Rotherwas ROF Project - Skylon Park

21/09/2023

What an honour to welcome 100-year-old former ‘Canary Girl’ Nancy Billings back to the Shell Store to celebrate the official opening of its new co-working space - The Canary Suite.

Named in recognition of the thousands of munitions workers who worked at the site during both world wars, the co-working space will provide freelancers, remote workers and small teams with a professional place to work, without having to rent a whole office.

Read all about Nancy's visit 👉 https://bit.ly/451S2uE

Munitions workers of the past have been recognised as part of a celebration at the historic Shell Store in Hereford.

03/04/2018

Many thanks to the trustees who attended the Rotherwas Together Meeting at the end of last month. Please find below a synopsis of the meeting.

Rotherwas Together Meeting March 29th 2018

Attending: Nicola Goodwin, Brian Prosser, Tracey Goodwin, Chris Chappell, Barbara Ferris, Julie Orton-Davies, Robin (Tom) Tucker, Fred Hamer and Oliver Steels

The meeting was chaired by Nicola Goodwin until the election of the Chairman

- Tom Tucker was unanimously co-opted as a trustee of Rotherwas Together

- The 9 trustees adopted and signed the constitution which has been agreed at the inaugural meeting of Rotherwas Together on March 8th

- Election of officers:

Chris Chappell was elected by vote to the position of Chairman

Nicola Goodwin was unanimously elected to the position of Secretary

Robin (Tom) Tucker was unanimously elected to the position of Treasurer

Brian Prosser was unanimously elected to the position of Membership Secretary

Project/Work for 2018

National Munitions Archives

Nicola and Julie will work with Elizabeth Semper O'Keefe, Angela Williams and the staff and volunteers at HARC to discuss how any archive material relating to Rotherwas can be digitised and stored. The aim will be to make it accessible online and also to visitors to HARC. Hopefully, in the future, this will include material which is not yet available for the public.

Buildings and Landscape

The group discussed the buildings and landscape at Rotherwas, something all trustees are passionate about. Fred and Oliver, with their architectural expertise, offered to lead this work. They will research what material is available and look to start a recording exercise to map what is still on site and discuss which buildings should/could be preserved.

Hidden Gems Project

Barbara explained that she had met with Michael McBratney from the Hidden Gems project and Rotherwas Together meets many of their criteria for grants. It was agreed that we would invited Michael to a forthcoming meeting to explain the Hidden Gems project.

AOB

Nicola gave more details about the presentation of badges to former munitions workers at the Cathedral on April 25th

Barbara gave more details about the readings at Rotherwas Chapel on April 21st at 1430 to coincide with the Weeping Window exhibition

We will soon be providing details of how you can become a member of Rotherwas Together, we hope you'll consider joining.

It would be fantastic to hear from anybody who is able to help with projects for 2018, in particular anybody who has maps or photos of any of the buildings at Rotherwas now or in the past.

13/03/2018

We are fascinated to see that as part of their WW1 commemorations at Durham Cathedral, they are transcribing the diaries of Herbert Hensley Henson, who was Dean from 1913-1918 and Bishop of Durham 1920-39.
Herbert Hensley Henson was also Bishop of Hereford from 1918 to 1920 and so sections of his diary record his time in Hereford, including very interesting references to the munitions. We have seen part of the entry for Tuesday 12th March 1918 reads:
"return to Hereford....the station-master this morning told me that more passenger trains are to be cut off in order to make the munitions traffic easier".Herbert Hensley Henson (1863-1947) - Durham at War

A real fascinating read. If you'd like to find out more - take a look here

Herbert Hensley Henson (1863-1947), Dean of Durham during the First World War. Discover more about this person on the Durham at War website.

22/02/2018

Come and join us for the Rotherwas Together
Inaugural Meeting on March 08. During the evening we will hold two separate meetings. This is purely procedural. We will pause once the group's name and constitution have been adopted and then re-start the meeting as that group. This allows us to elect officers.
Please do contact us if you are interested in standing for one of the three positions (Chairman, Secretary & Treasurer or as an additional committee member.

We look forward to seeing you on March 8th.
Thanks again to the Wye Valley Group for hosting us.

Rotherwas Together
Inaugural Meeting and Second Meeting - Tuesday March 8th - 6pm
Warehouse 701, Fordshill Road, Rotherwas, HR2 6NS

for more details email [email protected]

11/09/2017

Kate Adie highlights important role women played during the war at event in Hereford
Here she is pictured with Angela Williams, (ROF) Project Officer. Photo: Herefordshire Council
http://bit.ly/2gO3SlY

RENOWNED author and journalist Kate Adie talked to some of the women who worked at a Hereford munitions factory at an event last week.

30/10/2015

We're delighted to announce that the Rotherwas ROF Front Line Duty project has secured a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. A new page has been created at https://www.facebook.com/rotherwasrofproject/ to follow progress. Please do give us a 'like' on our new page so we can keep you up to date with news.

Bringing together those interested in the history of Rotherwas.
Contact us at [email protected]

22/09/2014

Rotherwas is also home to Skylon Park, the site of the Hereford Enterprise Park. Here's the latest on what's happening here

Hereford Enterprise Zone has welcomed two new investments following the completion of a £500,000 access road in the north of the site.

12/08/2014

Kate Adie in the BBC Two programme, reporting from the former munitions factory at Rotherwas, section starts at 16mins 22seconds. Lovely note of thanks from the BBC History team to the Enterprise Zone vice-chairman for his assistance in the making of the documentary.

Kate Adie examines the impact of women's work during the First World War.

24/06/2014

See pages 44 and 45 of the digital version of the magazine for more on our proposals for the site

The country's leading local magazine for Hereford & Herefordshire - putting local life in the picture.

23/06/2014

More than 35 members of Hereford Civic Society visited the Shell Store last week. It was a delight to host the group, who were very interested in the project and hugely knowledgeable about the site. It was a beautiful evening and we ended the visit with drinks and refreshments at Rotherwas Chapel.

18/06/2014

Thanks BBC Midlands Today for sharing!

The public is being asked to comment on proposals to transform the munitions factory site at Skylon Park, Rotherwas, into a heritage park

A project to honour the contribution of the women who worked at Hereford’s former munitions factory has won Heritage Lottery Funding of more than £77,000.

18/06/2014

HEREFORDSHIRE'S centre for the arts is seeking some World War One artefacts, family history and memorabilia to put on display.