This week I have included a couple of my own photographs, which I thought I had lost forever. They turned up this week whilst I was looking for something else (as is usually the case). The top one is an aerial view of Ross, taken in June 1992 and shows a turning point in the town's history - when the Maltings had just opened for business and the construction of Safeway-on-Wye was taking place. At this point in time, shops in the town centre still changed hands once per generation but the writing was well and truly on the wall. Housing estates had been built, filling much of the green space which can be seen in some of the earlier aerial shots in the main archive section of this web site. The Market House and Broad Street are at the bottom of the photo, just left of centre. The Cattle Market may not have been open for business in town but the photograph was certainly taken prior to the rather more ugly looking Old Market Close taking its place.

The bottom photograph was taken on the same day but from a lower altitude. Ross Cottage Hospital can be seen bottom right, prior to its metamorphosis into Goodrich Court.

The flight itself holds a funny memory for me. At the time, I was very into my hobby of amateur radio and I switched one of my transceivers at home to the 'air band' so that my two boys, Matt and Chris could listen to where we were and watch us from the ground. They were 5 and 4 years old at the time and I made the BIG mistake before leaving home of saying, 'Whatever you do, just listen and DO NOT touch the microphone. Later, we were out of sight, over Goodrich when these two squeaky little voices kept appearing on the balloon frequency. 'Dad. Can you hear me, dad? Where are you, dad?' Chris particularly has always been extremely 'experimentally' minded and I had horrible visions of him later in life, having discovered a hidden secret of my radio equipment, trying to talk a Boeing 747 into landing on the M50. From that moment on, I kept the door to my radio station firmly locked whilst away from home!

Another archive John Kyrle High School photo this week leading up to the Summer Reunion Ball at JKHS: the 'JKHS Jogglers', with Paul Wheatley at St. Mary's Church. The 'Jogglers' (staff and pupils of the school) having run from Lambeth Palace to Ross as a relay team, back in 1986.

2005 is the 25th birthday of John Kyrle High School. To celebrate, there will be a Jubilee Summer Ball at the school on Saturday 11th June. This will be a reunion for past students, present and past staff and parents, and for everyone in the Ross-on-Wye community who has been involved in the life of the school over the past 25 years.

Tickets are £25 and are on sale now from the school (01989 764358) and include:

• Champagne and Canapés Reception.
• Three Course Dinner with wine.
• Live music from Joint Venture.
• Disco and the Pink Panther Roadshow.

For further information on this event, you are welcome to contact the following:

Kate Nicholls on 01989 763102 - email katenicholls@john-kyrle.hereford.sch.uk
Robin Ancrum on 01989 565253 - email: robin@ancrums.wyenet.co.uk
Karen Frost on 01989 563057 - email: karen@coachingexecutives.co.uk

To be continued with more photographs in next week's Wyenot News - 'Archive Ross-on-Wye' . . .