Somebody from our community could be responsible for the winning design of Herefordshire’s official flag.

Over the past ten years nearly all the historic counties of England have acquired their own community flag. Herefordshire is one of just three exceptions. There are already some existing “Herefordshire flags” and a coat of arms. But this can only be flown with permission. And the flags you might have seen were chosen only by their designers and aren’t official.

The Design a Flag for Herefordshire Competition will not only give us a great opportunity to celebrate together everything we love about our county but ultimately will ensure that we get our own flag, free for all to fly anywhere, forever more.

Every entry will be seen and judged by a panel. The best entries will be short-listed and then the people of Herefordshire will decide the winner. The winning entry will be officially registered as the county flag, credited to the designer, and make its debut at an unveiling celebration in the city.

There is no fee and anyone can enter (though under-16s will need parent/guardian/adult consent). Full rules and guidelines are now available, with entries being accepted from 1st March with a closing date of 15th April 2019. The short list and eventual winner will be announced in the summer.

To compliment the competition, a series of FREE high-quality creative workshops will be taking place across Herefordshire, where the professional artists will be taking ‘Pride in Herefordshire’ as their creative stimulus and will guide participants through creative exploration of varying media.

Workshops are open to all ages.

For further details and enquiries regarding the competition and workshops please email: herefordshireflag@gmail.com

To download guidelines and the entry form visit: www.the-shire.co.uk/herefordshireflag

The Wigmore and District Gardening Club have released their full programme of events for 2019. It is downloadable below and from their website page.

Gardening Club Programme of Events 2019

Following audience favourites, ‘Stories from the Hop Yards’ and ‘Chewing the Cud’, this new Catcher Media film delves deeper into the Derek Evans’ photographic archive from the 1950s-1970s, bringing you the stories behind his photographs of the county, from the May Fair to Hereford United, from the Fownhope Heart of Oak walk to jazz clubs, from childhood to politics and much more.

The film is part of the Herefordshire Life Through a Lens project, which explores the huge collection of images and negatives from Herefordshire photographer Derek Evans. Alongside digitising and exhibiting his archive, the project is creating an extensive selection of over a 100 oral history videos from Herefordshire people, about the memories the photographs evoke. The archive consists of over 200,000 negatives, 790 exhibition images, hundreds of prints, scrapbooks full of newspaper cuttings, photo journals, and daily log books of the studio’s activities.

The film will be screening as part of the Borderlines Film Festival on March 11th and 12th at the Courtyard in Hereford, and on March 13th and 14th at the Malvern Theatres. For a full list of screenings, visit herefordshirelifethroughalens

“Derek was clearly passionate about Hereford and the region. His image repertoire is affectionate, humanist, liberal and well crafted.” Dr Russell Roberts, University of South Wales