Saturday 14th July 2012
Another successful year for Historical Hereford Day, even with the rain storms we experienced! Participants, re-enactors and staff soldiered on to ensure the event went ahead and thanks to them and the public for sticking with it, the event was another great day out.
We had lots of stalls and entertainment in High Town, a medieval encampment on Redcliffe Gardens and falconry, fighting and shooting on the Castle Green! As the event fell on Bastille Day we welcomed along the Scarlet Pimpernel, a host of French revolutionaries and a working guillotine! This year we also joined forces with Hereford Cathedral, who allowed the newly refurbished Close to be a third venue for our activities.
The Cathedral became a back-drop for a number of attractions, including a Victorian Penny Farthing Bicycle complete with Victorian rider, guided tours of the Cathedral Close and the Cathedral Tower and brass rubbings.
The Herefordshire Trow took centre stage on the Close and, as the boat which sailed in the Jubilee Pageant on the Thames in early June, it attracted huge numbers of visitors curious to see the boat and meet its oarsmen and women.
However, our big finale this year was the Rifles Sounding Retreat on Castle Green and miraculously the rain stopped, the clouds disappeared and the sun came out just at the right moment to welcome the Band and Bugles marching at a rapid 140 paces to the minute, exemplifying the traditional skirmishing and outflanking tactics of Light Division troops in war.
Finally, to reassure our devotees that we do manage to keep a step in the present as well as in the past, Historical Hereford Day was brought into the 21st century and opened a Facebook page! Please visit the site www.facebook.com/historical.hereford and become a friend of this fantastic event as we need your help to spread the word about this great, free, family day out in Hereford City. The Facebook is a sure way to be kept up to date with all our plans for 2013.
Have a look at the gallery of pictures from this year’s Historical Hereford Day, as well as those of previous years:
Historical Hereford Day 2012 - Picture Gallery
