Two British Pathe films of Hereford in the 1930s, all voiced in impeccable Received Pronunciation:
See HERE for a two minute "Pictorial" short from 1935 titled "The City on the Wye - Hereford". Good views of King Street, the exterior of the Cathedral, Church Street, the Old House and High Town, Widemarsh Street, the Coningsby Hospital, the Wye Bridge, the Victoria Bridge. Extras on Kilpeck Church and Holmer Church.
See HERE for an even shorter (but odder) film from two years earlier, 1933, titled "Hereford - A Little Bit of Old England", concentrating on 'the revival' of the ancient ceremony of 'beating the bounds'. Views of the Old House and High Town again, the Town Council and their banner, the Mayor, the Swordbearer and the "Liveried Men" of the Council, the frontage of the Butter Market with the City and County Stores (and Fred Burn the City Tailor's shop) adjacent, followed by "the bumping" (don't ask).
Notes:
(1). The Mayor of Hereford in 1933 was Mr EW Langford. This previous blogpost from the Bishops Broadcasting Service provides some history and still photographs of the City Council in the 1930s (and in the recent past) for comparison to the 1933 film.
(2). The scenes of High Town in both films can be compared to the stills of the VE Day celebrations in the same place some ten years (and much hardship) later, published in this previous blogpost.
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| Hereford High Town today (ish). The Butter Market is an ever present, as is Lloyds Bank to its right. The former City & County Stores, to its left, is now an O2 Mobile Phone Shop, its fine brickwork now lost beneath cheap roughcast. |
