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(From Our Own Reporter.)
HEREFORD.
In August of 1926, when the Cambrian Archæological Association met at Pwllheli and held one of its most successful meetings in the Lleyn Peninsula, there was a sharp division of opinion as to where the meeting in 1927 should be held. The three Antiquarian Societies functioning in the Aberavon-Margam district of South Wales put forward a very strong case, backed up by a cordial invitation, that the meeting should be held there; but, strange to say, it was decided to meet at Hereford in the Marches, although who was responsible for an invitation from that district was not quite clear. Having secured the promise of a visit, the friends at Hereford at once set to work to map out a programme both instructive and entertaining. And so it was that we found ourselves for the first time in the ancient city of Hereford, with its interesting associations. Over the journey from North Wales we would draw a veil. As usual, the G.W.R. and the L.M.S. at Chester did not seem anxious to co-operate, and so the inevitable rushing from platform to platform to catch the connecting train with loss and delay of luggage followed. True, from North Wales a message had been sent to Chester to the effect that a large party was proceeding from Bangor and the adjacent districts to Hereford, and “would the officials at Chester keep back the Hereford train?” So it was that we reached Chester behind the scheduled time, the usual rush over the bridge and breathless enquiries, “Where is the luggage?” No, it had not come across, but the G.W.R. train could not wait. The majority of the gentlemen of the party were unconcerned for themselves—they, like the camel in the desert, carried all they required for the journey with them; but with the ladies it was, as usual, otherwise. And so as we rushed away to Shrwsbury there were anxious inquiries as to when the luggage would follow, satisfaction by aid of the telephone being obtained at the next stopping place.
The journey along the Borderland to Hereford was charming in the extreme. But what a contrast! What a contradiction to nature! Here we saw a mowing machine cutting hay, and in the adjacent field acres of corn rapidly ripening under the rays of an August sun that for the past fortnight had at last done its duty to the summer of 1927! Hay and corn a little further on down the line was being cut in the adjacent fields.
Then Hereford and its orchards. Some of us must mistake Ludlow Church for Hereford Cathedral, but the driver of the express made no such mistake, and so we speeded away for another fifteen minutes before we finally drew up at Hereford. I don’t know whether we were expected or not, but that railway platform did not appear to be ready to accommodate our train, and consequently when they held our coach up several yards away from the end of the platform there were anxious inquiries of the porters as to “when are we to get to Hereford?” “Why not stretch the platform, guard?” inquired one from Bangor, but Dr. Lloyd reassured us on this point, and advised us to possess our souls in patience. He evidently knew the G.W.R. and Hereford!
We had expected to find something of the old ideas and relics of the past in an old Cathedral City like Hereford, but we did not expect to find the horse still holding its own. Instead of the usual 1927 query of “Taxi, sir?” as we left the station it was “’Bus, sir?” and there, as in years gone by, we found horse-drawn vehicles connecting the railway station with the centre of the town. It gave one the idea that the Cambrian Society had made a mistake and was visiting not Hereford but St. David’s once again, where a wag told his friends he found a place
“Where the motors ceased to trouble
And the ‘pip,’ ‘pip’ was at rest.”
So this is Hereford. The old mingled with the new. The “BoardPresumably means Broad Street, Hereford” street with the narrow alley, but even the finer highway which locates the Post Office and the Free Library, to say nothing of the Cathedral, does not seem to have advanced with the time. We found a No. 10, and on the other side of the road a No. 40 and 41 side by side, but these appeared to be about the only numbers affixed to any of the dwellings, although again the guide book and the list of holiday accommodation definitely and distinctly assured us that certain other houses were numbered.
“Everything comes to him who waits,” and at last we got settled down, and eventually find that the friends at Hereford are kindness itself. It is like home from home, and when we get across to the Woolhope Club Room, in the Public Library, where the first meeting is to be held, a most cordial welcome awaits us. The local committee had perfected the arrangements for out visit in a most praiseworthy manner. You were made to feel at home at once. You had not to enquire who was at Hereford, as a numbered typed list of guests was handed to you. True, some of the party did not at first discover their names, but the number of their ticket supplied the missing link, and all was well.
Much regret was felt at the absence of Major Breese, of Portmadoc, who for the past eight years had so ably and zealously filled the chair at the general committee meetings, but business called him elsewhere, and so we had to once again rely on the ever faithful president, Mr Willoughby Gardner, to preside. There was much detailed work to be gone through at the meeting, and not a little amusement was occasioned as the genial general senior secretary, the Rev. Canon C. F. Roberts, of Llanddulas, apologised for misspelling of the names of the suggested new members of the Society in the printed list. As a rule, when names are printed wrongly you blame the printer, but the Canon was more honest than most secretaries. He suggested that his correspondents should either purchase a typewriter or print the names in script “so that everyone will be able to read them.”
There was an interesting announcement made at the meeting. It appears that the visit in 1926 to Pwllheli was not only of a most successful character from an archaeological point of view, but financially it was to the Society a huge success, £710 17s having been handed over to the general fund after all the expenses of the meeting had been paid. Naturally the friends in the Lleyn district, after such a handsome contribution, apart from the splendid service they had given during the 80th annual meeting, expected something in return, and so the general committee promised to spend a certain amount for the work of excavating at Castell Odo, Pwllheli, under the direction and supervision of the Portmadoc Antiquarian Society, and in an air-survey of the hill forts in Lleyn. There was some doubt expressed as to what the last-named would cost or when it could be carried out, but one of the members from Wiltshire made an admirable suggestion when he said that if the Air Ministry was approached on the subject they would be only too glad to get photos taken and that in Wiltshire the flying men were only too anxious to receive definite requests for pictures, as it gave them something to do that was of real service. Perhaps the friends at Lleyn will take the hint and ask the airmen of Shotwick to take the photos required.
Mr T. E. Morris, the hon. treasurer, as usual was very practical, and urged the Association to do something to preserve the beauty spots of Wales. Naturally he was indignant that so many places are being spoiled and scarred by the inroads of the navvy and the iron horse and the pipe-line layer. In England he said a Society had been formed to preserve the rural parts of the country, and if North Wales had had such a society he felt that the Beddgelert district would not have been cut into by huge embankments, which were left naked and almost derelict by a railway. Nor would pipe-lines and miles of electric wires and posts have been strewn across the beauty spots and left unadorned. He suggested that while all were anxious for the industrial development of Wales efforts should be made to paint pipe lines so that they would harmonise with the trees, and, as the general secretary suggested, “there should be a little more camouflage” resorted to by industrial engineers apart from their anxiety to pay dividends. Mr Morris further urged that everywhere following the cutting down of trees for the making of railways and the laying of pipes or cables young trees should be planted so that the beauty of the landscape could be preserved.
No doubt, at the annual meeting of the Association, on Friday night, more will be heard of the subject; which is an important one in view of the great developments that electricity is bringing about in the country.
The committee spent two hours in useful discussion on the draft reports, and also took the opportunity of securing a closer acquaintance with the local secretaries, upon whose shoulders so much of the detailed work connected with the visit had fallen. The Rev. E. Hermitage Day, D.D., F.S.A., was there in a dual capacity. With Mr George Marshall, F.S.A.. J.P., he was joint local secretary, but he was also the president-elect of the year. These gentlemen had, with the assistance of a strong local committee (presided over by the Bishop of Hereford), prepared a splendid well-illustrated programme, and left few details to be settled later on.
It is early in the week to talk as to where the next meeting will be held, but the opinion freely expressed is that next year will see the members at Aberavon-Moordam, in the Vale of Neath, where, as one member remarked, “antiquarian research work beyond praise has been carried out.”
The 150 members of the Association were early astir on Tuesday, when they anticipated a very full day which was really the opening stage of their week’s itinerary. The elements were of a threatening character, but fortunately there was no heavy downpour of rain. Among the members was the Bishop of St. David’s, who accompanied the party throughout the day, and renewed many old friendships, as his lordship has for years been a very faithful member of Arch. Camb.
Mordiford Bridge was the first halting place, and here Mr G. H. Jack, county surveyor for Hereford, explained that the bridge was a fine example of early work, and that one of the arches was of the 16th century and the other of the 14th century. He added that it was said that one of the reasons why such excellent work was put in the bridge was that those who repaired the bridge were granted 40 days’ indulgence from Purgatory for every day they worked on the bridge! He could only wish that labour was as cheaply obtained to-day.
At Fownhope Church the village stocks and ancient whipping post were objects that attracted considerable attention, and then in the Church itself the Rev. E. Hermitage Day gave an interesting address. He stated that a large portion was a Norman foundation, and had remained, unaltered notably the extraordinary length, following the custom of the time of extending churches east and west rather than north and south, and with such a sparse population one could not account for the great length excepting that it was required for ceremonial. The inscribed stone was but a poor example of local work which some mason had rudely copied by memory from something more elaborate. But the exquisite glass was that of the 15th century.
Mr Lovegrove, of Ruthin added that he thought they should try and pick up something from the variety of style they saw in the Hereford Churches, as there was great beauty to be there seen. The villages of the county also had a beauty of their own, and he did not think that anything like it was to be found elsewhere, the blending of the reds having a most striking effect, and the colouring was so satisfying. In that Church he thought there were some perfect examples of arches, and the bases were of the early English pattern.
Mr George Marshall. F.S.A., also remarked that they had some fine examples of Norman work.
The Rev. E. Hermitage Day also spoke outside the Church, and gave a description of the sculptured tympanum which had no doubt, he said, been removed from its original position obscuring its purpose. While fixed in a more exposed position it was well preserved. It showed the Blessed Virgin seated with the infant Christ on her knees, the hands of both raised, strange to say, in Benediction.
The party then proceeded to Ross, and here a considerable amount of time was spent, the Rev. E. H. Day referring to the great work of John Kyrle, “The Man of Ross,” who really lived before his time, and tried to work for the benefit of the community rather than for himself. He was the pioneer of laying out land for the benefit of the community, possessing great ideas of citizenship, and bringing beauty and art to the people. One could hope that his ideals would never be forgotten.
At the suggestion of the President (Mr Willoughby Gardner) the large compared bared their heads in honour of “The Man of Ross” and in remembrance of his great work. Then to the Prospect the party proceeded, and had a splendid view of the Wye and of the grounds laid out by John Kyrle. Visits were also paid to the Market Hall and to the Church, where Mr Marshall gave a description, stating that there had been an early church on the site, as reference was made to it in Domesday. There had also been a priests’ prison there, and it was recorded that on one occasion the people broke open the prison, took out the prisoner and executed him in the street. The early part of the Church was 13th century, the chancel being rebuilt in 1247, and it was recorded that the Bishop of St. David’s was commanded to consecrate in that Church, but in 1377 the chantry connected with it became so poor that it had to be combined with another fraternity in Ross. A fine rood screen had been put up there in the 14th century, and the beautiful glass was that of the 15th, and contained figures of local bishops.
In one part of the Church there were still to be seen the trunks of ash trees now dead, but which once grew there, it was said to replace those outside planted to the memory of “The Man of Ross,” but were cut down by the vicar, the trees inside the Church springing up in their stead. To-day there were but a few creepers there.
Mr E. Hartland, Chepstow, said he well remembered the ash trees in full life in the Church 30 years ago.
During an inspection of the monuments in the Church an interesting story was told concerning that of St. Zita, who was described as “The Pious Housemaid.” It was said that whenever anyone lost their keys they had but to implore her aid, and the missing articles would be found. One clergyman stated he sent his keys to his banker at Ross, but the banker declared he could not find them. Some three months afterwards, as he lay awake at night, the clergymen suddenly thought of the legend and St. Zita, and he implored her aid. “The next morning,” added the clergyman, “I went to Ross, and the first person I saw was my banker, who told me that that very morning my keys had been found!”
In the porch of the Church a very large stone weight was to be seen that had once done service in the Church clock, and it was also stated that the weekly market at Ross is dedicated to St. Stephen, there having been a great Welsh fair regularly held in the town. “To-day,” added the Vicar. “we have quite a peaceful invasion of our town by the Welsh!”
It was explained that during the great plague the vicar remained in Ross, although others fled from the town, and he assisted in burying over 300 near what is now known as “The Plague Cross,” and then he did all he could for the sufferers, and eventually led a procession through Ross, singing hymns. The name of the vicar was “Pryce.”
“Yes,” answered Chancellor Fisher when he heard the story, “I thought such a brave man must be a Welshman, and now I am sure of it.”
At the Royal Hostel, where luncheon was served, there were signatures of royalty, who had visited the place, together with those of Charles Dickens, General Haig, and D. Lloyd George.
The afternoon was spent in a visit to Wythall, first to the 16th century timbered house, where Dr. FoxCyril Fox, archaeologist, 1882–1967, of the National Museum of Wales, spoke. He said it was a lovely example of the beautiful setting of a typical English house, and the additions showed the fifteenth and sixteenth century development of the social ideas of comfort, and a perfect example of 1620 development. Regarding the “H” windows one could not quite explain their object unless it was to cheat the revenue by joining two windows together so that there should be but tax on one (laughter).
From Wythall the company visited Goodrich Castle, where a tremendous lot of work is being carried out by the Office of Works, under the direction of Mr C. R. Peers, M.A., F.S.A., F.B.A., Chief Inspector of Ancient Monuments, who was the chief speaker. He stated that the place was possibly a stronghold from early times, but the present keep was the earliest example of masonry there, dating from 1130 to 1170. There had been various schemes of development, and there was Norman influence probably brought over from France, when the returning warriors came back with much spoil. The recently discovered well was the only source of water, and it went down 168 feet below the river bed, and the water was affected by the height of the river. A great deal of work had to be done on the south tower which had slipped and was now being repaired from the bottom, electric drills being used and hand grouting resorted to.
After the return to Hereford there was a meeting of the members in the Town Hall, when Mr Willoughby Gardner handed over the president’s chair to the Rev. E. Hermitage Day.
A hearty vote of thanks was passed to Mr. Willoughby Gardner on the motion of General Sandbach, who said he considered that the Society had been honoured by having as its head such a distinguished antiquarian, and they were pleased that the University of Wales had honoured Mr Gardner by electing him a Doctor of Science.
The Bishop of St. David’s seconded the vote of thanks, and said Mr Willoughby Gardner had raised the tone and standing of the Association to a high level.
In his presidential address the Rev. E. Hermitage Day, D.D., F.S.A., said, on taking the chair, one need only think of the long line of eminent men who had preceded him, among whose names were some which were a lasting glory to Wales. For a dweller in the March and borderland of Wales to be elected to the chair was an honour to the city of Hereford. The Cornishman leaving his moors swept by sea-wind for the gentler air and richer soil of Devon scarcely experienced a greater change than they who passed from the rugged grandeur of Wales to placid Herefordshire, but they had not to look back far into history to find clear evidence of its former association with the Principality.
So recently as 1662 the Bishop of Hereford was enjoined to take order with the Welsh Bishops for the true and exact translation of the Prayer Book into Welsh so that it might be used in certain parishes of his diocese. To-day many Welsh place-names survived in the county. Successive waves of conquest and immigration had left their mark upon the archaeology of the county, leaving out the faint traces of palaeolithic occupation and clearer traces of neolithic man and of the men of the bronze age. The Roman found there the Brythonic tribes in occupation and the years of Roman residence constituted a period of peculiar tranquillity. The Roman built villas there with security, and the Briton intermarrying with the Roman learnt the arts, the crafts and the speech of the Roman in the dawn of Herefordshire’s ordered life. No longer one thought of the Briton kept down by the Roman. Then darkness came and with the departure of the military and the magistracy order and culture waned. Civilisation became centred in the monastic settlements, and at last came the invasion of the Teutonic tribes, thrusting back the Britons and setting up their kingdom of Mercia—the March.
For a time the pagan gods seemed victorious over Christ, but the riot of conquest over, the warrior turned farmer and at last accepted the Faith. The centuries between the departure of the Roman and the coming of the Norman left almost nothing. Yet one relic of the eighth century remained. They traced within the county a part of that line of demarcation which is scored deeply from the Dee to the Wye, parting the Saxon from the Briton. Whether the Dyke was made by Offa or whether it was part of an earlier work was a problem beyond present discussion. But it seemed clear that its first purpose was delimitation, and that it was not primarily a military work. So long a line could not be continuously or effectively defended. Offa’s Dyke was also a boundary, hardly more than sufficient to make cattle-lifting difficult. Of other Mercian work none remained.
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Careful research by Mr Alfred Watkins had defined the main lines of the first settlement within which Putta, the exiled Bishop of Rochester, and doubtless some wattled Church like that of Glastonbury, when he settled there in 676 and taught his neighbours that manner of Church music which he had learnt in Rome. Nor were the neighbouring Churches of a more enduring kind: in this land of ample woodland and forest churches of timber held out long against the newer fashion of stone. The legend that a Mercian king named Milfred substituted a fair church of stone for the wooden church at Hereford was untrustworthy, and Mr Baldwin Brown’s map of the distribution of Saxon work showed no single example of Saxon church of stone remaining within the shire.
But with the next age Herefordshire became swiftly furnished with buildings of stone. It was to a Welsh raid in the days of Edward the Confessor that they owed the first building of the city walls. Everywhere the Norman Churchmen were busy with monastic foundations and with the building of parochial churches, and their survivals were doubtless due to the fact that in the later Middle Ages there was no great access of wealth. The Norman period was drawing to a close when the great monastic reform reached England, which was to bring the architecture of England into closer relation with that of Burgundy and the Continent. After the Norman zeal, which left its mark in every corner of the conntry, there followed a period of comparative inactivity, but towards the end of the thirteenth century and the first half of the fourteenth there was a great revival of activity.
The Marches were continually traversed by troops of the Mortimers and Despensers, and the country severely harassed, yet the buildings of that period gave them some of their chief glories. The cathedral with its north transept was a legacy, while Leominster, Pembridge, Madley and Ledbury showed work on a smaller scale, but of real charm and dignity, and there was some evidence of the general prosperity of the country in the fact that the Knights Hospitallers of Dinmore were able to rebuild their Norman chapel, leaving it the most exquisite preceptory chapel in England, notwithstanding their obligation to remit large contributions from their Herefordshire estates to the Priory of Clerkenwell and to keep an expensive hospitality towards “the many who came to them because they were in the March of Wales.”
To the architectural activity of this period there came a sudden end. The Great Pestilence fell on the country with disastrous severity. Yet in the next century the countryRead ‘county’ ? was more thriving than any other region, but there seemed to have been as much as the people could do to maintain what their fathers had left them. While in other parts of England the parish churches during the fifteenth century received many additions to the chantry chapels in the Herefordshire churches they were strangely rare. If during the 15th century Herefordshire folk were not spending very liberally on churches the money was not diverted to housing themselves. The country was poor in those fortified or unfortified manner houses which were then beginning to be built in considerable number elsewhere. The political unrest of the Border and the depression consequent the Black Death were perhaps the most considerable factors.
With the close of the Middle Ages prosperity gradually returned, and the country showed much building of a modest, but very delightful kind, which gave a characteristic look to its landscape. Buildings in stone were beyond the means of the people, but wood was chiefly available, and to that they owed the timber-framed buildings of many charming villages. In this half timbered work there was a local school of capable craftsmen. It must be remembered the debt they owed to one man, who, at a moment when the building of the smaller houses might have deteriorated, commended the continued use of wood by his singular skill in it. John Abel, of Sarnesfield, lived to a great age and was constantly employed. He was a carpenter rather than an architect, his design is often heavy and his detail coarse, but his work had the high value given to it by a man who loved his craft and handled his material with sincerity and feeling.
Then the country was swept by war and Royalist and Roundhead destroyed. It was left to the 18th century to raise the great houses which gave proof that that century was the century of ease and comfort. Such was the briefest outline of the history of Herefordshire, and what its antiquities told them. It was a county which in an exceptional degree had through long centuries shaped and lived its own tranquil life. It had taken an honourable share in the life of England. They could best judge it as they judged a school most fairly, not by pointing to the distinguished men whom it had produced, but by regarding the general contribution which it had steadily made to national life and to kindly serviceable citizenship. To that standard of judgment it need not fear to be brought.
There was considerable doubt in the minds of many when they mounted the chars-a-banc and cars on Wednesday as to whether the day was to be uninteresting and wet. But on both these heads there was nothing but satisfaction, the day proving one of the most instructive so far in the itinerary of the Association, the end perhaps being the most satisfying. All were early astir in Broad-street, Hereford, and thert was a run through a country fragrant with flowers and resplendent with the emerald green of the hops, and the Welsh a discovered what Hereford cattle are like, as there were herds being driven into the market and fair in the county town.
Leominster Church was the first halt called, and here the president, the Rev. E. Hermitage Day, first displayed the Reformation chalice and paten, after which there was an inspection made of the well known ducking stool which is located in the Church, and which was of especial interest to the ladies, being as it was said, formerly chiefly used for inflicting punishment on members of the fair sex. “But why punishment only for the ladies?” asked one fair maiden. “Surely the men even in olden days were as great sinners as were the ladies?” The question remained unanswered, and for a very good reason.
Mr Lovegrove, of Ruthin, gave a very exhaustive description of the Church, tracing its history from about 1055, and pointing out the many peculiarities and the fact that there was no Prior to the place, only a Dean. The extensions to the Church in their peculiar manner were accounted for as the trade of the district in wool increased.
Then the company passed on to The Grange, once the Market Hall of Leominster, a magnificent example of 17th century timbered building, which Mr T. Neild, M.A., the owner, described as some of the best work of John Abel, of Sarnesfield, and which bears among other inscriptions, “Where justice rule There virtue flow,” the “s” being left out. This building, it was stated, was removed from Five Ways in the town, where it was an obstruction, to its present site, and scarcely a piece was lost. It is looked upon as the most interesting timbered building in the kingdom.
The President, in thanking Mr Neild for his kindness, expressed the pleasure it gave antiquarians to find an owner taking such a generous view of ownership of property. So long as such gentlemen lived buildings of this character were safe in England.
Pembridge was next visited with its in peculiar detached belfry. Here Mr Lovegrove again delivered the address, and referred to the work as being some of the best pieces of masonry seen in village churches, pointing out that in the past those who erected village churches usually copied the architecture of large buildings as to details.
The Welsh members of the party were especially interested in the names of the churchwardens cut in the door. One was “Thos. Bengough, 1671,” which was stated to be Welsh for “Red Headed Thomas.”
In the afternoon a visit was paid to Weobley Church, where over the door is a sun dial with the inscription: “One dau telleth another; One night certifieth another.”
Mr Lovegrove said that Church offered one of the most difficult of problems to solve, and there was evidence of work of the 13th, 14th and even later centuries, while part of the wall belonged to the Norman church, and the door was still in its original position.
Mrs LeatherElla Mary Leather, folklorist, 1876–1928 conducted the party through Weobley, where there are scores of timbered houses, and in a most marvellous and interesting manner she pointed out the different styles and peculiarities of the buildings. She stated that no doubt various guilds of craftsmen had worked on the buildings, but it was clear that the Gothic architect never weakened his building by its ornamentation as was done in later periods.
The district had remained true to the Roman Catholic faith at the Reformation, and many priest’s holes were to be found. One regretted that with the passing of the Reform Act many of the old houses were wiped away which used to be used for the housing and sleeping over one night of the voters who came there to qualify by one night residence. Mrs Leather expressed the hope that the Ancient Monuments Office would keep an eye on Weobley. She also exhibited a number of photographs, and drawings of old houses which had been pulled down or “restored,” and included in the photos were those who used to sing to her folk songs. One old gipsy in particular seemed to have a will of her own, as, added Mrs Leather, “She would never sing anything until I had given her a good glass of neat whiskey.”
The end of the day’s excursion was a visit to one of the most charming of places yet seen, and where the 13th century seemed to mingle with the 20th. It was Brinsop Court, the residence of Mrs Astley, who, unfortunately, was not at home, but her deputy discharged the duties of hostess ably and well. The guests were shown the room in which William Wordsworth wrote many of his poems, being a regular visitor there to his brother-in-law, Mr Hutchinson, the then owner.
The Queen Ann Chamber, the Gothic bedroom, and many other interesting places were thrown open, and the guests were free to view the moat surrounding the house, the aviary containing scores of rare birds, the old world gardens and the lily ponds containing fine flamingoes—birds which greatly delighted the ladies with, as was described, “the one-step dance.”
Mr Willoughby Gardener voiced the thanks of the company for a most delightful visit, while the President also moved a vote of thanks to Mrs Leather, who had entertained the company to tea at Weobley. The general opinion was that the visit to Weobley and Brinsop Court were the charms of the meeting so far.
During the visit to Weobley, the company was shown the street where the old vote houses stood prior to the passing of the Reform Act, and the spot where fires were lighted in Broad-street, on which were boiled the kettles of the “pot wallopers,” who swarmed to Weobley at election times, the qualification to vote being “they had boiled their kettles in Weobley overnight.”
One of the most interesting addresses delivered to the members was at the Town Hall, in the evening, by Mr G. H. Jack, M.Inst.C.E., F.S.A., who spoke on “Roman Herefordshire,” illustrated by a large number of lantern slides. In the course of the lecture he described and illustrated the camps of the Romans during their stay in the district, gave examples of their work and contended that the occupation was more one of persuasion than of subjection, the Welsh and the Herefordshire people never being .subdued.” He also illustrated old bridges and dealt with the problem of modern traffic and the damage done to the bridges by rapidly-moving heavy vehicles. It was a question whether some of the old bridges would not have to be closed to certain traffic. He also added that excavation on Roman roads showed that “potholes” were not unknown to the ancients (laughter).
Mr Willoughby Gardner, in thanking Mr Jack for what he had done for the improving of the roads and bridges of Herefordshire, remarked that one of the bronze figures found near Hereford, in the Roman camp, was like that found at Dinorben, near Abergele, in the old British fort, and was of a date prior to the Roman occupation. His idea was that the Romans did not destroy the old British forts but rather continued and strengthened them.
Source info: Cuttings agency.
Watkins gets a mention for historical research; there is nothing about leys.