Monthly Podcast

Colonel Andy Taylor and Rev Paul Roberts reconvene after the summer break, on the hottest day of the year, to follow in the footsteps of the Herefordshire Regiment at Gallipoli.  The Suvla Bay landings on 9th August 1915 were fraught with confusion, frustration and missed opportunities. 

Find out in this podcast how the Herefordshire men coped with being landed at the wrong place, with inadequate maps and water supplies, and with very sketchy orders.  Our pair look through eyewitness accounts of those first 24 hours and discuss the background of the campaign as well as reasons for the failure of the landings.

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The county Volunteers were known to be excellent shots, winning competitions at Wimbledon and later Bisley.  In this episode we take a deep dive into the history of the soldier’s main implement, the rifle – from the 1853 pattern musket, through the Snider Enfield rifle that would have been familiar to the first Herefordshire Rifle Volunteers.  Assistant Curator Danny Rees, Curator Colonel Andy Taylor and Trustee, Rev Paul Roberts go on to explore the Martini Henry, Lee Metfield and Lee Enfield rifles used in the Boer War and First World War.

 A number of different rifles were issued to Hereford Territorials owing to weapons shortages at the outbreak of war.   Andy shares with us the unusual way the Museum obtained its 1915 Mark III Short Magazine Lee-Enfield (SMLE).

Danny tells us all sorts of things about the Bren gun that we didn't know along with other Second World War weaponry, including strange items used by the Home Guard and Home Guard Auxiliaries.  We come into living memory with the arrival of the Self-Loading Rifle (SLR) used during the Cold War; an example of which the museum hopes to secure for its modern display.  We finish off with the SA80 weapon system.

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In this month's episode, Andy Taylor and Paul Roberts are joined by Assistant Curator and all round expert, Danny Rees to explore some of the mysteries, unanswered questions and anomalies among the museum's collection and men from the Regiment.  From everything to confusing first names, unofficially altered shoulder titles to the perennial confusion between "Herefordshire" and "Hertfordshire."  (With not a hurricane in sight...!).

Safely within the walls of the Regimental Museum, we also explore three generations of Hereford men with the same same - Peter Broome-Giles, and the challenge this seems to have posed to the medal issuing authorities.  We also hear a little more about the Regiment's most decorated soldier - Lieutenant Colonel W F Chipp DSO MC.  How did he earn his Second World War medals around the fall of Singapore?

Finally we explain how you can help the museum - for less than the price of a cup of coffee - by becoming a Friend or Patreon supporter.  Every penny counts when it comes to preserving the fascinating history of this solely Territorial unit from Herefordshire, in the Welsh Marches.

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This month's episode finds Col Andy Taylor and Rev Paul Roberts in the grounds of St Michael's and All Angels' Church, Bodenham at the grave of William Garland, who died on 27th July 1942.  Further research shows that, this Great War veteran died in the bombing of the Rotherwas Ordnance Factory, on the south-east outskirts of Hereford.

Our intrepid pair visit the site of the Royal Ordnance Factory, exploring its history during both world wars, including the fatal air raid, and other dangers and accidents faced by the workers there - who came in from many surrounding towns and villages to do their bit in the war effort.

Paul and Andy repair to the Wye Inn just along the "Rotherwas straight mile" for a pint, and catch up with DORA... with some sobering facts for our wandering clergyman, and sadly no opportunity to be served beer out of a bath tub as happened there in the past!

Note from the editing suite:  the location of the ammunition storage facility that our presenters could not remember was at Callow, south of the city of Hereford!

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In this month's episode, Col Andy Taylor and Reverend Paul Roberts reveal a family secret, explore the high streets and bye streets of the Herefordshire market town of Ledbury, and follow in the footsteps of Territorial bandsman and prisoner of war, Charles Percy Taylor.  Any relation?  Listen to find out!

Percy Taylor caused havoc in the town as one of the Mafeking Boys before running away to sea, only to return to Ledbury to work at Hopkins Garage and join the Herefordshire Regiment.  The war found him more at danger from friends than enemies - receiving a bullet wound to the chest from a fellow Ledburian, before overseas service with the Kings Shropshire Light Infantry.  Taken prisoner in the Spring Offensive of 1918, Percy spent a number of months in a German Stammlager or Stalag before repatriation and return to civilian life in the town.

Part of civvie life included regular trips to the Brewery Inn on the Bye Street - so this is where our hosts end up too, for a nostalgic pint and a discussion about research into the men of the town in the First and Second World Wars.  If you have any information on Second World War servicemen or women from the town do contact us.  (You may also wish to contact us to correct a glaring error made by Paul in describing the famous Ledbury Market House!)

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This month, in a delayed episode, Col Andy Taylor and Rev Paul Roberts dodge the rain clouds and stay warm inside the Regimental Museum, exploring the history of Suvla Barracks, the Museum itself and one of it's prized possessions - Grand Admiral Doenitz's Car Pennant, liberated by the Regiment from Flensburg on the arrest of the Third Reich's final government in Operation Blackout on 23rd May 1945.

Though despite not stretching their legs, they do manage a beer to quench their thirst with a beer made in Poperinge, Belgium.  This town, seven miles west of Ieper (Ypres) was known as a wartime centre of shopping, recreation and rest - although not safe from long distance shelling - and is home to Talbot House, or Toc H an all ranks club opened by Army Chaplain, Tubby Clayton.  Poperinge Hommel Bier has been made from hops grown in the town since 1981 and is delicious, if not dangerously strong!

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