THE OLD HOUSE HEREFORD - THROUGH TIME

The Old House is, perhaps, Hereford's most significant landmark. Built in 1621 - and therefore easily 150 years older than the United States of America - it has watched over all the comings and goings in Hereford's High Town these last four hundred years:

The first (known) photograph of the Old House in 1873 - when Ulysses S. Grant was President of the USA - and the Old House contained an ironmongers and potteryware business, run by Mr and Mrs Oatfield, happily co-existing with Fletcher's fishmongers. Note Maddox's Furniture Showrooms in the background:

This looks as if it was taken about the same time (possibly the same day) but from a slightly different angle. A better view of the Victorian advertising hoarding that then covered one side of the building (including an advert for the "Midland Railway"):

Two later Victorian views (one coloured, both undated) put the Old House in context. To the left, at the top of Commercial Street, is the Capital & County Dining and Refreshment Rooms. To the right, in St. Peter's Street, Maddox's Furniture Showrooms continues to trade. Mr and Mrs Oatfield and Fletcher's Fishmongers have gone from the Old House, so these photos must post-date 1882, when the building was taken over by the Worcester City & County Banking Company (subsequently taken over by Lloyds Bank): 

Another Victorian view, but time has moved on. Maddox's Furniture Showrooms in St. Peters Street has become a hairdressers, the appropriately named W.H.Dyer. The Imperial Cafe in St. Peters Street (obscured by the Old House) seems to believe in very prominent advertising, no doubt to compete with the City & County Dining and Refreshment Rooms:

Two further shots, both undated but one coloured,  probably taken around the turn of the century or very early Edwardian times. Theodore Roosevelt is, or is about to become, President of the United States:

Now for some 'reverse views' of the Old House, with the camera situated in St. Peters Street, facing the gable end of the Old House that had housed Fletcher's Fishmongers, and High Town in the background:

High Edwardiana, probably just pre WW1. The first appearance of cars. The Imperial Cafe on the right.

The same view, but a little closer up. The early 1930s.
Background High Town is practically unchanged apart from the
new Lloyds Bank building to the left of the Buttermarket Clock.
Lloyds moved out of the Old House and presented it to the
City Corporation in 1928.

The early to mid 2010s. Cars have gone once again, High Town having been "pedestrianised".
Otherwise little has changed architecturally in nearly 100 years. The shops have moved on,
 though - the Imperial Cafe is no more, W.H.Dyer is forgotten, and the Capital & Counties
 Dining & Refreshment Rooms, to the right of the Old House, has become "Starbucks".
Barack Obama is President of the USA.

And a last look at the Old House in the context of Hereford, a view from 1815 (President of the USA - James Madison) and a triptych view of the City from 150 years later, the late 1960s (President of the USA - Lyndon Baines Johnson):

A watercolour of "Butcher's Row" from 1815. The three gabled building in
the centre is the present Old House, showing how buildings have been
demolished around it over time.

Clockwise from right top - the new road bridge (built in 1966), the glamorous modernity
of the newly pedestrianised "Eign Gate Shopping Precinct" and the Old House.
Quite what the Victorian Mrs Oatfield would have made of the orange mini-skirted
 Herefordette is anyone's guess....

Cigarette Card Public Schools

Following previous posts on the ubiquitous 1930s cigarette cards (two thirds of British men smoked in the 1930s/1940s, and every pack contained a card) and the Royal Navy, followed by the Royal Air Force, it's time for a look at another aspect of 1930s British life - the Public Schools.

W.D.&H.O. Wills produced an "Arms of the Public Schools" series in 1933/1934:

Eton College, the most famous of England's
public schools. A natural recruiting ground
for the Brigade of Guards, Military Intelligence
and (occasionally) His Majesty's Prisons.

Harrow School, Eton's principal competitor.
Old School of both, amongst many others,
 Winston Churchill and Stanley Baldwin.

While the Battle of Waterloo may arguably
have been won on the playing fields of Eton,
the game of rugby was certainly invented
on the playing fields of Rugby School.
Old school of Neville Chamberlain.

A more modern public school, but one
continuing the Waterloo theme, Wellington
is said to have supplied many of the more
technically minded subalterns of the VBCW,
principally for the mechanised and artillery arms.

One of the very latest public schools (1929)
Malvern College's relationship with
 that "notorious VBCW outfit"
within the Herefordshire VBCW,
 the Malvern Hills Conservators, is unknown.

One of the oldest, and obviously most
Anglican, of public schools - Christ's Hospital.
The Christ's Hospital Combined Cadet Force
must undoubtedly have formed one of the
famous Anglican "shock troop" units
during the VBCW.

King's School, Canterbury. Notwithstanding
its name, given that the school has been
situated for centuries within the boundaries
of Canterbury Cathedral, its Cadet Force
proved utterly loyal to "their Archbishop"
during the VBCW.

A notable omission from this series of W.D&H.O Wills cigarette cards was that ancient and central (to Herefordshire and the Herefordshire VBCW) public school - Hereford Cathedral School. Given the already noted presence of its upstart competitor, Malvern College, this must have been a minor irritation to the then headmaster of HCS, Dr. Crees. Thus, with a flourish and a little help from modern technology, we can rectify this unaccountable error:

Gaming Note : with a modest amount of Photoshopping, these "Arms of the Public Schools" cigarette cards can easily be transformed into presentable flags for a "Public School Army", or simply a CCF section of a larger force. Certain public schools cadet forces could arguably have served on any side within the VBCW (well, save probably for the Communists) and are therefore very versatile troops.