6 Hidden Historical Herefordshire Wonders
According to local author and historian Joe Emmet
When researching for his book, New Roots, Ancient Lands, local author and historian Joe Emmet uncovered his favourite forgotten corners of Herefordshire. Add them to your 'must-visit' list now!
"If Britain is a vast sprawling mansion, then Herefordshire is its largely forgotten and overlooked room. Though it is a room full of hidden gems. In my new book; New Roots, Ancient Lands, I walk the historical sites that offer a window not just into our local history but our national picture too. Here are 6 of my hidden favourites."
1. Where Mammoths once stood
My book begins drenched in sunshine, walking as I am through the incredible meadows of Herefordshire Wildlife Trust’s Sturts Nature Reserve. Though this land, now full of rare flowers and wildlife, once stood on the edge of the vast ice sheet of the last great Ice Age. There are more remnants here in the form of ponds, around which mammoths once stood, than anywhere else in the entire country.
2. The Herefordshire Hoard
It's infamous for its deceitful detectorists but what has been recorded from this Viking hoard has rewritten our national history through the ‘two emperor’ coins. A walk around Eye north of Leominster up to Richard’s Castle will connect the Vikings to their Norman descendants, for Herefordshire had the highest concentration of Normans in pre-1066, a foreshadowing of their future domination.
3. The Missing Link
Snodhill Castle’s emergence, in the Golden Valley, as a site of real significance earned it the right to appear on Digging for Britain. Though the real hard-work has been from the new former Trust’s and nearly yearly archaeological digs who have uncovered a site that contains not only a substantial second tower but also the nations only royal chapel not attached to a royal castle. To walk the ruins and area will take you deep into the castles land, where hundreds of families worked the saw and charcoal pits and got through the best they could.
4. Lord of Cider
Whilst Herefordshire Cider is well known, what is less common is how it was Lord Scudamore of Holme Lacy who, with his Redstreak Apple and sparkling cider, attempted to challenge the wine industry. A walk from Holme Lacy to St Cuthbert’s Church on the banks of the Wye, will not only allow you to walk where the orchards once stood but will, if you look closely, be able to spy a once vast Perry tree. It was a discovery I made with Cider maker Tom Oliver and Cider enthusiast and ex Mayor Kath Hey.
5. The Lost Canal
Our rich red earth has fed and filled the plates of now millions of people over the millennia, from the Romans to modern times. We might think that during the industrial era our landscape wasn’t transformed by factory and mining but it was still altered. A walk around Slaplow and Ashperton near Ledbury will allow you to see where the canal once lay, there are deep channels and tunnels dug by the blood and sweat of hundreds of navvies. For some it is a piece of the past we should restore.
6. A City Wander
Hereford is full of history, the best preserved medieval layout of any city, it stands proud in the heart of the county and on the banks of the nations favourite river. I took a wander amongst the east of the city with the Bartonsham History Group, where I learned about the Whalebone Inn, Elgar, Alfred Watkins and the site of a potential Saxon wharf. Up the hill lies the site of Herefordshire’s only Suffragette grave at Tupsley’s St Paul’s Church. Whilst at Rotherwas the factory’s stood that became the frontline on both WW1 and WW2. Our county’s history and natural wonders really are something to celebrate!
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