grafton maps
Historic maps of Grafton and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Grafton maps
Grafton area books
Displaying 1 of 12 books about Grafton and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Grafton
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Herefordshire memories
ROMAN DIG
In about 1957-8 our history teacher at Hereford High School arranged for those that were interested to make a 'dig' in the yard besides the library ( on the left with the arches). We dug down at least 6 feet or more finding Victorian stuff and other older stuff as we went down and finally I found a Roman pot which I managed to break while getting it out of the packed earth. We had been given absolutely no instructions or training as to how this should have been handled. The teacher was a tad cranky about it but as far as I am concerened it was his fault...what does a 14 year old know about these things ? We were lucky not to get killed as there was no supports for the sides of the trench.
Seems Like Yesterday!
I had to pass through here every day on my way to and from Hereford High School. This photo is so familiar it isn't funny !!
I lived in the army camp officer's quarter's at Bradbury Lines where my stepfather was stationed. I had to make the walk no matter what the weather..sometimes getting home completely frozen or soaked !
I WITNESS THE AFTERMATH OF A TRAGEDY
Around 1957 I was walking around High Street, enjoying a meander from my route home to Bradbury Lines when I saw the wife of an officer from the Army Camp, Lt Richard Vincent, in great distress with some policemen outside the grocery shop...I believe it was a Sainsbury's on the near left hand side.
She had left her small baby in the pram outside the shop while she went inside to shop .. in those days this would not have involved the kinds of risks that it would today.. at least it shouldn't have!
Something about the scene told me that something had happened to her baby and I went home and told my step parents what my thought was. Since they considered me a ne'r do well who knew nothing at all they scoffed at me as if I was an idiot.
It didn't take long for the activity I had seen in High Town to spread out to Bradbury Lines where she and her officer... Read more
A MODERN INTRUSION
When I first returned to Hereford from Canada in 1979, after a 20 year absence, I was shocked to see the new modern designed Greyfriars Bridge crossing the river not far from the almost 2000 year old Roman Bridge.
On the left bank and back behind the photographer's position was the boat house where I used to, briefly, cox my Hereford High School house's rowing 'eight' . I didn't last that long because I almost scuttled us by nearly steering us into the railway bridge's abutments, further back up the river next to the High School sports fields where I also , much to my disgust, had to endure the ignominities of rugby !!
We used to spend a lot of time skimming rocks across the river here and it used to be the thing to do to be able to land a stone on the opposite bank !
The Wye used to flood really badly sometimes..I forget exactly which year it was but the recent (2007/8)... Read more
THE FUN FAIR
I don't know if they still do it but in the mid 1950's filled the entire Broad Street/High Street and surrounding streets were transformed into one gigantic bright, noisy, whirling, smelly and absolutely thrilling funfair!!
Merry-go-rounds and all manner of great carny rides, loaded with screaming kids and flashing hundreds of blinking lights,wind up horse racing, coconut shies and ring tosses, roll the penny, try to get the pingpong ball into the goldfish bowl, candy floss stalls...you name it..to us kids it was awesome !!
'Ere y'ar luv...Roll up..roll up...roll up...rollarollaroll a penny a pitch ! I can hear them calling now !
AN UNAPPRECIATED HISTORY
When you grow up in an ancient city such as Hereford and have really no other frame of reference you don't fully grasp the enormity of the depth of history that buildings such as Hereford Cathedral embodied. The Romans built this city !!! The Romans !! To European kids this 2000 year old history is everyday to them. I think you have to get away from it to be able to take it all in and my 40+ years in Canada and the USA gave me that perspective.
I wept in awe and wonder at my country's rich history when I took my 18 yr old son and 16 yr old daughter with me to Westminster Abbey in 2001.
Back then, when I was 14, at Hereford High School I was a member of the school's CCF Army Cadet Corps and every year our company would polish up our buckles, shine our boots and press our uniforms so that we would look our absolute smartest as we... Read more
Man on A Bike
The man riding his bike in the foreground of the photo is my father, Albert William Smith, aged about 40. The building on the left is All Saints Church.
