Whether your interest in history is personal, academic, or just a more general desire to find out how our forebears lived, the Linton and District History Society offers a friendly welcome and helpful advice.
We meet on the first Wednesday of every month except January, 7 for 7:30 p.m., in Linton Village Hall. Tea and coffee are available at the start of the meeting. Annual membership is £20, and speaker meetings are free to members. Visitors are always welcome, and pay £5 per meeting.
Our programmes aim to cover local, national and international history – there is something for all interests, and we welcome suggestions for topics.
For all enquiries, contact the Society’s Secretary, Mrs Teresa Squires sec.lintonhistsoc@gmail.com
Our September meeting tells the Story of the Herefordshire Pomona.
A series of watercolours of apples and pears hang in Hereford’s Museum of Cider. They are accurate representations – and they are beautiful. They were published in The Herefordshire Pomona (1885), edited by a country doctor and illustrated by two unknown women.
Today the Pomona is considered one of the more remarkable books of its era, a ‘classic of late Victorian natural history’, according to one commentator. Even Queen Victoria demanded a copy.
Author Bill Laws’ illustrated talk reveals the backstory – and the role played by actor Michael Palin’s famous Linton relative.
Bill is a writer, founder of the social history enterprise Herefordshire Lore, and the son of the late Aston Ingham vicar Stracey Laws.
Copies of Bill’s recently-published book on the Herefordshire Pomona will be for sale on the night.
Programme 2026
| 2nd September | Bill Laws | Apples, Pears and the Herefordshire Pomona |
| 7th October | Professor Ron Hutton | FOUNDERS’ LECTURE: Oliver Cromwell |
| 4th November | Michael Fass | Wellington’s Warehouse: The great military depot at Weedon Bec |
| 2nd December | Fiona Morison | A summer in colonial Simla |
Programme 2027
| January 2027 | NO LECTURE | |
| 3rd February | Neil Thornton | Henry Hook VC: A Rorke’s Drift Hero |
| 3rd March | Roger Davies | CHAIRMAN’S LECTURE: Defending Herefordshire in WW2 |
| 7th April | Andy Tatchell | AGM and speaker The Restoration of Mordiford Mill |
Review of our August meeting
Dick Fowler kindly stepped in at short notice and in a change to the published programme, the August talk focused on the emancipation of South America from Spanish rule, starting in 1810. One of the generals, Frank O’Connor was the brother of the Staunton Chartist leader Feargus O’Connor.
The talk showed how at least 8000 Irish and British soldiers rushed to help Simon Bolivar’s army. Many had just returned from Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo, including a General Rooke from Bigsweir House, St Briavels. Thus, there was a real local connection to the conflict.
The soldiers who went were probably not idealists, just looking for a new adventure. Promised immediate rank improvement and pay on arrival in Venezuela, there was none.
Many died of disease and starvation, or deserted before engaging in any battle.
But Bolivar was inspirational and finally achieved “Libertad” for Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru; with their help!
Chris Barnett hopes to be able to give his talk on William Cobbett at a future date.
Family history
We have transferred the main part of our Archive to the Herefordshire Archive and Record Centre, which is also the main port of call for those researching family history. Some of our parish records can be accessed via this link
Committee members :
Roger Davies (Chairman)
Teresa Squires (Secretary)
Nic Walker (Treasurer)
Pamela Bruce
Dick Fowler