The station is a short distance from the city centre - but we had already ascertained that the walk was around 15 minutes to the cathedral, the far side of the main centre. The first part of our walk was rather disappointing as we passed through areas that have sort-of been re-developed but roads seem to be the main beneficiary.
Even the Venn Arch is noted for its neglect. This memorial to John Venn, a clergyman noted in the late 19C for is support for the poor and disadvantaged, was originally for his sister but on his death it seems that it was re-dedicated to him!
As we started along Commercial Street, one of the principal shopping streets, the first part seemed almost to be completely closed shops.
By the time we arrived at the open central area the shops were much more active - although most are small, local businesses and we saw little 'large stores' (We did later find a new development on the edge of the central area which had half a dozen stores, including Debenhams)
We paused here for a cup of coffee before continuing. We called into All Saints Church which, although still a very active worship place has an extensive cafe installed at the back.
Many of the city centre shops have taken over what were originally town houses for wealthy merchants. The facades have been preserved and the ground floors used as shops but the upper floors often seemed somewhat of an embarrassment. Broad Street is appropriately named - very different from most of the centre which is just the opposite.
The bright yellow building is the Catholic Church and next beyond it is now Pizza Express. It seems as if this was once a large Post Office - its former postboxes and stamp machines have been retained in the facade. The latter must have been decommissioned some time ago as it sells 50p books of stamps - hardly enough for one stamp today!
We checked out the cafe in the cathedral but we were really looking for a sandwich and they did not seem to have anything other than soup, hot dishes and lots of cakes! However we did find very nearby a pleasant small cafe whose toasted sandwiches came with quite substantial salads.
In the afternoon, we decided to walk across the bridge and along the opposite river bank before visiting the cathedral itself. At this stage it was pleasantly mild but we were not confident that it would stay that way! The river was in full spate.
We included this photo, not because we know why it was on the railings beside the river path but because it is different!
After a short pleasant walk we reached the Victorian suspension footbridge and returned to the city centre side of the river.
On the green outside the cathedral we came across the recent statue of Elgar, famously associated with this part of the country. It stands alongside the Cathedral Barn.
Outside main entrance to the cathedral work was underway on erecting a section of the Weeping Window memorial that was first installed at the Tower of London as part of the memorial of the over 800,000 members of the British armed forces that died in the First World War. Hereford is the first host on the last year of this tour.
It seemed a labour intensive task as each piece of metalwork had to be fitted with lots of poppies before it could be hoisted up aloft and fitted to the special scaffolding against the cathedral wall. The poppies are ceramic and the original fund raising concept of Paul Cummins depended on most of them being sold. A small number were bought specially to be kept as this touring display.
The cathedral dates back to Saxon times although the greater part of its present layout is down to the Normans. Changes and additions have taken place at various times in history. A major catastrophe was the collapse of the tower in 1786 led to substantial re-building after a delay of seven decades.
Hereford is one of the cathedrals that is proud to have free admission - along with Truro Cathedral.
The controversial removal of the ornate rood screen a few years ago has opened up the central area for much more inclusive worship and events.
There are several modern stained glass windows. This one is a memorial to the SAS which, of course, is famously based just to the north of the city.
Here are some of the features that caught our imagination - not really possible here to give a comprehensive tour guide:
Once we had made our way around the building we wandered back to the shopping centre. Christine was on the hunt for a scarf but, despite trying almost all of the potential providers, came away empty handed.
Back then to the station for the return trip - it turned out that this was the 'college train' with a substantial crowd of youngsters returning from their day at the sixth form college - compete with copious supplies of KFC (at last where Christine sat - we had to take the last remaining sets in quite different parts of the train)
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