Hereford

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.
read more here
Contributed by DYLAN RIVIS

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 !
Contributed by DYLAN RIVIS

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.
Contributed by Coral Matthews

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 !
Contributed by DYLAN RIVIS

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 ...read more here
Contributed by DYLAN RIVIS

The Stolen Baby

I was a soldier at Bradbury Lines when this happened.
The Father of the baby was our Troop Lieutenant ...Richard Vincent.
He was a lovely man and well liked by we boy soldiers.
We never saw him again....no doubt he was given a long spell of compassionate leave.
But 30 years or so later he had risen through the ranks to be Field Marshall Sir Richard Vincent and was in charge of NATO !
I have very fond memories of my three years in Hereford.....drinking scrumpy at sevenpence a pint.....boating on the river....we guarded the Queen when she visited in (about) 1957.....she was going to the Cathedral for some reason.
Contributed by David Hutchinson

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 ...read more here
Contributed by DYLAN RIVIS

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 ...read more here
Contributed by DYLAN RIVIS

Boarding school

I went to the St Vincent's Convent as a boarder for a couple of years. Some of the photos I have seen I do recall. I now live in Australia and wonder what happen to the school and the convent. The School was St Francis of Xavier.
Contributed by Paula Healy