Ross Rugby Club's after match drink for the referee will taste so much better this season, thanks to local jeweller, H.E. Phillips. Phillips have kindly donated and engraved a new 'After Match Tankard' for use by the match official after every home game.

Pictured below, John Watkins of Gloucester Referee Society, Martyn Pocknell, Chairman of Ross Rugby Club and Brian Harris, Sponsorship Secretary at the 'Drop Inn' after Saturday's match against Tewkesbury RFC.

Bishopswood Short Mat Bowls Club were recently awarded £2,970 by 'Awards for All' to buy new equipment. The new equipment purchased with the money, including a roller for three mats, three mats, score boards, fenders and jacks was officially handed over to the Club on Thursday 13th October by Fred Jolley. Fred, who is President of Herefordshire Short Mat Bowls Association, was instrumental in supporting the Club's claim for an award.

Pictured below, club members with Fred Jolley last Thursday: Randolf Ball, Dennis Brooks-Kibble, Tony Lee, Ann Slade, Pam Morgan, Bob Broughton - Captain, Jim Tingle, John Slade, Barbara Morgan, Brenda Clarke, Jenny Ray (Secretary), Fred Jolley - President of Hfds Short Mat Bowling Association, Maureen Tingle, Derek Meggison and Colin Price - Chairman.

From the very beginning, I have found it interesting to see where visitors to Wyenot.com and Wyenot News are viewing from. This is in fact quite difficult to determine as most viewers use Internet Service Providers with a 'dot com' suffix and in fact, although it is arrogantly assumed by those who live there that this is automatically an American domain, this is not the case. There are 'dot coms' located all around the world, Wyenot.com for example.

I cannot count 'dot com' and 'dot net' ISPs, so setting these aside, which amount to by far the largest amount of viewers, I can only determine web site visitor locations from those whose ISPs use their own country as a domain suffix i.e. 'dot co.uk' or 'dot au'.

Using the above method of determination, listed below are where the rest of the visitors to Wyenot.com and Wyenot News are located in order of highest amount of visits to lowest, starting column one top to bottom followed by column two, top to bottom etc. The most viewers live in the UK, second most in Australia and the least in Georgia. Unfortunately, this method only shows a very small fraction of viewers in America as most American viewers do happen to use 'dot com' ISPs.

By a long way, the largest amount of viewers live in Great Britain but what surprises me is that over the past five years, Wyenot.com has been viewed from Christmas Island, from the Cook Islands and even a few times from countries where I had previously imagined that people were more likely to eat each other for lunch than look up Ross-on-Wye using Google.

I know that the very minute I put the latest Wyenot News on line, usually during the early hours of Tuesday morning, it gets visited by viewers in Australia and New Zealand, where as most of Ross does not see it until the next day. I can watch this happening on the server log. Similarly, Big Ben - with radio waves travelling so much faster than sound, listeners to the BBC World Service hear the chimes of Big Ben in Sydney before those standing in Parliament Square. (Radio waves can travel seven times around the earth in one second.)

The United States Government looks quite a lot and many a time I have noticed computers belonging to NASA viewing Wyenot News. Maybe an ex-pat works there (or they are planning a Space Shuttle launch from the Rope Walk). I find it quite amusing when I see people search Google for 'information on the White House' and find themselves looking over a guest house in Wye Street. That happens surprisingly often!

Below are the countries that I can say with absolute certainty that Wyenot.com has been viewed from over the past five years. Truly, the whole world is watching Ross-on-Wye!

• UNITED KINGDOM
• AUSTRALIA
• POLAND
• NEW ZEALAND
• CANADA
• GERMANY
• NETHERLANDS
• FRANCE
• FINLAND
• UNITED STATES
• BELGIUM
• ITALY
• JAPAN
• SWITZERLAND
• HUNGARY
• SWEDEN
• LITHUANIA
• CZECH REPUBLIC
• GREECE
• DENMARK
• US DEPT OF DEFENCE
• SINGAPORE
• SPAIN
• AUSTRIA
• ESTONIA
• ARGENTINA
• PORTUGAL
• BRAZIL
• MEXICO

• ROMANIA
• ISRAEL
• RUSSIAN FEDERATION
• US GOVERNMENT
• SLOVAKIA
• IRELAND
• THAILAND
• MALAYSIA
• TURKEY
• INDIA
• SOUTH AFRICA
• YUGOSLAVIA
• CROATIA
• MALTA
• ICELAND
• CHILE
• PHILIPPINES
• HONG KONG
• LUXEMBOURG
• UZBEKISTAN
• TAIWAN
• UKRAINE
• SAUDI ARABIA
• BULGARIA
• PERU
• MOROCCO
• LATVIA
• SLOVENIA
• INT. ORGANIZATIONS

• CHINA
• COLOMBIA
• CYPRUS
• URUGUAY
• UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
• QATAR
• NIUE
• VIRGIN ISLANDS
• INDONESIA
• TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
• SRI LANKA
• DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
• KENYA
• CAYMAN ISLANDS
• VENEZUELA
• PAKISTAN
• COCOS ISLANDS
• MAURITIUS
• VIET NAM
• PARAGUAY
• TUVALU
• NEPAL
• ZIMBABWE
• ALBANIA
• MONTSERRAT
• IRAN
• FAROE ISLANDS
• BERMUDA
• GIBRALTAR

• TANZANIA
• MACEDONIA, THE FORMER
• FRENCH POLYNESIA
• MALDIVES
• COTE D'IVOIRE
• ECUADOR
• EGYPT
• GUATEMALA
• HONDURAS
• JORDAN
• KAZAKHSTAN
• ARMENIA
• BRUNEI DARUSSALAM
• LEBANON
• LIECHTENSTEIN
• BELARUS
• SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC
• COOK ISLANDS
• PAPUA NEW GUINEA
• BENIN
• SAN MARINO
• COSTA RICA
• NICARAGUA
• ZAMBIA
• CHRISTMAS ISLAND
• NAMIBIA
• GEORGIA

Dave and Tina Westcotte visited Gorsley Goffs Primary School on Tuesday 11th to get the whole school skipping. During the whole day event, classes were given lessons individually before pupils from each group took part in a show at the end of the day in front of the whole school.

The skipathon was designed to promote skipping as a healthy exercise which can be practised either individually or as a group.

If you would like information on organizing a Skipping Workshop for your school, you are welcome to call Dave or Tina Westcotte on 01392 670786.

Ross Town Girls have just received a new kit for this season, kindly sponsored by 'Eden Shelving', supplied by Club Sport in Brookend Street, Ross. Ross Town have two girls teams playing every Sunday in the Herefordshire Girls Under 14s League. Unfortunately, they only have five girls for an under 12s team and are desperately looking for two or three girls to complete the side. If you are interested in joining the Ross Girls Under 12s team, please contact Jean on 077990 62194.

Photo: Girls Teams with Jean Wills, Manager and Carl of Club Sport.

Wilton

My name is Regina Rawleigh and I lived in Ross-on-Wye in 1976 while my husband was working for Rank Xerox. I have been reminiscing a bit and wondered if you had any photos of Wilton?

We rented a small house there just before the roundabout. We spent many a night at the White Lion and have many fond memories of England. I love your photos of Ross and the surrounding areas. Thanks for sharing.

Regards,
Regina

Reply

It just so happens that you are in luck, Regina. There is quite a bit about Wilton scattered here and there on this web site. As the site has grown enormously over the years, I would have to search myself to find most of the photographs of the Wilton Area but a good starting place to look is the A to Z Site Map. There are a few links to Wilton from there.

Purely by coincidence, the White Lion at Wilton took up an advertisement on this site only a couple of days ago, so there are photographs of the inside of the building on that page. It has changed a bit since 1976, which was the year I moved to Ross-on-Wye and first visited the White Lion but you can view the new layout.

Leah Shaw and Dean Hill

Hello Alan,

Wonder if you can help with following family history query :- LEAH SHAW (great aunt) died in Dean Hill Hospital, Ross in January 1964. Was Dean Hill a residential hospital for people with a disability -- Mental? Also can you suggest where in Ross she may have been buried.

Many thanks,

Bryn Owen (based in South Yorkshire)

Reply

I am not able to help here myself, Bryn but another reader of this page may be able to. If you are able to help Bryn, please contact me and I will put you in touch. Ed.