Our 2027 Programme of events
We organise monthly talks about local topics – either historical or current – as well as visits to places of local interest in the summer. Normally there is also a visit arranged as part of the Heritage Open Days week in September. Unless otherwise stated, all meetings below are at the Larruperz Centre at 7.30pm (Wednesdays) unless otherwise stated.
November 11th, 2026 – The Women the War turned Yellow – The Rotherwas Canary Girls – Angela Williams.
This talk will be preceded by a short AGM.
The Rotherwas Royal Ordnance Factory opened in 1916 as a munitions filling factory and became one of the largest explosive filling sites in the UK. It covered more than 300 acres and comprised more than 370 buildings. Employing mainly women, the so-called “munitionettes”, whose skin and hair turned yellow from contact with TNT chemicals and who later became known as The Canary Girls.
January 13th, 2027 – The Strange Lives of Medieval Saints – Dr Janet Cooper
An account of Saints’ lives written in the Middle Ages might be seen as early biographies but they are very different modern biographies. Some contain strange tales, others repeat stories from earlier saints’ lives. What do we make of them today.
February 10th – Origins of the National Garden Scheme – Graham O’Connell
2027 marks a century of the first gardens being opened under The National Garden Scheme. A century later it has become a permanent summer fixture in many weekend calendars, but how did it start? Grahan O’Connell provides a talk peppered with historic photos, quirky stories and charitable endeavour, this talk on the formation of the National Garden Scheme provides a fascinating insight into the 1920s when ordinary people could for the first time get a glimpse behind the garden gates of Royalty, the rich and the famous.
March 10th – Tales from the Toombs – Heather Hurley
Heather Hurley will give an illustrated talk about some of the interesting characters buried in St Mary’s churchyard. Some have been forgotten and others well remembered.
April 14th – Herefordshire Prisoners of War – Bill Laws
From Cathedral organist Percy Hull, banged up at the Kaiser’s pleasure in Germany in 1914, to Panzerwaffe Manfred Klein, held briefly in Tupsley before becoming a stockman at the Vern, Marden in 1945, The Herefordshire POW looks at the men, women and children, held against their will during two world wars.
May 12th – visit to be confirmed
June 9th, 2.00pm – A visit to Rudhall Manor
Details to follow
July 14th – visit to be confirmed
September 8th – The beginnings of the Wye Tour: the wider context – Dr Sarah Aitken
This talk will propose that the Wye Tour began in the same way as the Lakes Tour with 18th century artists and writers discovering England’s wild, natural landscapes and inspiring England’s growing middle-class to visit for themselves.
October 13th – Religious Diversity in Herefordshire – Jane Adams
Exploring religious practice in Herefordshire ranging from Calvinists to Catholics and Methodists to Mormons. The display will place local trends in the context of national patterns and longer-term developments across the nineteenth century.
November 10th – Stained Glass in Herefordshire – Robert Walker
Our region lays claim to some of the finest medieval glass in the country, we have an example in the east window at St Mary’s, here in Ross. Robert Walker made the first comprehensive study of church glass in this area in his recent book The Medieval Stained Glass of Herefordshire and Shropshire
Second Week in December – Christmas Lunch
