Local look alikes, Joyce Thomas and John Price walked in the footsteps of Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton on Trafalgar Day. They visited Rudhall Manor at the kind invitation of present owner, Councillor Harry Bramer and spent time in the house and gardens. Pictured below, they can be seen in the room where Lord Nelson stayed when he visited the house in 1802. Joyce also sat in the room in which Lady Hamilton would have spent the night, and saw the communicating door which linked the two rooms together.

Rudhall Manor was built in 1450 and what was originally the entrance hall and kitchen now form the core of the house. In 1580 the house was extended and many ornate carvings were added. In 1780 the house was adapted yet again in the fashion of the day, in Georgian style with sash windows. The room with windows on three sides where Nelson stayed was one of those added at this time.

Outside in the extensive grounds is a beautiful cedar tree which was listed as a fine mature cedar tree in the particulars of sale in 1870, when Lord Ashburton sold the Herefordshire estate.

After reliving Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton's visit to Rudhall Manor, Joyce and John called in at Merton House, where Nelson walked in the gardens in 1802, they were greeted by staff and some of the residents of the hotel.

More photographs of Rudhall Manor can be seen on page four of this week's Wyenot News and in the gallery.

Choosing the name 'Wyenot?' and using 'wyenot.com' as a web site domain to promote Ross-on-Wye and the Wye Valley was a difficult decision for me to make at the time. I actually dislike the use of incorrectly spelled words in a title. Although I did decide to go for it, to me using phonetically similar words is just as tacky as the increasing use of the Americanisms in England.

Americanisms do my head in! Take the term, 'ball park figure' for example. I can fully understand this expression in the United States but we do not have 'ball parks' in England so the term is meaningless. I actually have a personal ambition to modify this expression nation-wide, replacing it with, 'scrotum figure,' but that's by the by. When 'scrotum figure' does become an every day figure of speech however, remember you first heard it on Wyenot.com.

To cut a long story short, I went with 'Wyenot' in the end because, putting my own preference for the English language aside, I thought it might catch on faster than perhaps 'rossonwye or wyevalley dot whatever' and it did! There has been many an occasion I have heard the question, 'Why not?' jokingly suffixed by the person it is directed at with, 'dot com' and this works for me as a powerful, subliminal form of advertising.

It would seem however that the way to really impress these days is to use a fancy acronym as a title. Acronyms can make a lot of sense as a memory aid. It is far easier for example to remember 'laser' than 'light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.' The word 'laser' has now become an every day word to the point where many people do not realize it is an acronym and spell it with a 'z'.

It certainly seems these days that anybody who is anybody in Herefordshire needs a 'catchy' acronym in order to succeed and obtain either support or funding (plus of course, the obligatory committee chair person - an absolute 'must have' when it comes to to holding meetings to arrange meetings). The one time 'Tourist Board' for example have now become the Tourist Information Centre (TIC) and promote our Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). We have the Association for the Promotion of Herefordshire (APH), Ross in Bloom (RiB) and no doubt (LiB) in Ledbury. Ross has seen the coming and going of the Protect Ross On Wye party (PROW) and there are others far too numerous to mention, or even remember.

Whilst all these various suitably 'acronymed' groups and committees sit discussing how they are going to obtain their funding or other support strategies for this, that or the other, Wyenot.com has been busy, working away in the background and doing what they are all still talking about. For five years it has worked for the area, 24 hours per day bringing thousands of visitors and therefore prosperity to Ross on Wye, completely unaided by either committee or catchy acronym.

Working alone can have its drawbacks and sometimes I get a little paranoid. I keep imagining that somewhere out there, the 'South Herefordshire Initiative Team' are about to join forces with the 'Friends Advocating Nature' and complain about my garden, which has become something of a 'Big Unspoilt Green Grass Ecological Reserve' as I no longer have the time to deal with it.

AJW. (WNDC)