Page 44 - ESLH Group Travel 2024 Guide.indd

Facts & Folklore

Myths • secrets • Legends • Facts • Did you know

Six Secrets of the Shire • In 1189, Hereford received City status

• Private Robert Jones V.C., a hero of the through its inaugural Charter from
battle of Rorke’s Drift, famously depicted Richard I (the Lionheart). See original
in the fi lm Zulu starring Michael Caine, charters at the Heritage Suite in
is buried in Peterchurch. Hereford Town Hall.
• The fi rst and only solicitor hanged • Only 8 privately owned toll bridges
in Britain in 1922, Herbert Rowsey remain in the UK, one of which spans the
Armstrong resided in Hay on Wye. river at Whitney, Hay-on-Wye, celebrating
Known as ‘The Hay Poisoner’ for its 250th anniversary this year.
murdering his wife Kitty. • Today, three quarters of Herefordshire’s
• Treasured 70’s TV series Crossroads drinking water is still taken from the
sensation Noele Gordon, ‘Nolly’ is buried River Wye. See how at the Waterworks
at St Mary’s Church in Ross on Wye, Museum.
having lived nearby for decades.
• Leominster Museum houses a 100 year Cultural Connections
old bun, with an adorable First World The cultural fabric of the county was
War story of kindness. enriched by fi gures such as royal
companion and theatre star Nell Gwynne,
• Alfred Watkins, the originator of the
theory of Ley Lines, started life in the who was born here, renowned author
Imperial Hotel, Widemarsh Street in Catherine Cookson is said to have written
Hereford in 1855. her fi rst book Kate Hannigan here, and
creatives such as artist Sidney Nolan, and
• Dan, Hereford Cathedral organist George Frank Oz creator of The Muppets and Yoda
Sinclair’s bulldog, inspired Edward Elgar from Star Wars, were born here.
to compose Variation on an Original
Theme Number XI. See Dan’s carved This region has continuously stimulated
statue at King George V Playing Fields writers. Most notably, C.S. Lewis used
& Parkland in Hereford. Arthur’s Stone, a Neolithic tomb in
Dorstone, as the basis for the stone
Fun Facts table where Aslan was sacrifi ced in The
• Hereford Cathedral proudly houses one Chronicles of Narnia. Contemporary author
of the four surviving 1217 Magna Cartas, Phil Rickman set his trilogy of Merrily
outlining the laws of the land in the Great Watkins novels in the county; delight in
Charter of the Liberties. exploring the fi lming locations of the ITV
series based on his book “Midwinter of
• In the 14C babies were baptised
in Cider, on the grounds that it was the Spirit.”
cleaner than water.