Thank you to Mike Arnison for sending in the two beautiful autumn photographs below. Mike, who lives in Cinderford is an excellent photographer and his work really deserves to be seen.

'I started taking photographs about forty years ago but every time a box of slides or a package of prints came back from the developers there was always some disappointment. Most of the shots did not seem to portray the scene or subject as I had intended,' said Mike.

'Film and processing costs started to rise, my interest in photography started to wane and I turned more towards my other hobby fishing.

Since the arrival of digital photography however, with no processing costs for all those 'duff' photographs, my interest in photography has taken on a new lease of life. During the six years since taking early retirement I have set out to improve my previous photographic results by taking a photographic course with the 'Open Arts College' and by gaining my Licentiateship (LRPS) distinction from the Royal Photographic Society.

I submit many images to an online photo gallery Ephotozine.com where other members critique uploaded images, registration is free. I find it a very friendly and helpful site for improving photographic skills. I have even had one of my images published in a new book on photographic techniques produced by the site. I print and frame my photographs on matt art paper, for family and friends, but use, www.fotolibria.com, for the sale of my images.'

More photographs by Mike will be appearing in future editions of Wyenot News.

More Remarkable Trees at Upton Bishop.

A man on a mission, Thomas Pakenham lugged a 30-pound large-format camera across four continents in search of the most famous, celebrated and just plain beautiful trees around the world.

His portfolio includes both well-known trees and new discoveries: Dwarfs, Giants, Monuments and Aliens, with portraits of tiny, twisted bonsai, strangler figs, giant redwoods, ancient joshua trees and the even-more-ancient bristlecone pines.

Reproduced in best selling books now famous throughout the world, these images will be shown to full stunning effect at Upton Bishop Millennium Hall on Friday 10th November at 7pm in a personal presentation by the author of his work.

This unique event is staged in aid of The St John the Baptist Tower Appeal and £5 tickets are available from Ross Books or by phone on 01989 780321.

Following last week's article about the improvements to the ancient Friends Meeting House in Brampton Street, I have received several requests to view all photos I took during the course of the morning. I have therefore made them available for viewing in a slide show gallery, which will open in a separate window if you click here.

It is the genealogy season again! Because this web site is linked to by many genealogy sites, people automatically assume that I am a genealogist. This is not the case. You are welcome to send in your enquiries by all means but please do not expect me to automatically know the name of your great great grandfather's cousin, six times removed's dog. (Believe me, I really do get letters like that!)

I am not really into genealogy at all (other than that I keep my own family records) and do not have the time to research your family myself but I will help where I can by publishing your enquiries. They will be published as received (no editing).

Ed

Looking for Ted West

I am looking for my uncle. His name was Ted West. He lived at Weston under Penyard and was a school master in Ross. He was a close friend of my family but I have not heard from him since 1980. Can you ask if anybody knew him please. I would like to know what happened to him.

Thank you.

Gareth Goodwin.

Assinder

I have to confess that, due to a computer system failure which occurred about a year ago and deleted my address book, I have lost the emails and addresses of those who have made past enquiries about the Assinder family. As I received the information below in reply to various previously published Assinder enquiries, all I can do is publish it and hope that all Assinder researchers can meet up by reading the various letters published in back issues of Wyenot News. Ed. . . .

From Robin Carey - Ref: Issue No. 33, Feb 05

Response to "Assinder" Enquiry from Colin Smith, Cannock, Staffs. I have the 4 birth certs of the daughters you list, Amy Thirza is my grandmother's The details of their mum & dad are on the "Keyse" web site, which informs that the Keyse originate from the area between Newent & Ross. The site identifies 2 well known Keyse. My next job is to do a birth marriage & death search on William Assinder, can you save me the trouble. We always thought the familly came over from France, Eliza Keyse looked very meditterean, it was thought from Corsica, and we had passed downinnthe familly two large gold bound books of England in french.

I only received the 4 birth certs yesterday so it is early days in my research. The Keyes website is very interesting because it is very local to Herefordshire and Gloucestershire with two infamous names named on the site. From the information I have gathered from there, I have looked up the place names on the ordanance survey map whch differ from those mentioned in my first email. William Assinder's place of birth is given as Llaganan in 1849, but I am assuming this should be written Llangarron, west of Ross, and is close to the place of birth of his future wife Eliza Keyse at St Weonards. Her was fatherThomas Keyse whose place of birth was Llanwarne 1827, and was a Hurdle Maker. He probably worked at Llanwarne Court He was christained in Newent 17/9/1827. The census 1881 and 1901 shows he stayed in Lanwarne. The records show that he died twice apparently 7/1/1902 and 7/2/1902. Perhaps Llanwarne has already witnessed the Second Coming! My next job is to get the geneology on William Assinder, we always thought he came from France escaping the Hugenot persecutions. His daughter Amy Thirza looked very Meditterreanian, we thought from Corsica. It would be good to hear from Colin Smith of Cannock Staffs, I have done a diretory enquiry, there are 12 C Smiths in Cannock unfortunately. It would be good to hear from anybody else too.

If you would like to contact either of the above enquirers, please email and I will put you in touch.

Thank you to John Thorn for sending in the photo of Ledbury Railway Station, which he took in 1963. For the sake of comparison, below is one I took myself in 2004. More Ledbury railway station photos can be seen here.

Gloucesther Division 2
Ashley Down Old Boys 15 Ross on Wye 30

Sitting in second place after four games, Ross were looking to keep up the pressure on league leaders Dursley last Saturday as they looked for their first win in Bristol against Ashley Down Old Boys. In blustery conditions it was important for Ross to start strongly and Ashley Down obliged as they failed to take the kick off and immediately conceded a lineout in their own 22. The Ross forwards took advantage of Ashley Down's generosity working through three phases of quick ball. From the last ruck, the ball was moved quickly along the Ross backline to winger Dan Weston who cut inside the Ashley Down defence to score. Chris Gage converted and Ross were 7-0 up after five minutes.

After such a bright start Ross continued to move a big Ashley Down pack around the park. However their adventurous approach was undone, either by too many errors or the referee's whistle, as the penalty count against them grew. The stop, start nature of the half definitely played into Ashley Downs hands, however they were unable to make inroads into a well organized Ross defence. As the game entered its second quarter Ross added to their lead with a Chris Gage penalty. From the kick off Ashley Down infringed again and from their own 10 yard line, Chris Gage indicated a kick for goal some 60 metres out. Even with the wind at his back this was a towering kick that gave Ross a 13-0 lead. Ross were now in control of the game, however further infringements gave Ashley Down a lineout 10 yards out and from the resulting driving maul they crashed over, cutting Ross's lead to 13-5 at half time.

With the wind in their faces Ross knew they had to cut out the errors and penalties in the second half if they were to prevent the Ashley Down pack from camping themselves in the Ross 22. As in the first half, Ross started the second half the brightest. With Gavin Oates and Wayne Williams showing up well in the loose and with the error count reduced, they began to stretch the Ashley Down defence. After some strong running up the middle from first Joe Gittins then Dave Mince, the ball was moved quickly right. Adam Clements cut inside his man, offloading to Wayne Bishop, who moved the ball back inside to Alistair Rees. He was tackled 5 yards out but managed to offload to Chris Gage, who scored, giving Ross an 18-5 lead. Ross continued to keep up the pressure. With Nick Rawlings finding his jumpers and the scrum holding steady, Ross stepped up the pace looking for that third try. Matt Jones drove hard into the Ashley defence, the ball was quickly recycled and Tara Barnett sucked in the Ashley defence. Simon Gwynne moved the ball left and after some slick handling, winger Dan Weston added his second and Ross's third try, putting them 23-5 up. Ashley Down did rally, cutting the deficit to 23-10 with a try after 60 minutes. However, Chay Brine added a brilliant individual score to give Ross a 30-10 lead. With 10 minutes to go, Ashley Down did add another score, however it was too little too late as Ross ran out 30-15 victors.

It was a successful day all round for the club as Ross 2nds also won, defeating Ashley Down 2nds 24-10. Next Saturday 28th sees Ross at home in Cup action against Bristol Saracens. Kick-off is at 3pm.

Ross-on-Wye Weather Station is located by the tennis courts and bowling green at 'Crossfields' and is one of the important stations around the country which regularly sends data to the Meteorological Office. This is why Ross-on-Wye is sometimes mentioned on the BBC weather reports. It is currently still a manually monitored station and readings are taken twice per day by husband and wife team, June and Rex Swallow.

If you would like to order prints from Wyenot News photographs, please click here.

Prints are only available for photographs taken by Wyenot News (Not of those which have been sent in by readers).

Prints of 'people' photographs are only available to those directly involved in the news event covered. i.e. I do not sell prints of people to the general public.

If you have a local news item or story of local interest which you would like to appear on Wyenot News you are very welcome to submit it by email, telephone or by post.

Please advise as early as possible if you would like me to photograph your local event so that I can put it in my diary. This service is offered strictly on a first come, first served basis.

Many Wyenot News photographs appear in various local newspapers and magazines. This does not imply that Wyenot News or any other part of this web site belongs to those publications. Wyenot News is a totally independent news magazine.

Contacting Wyenot News:

Email: please click here.

Telephone: 01989 763217 - Mobile: 0779 683 4077

Postal address: Wyenot News, 1, Hillview Road, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire. HR9 7EY

Although it is fine to submit if you are submitting an event taking place in a pub / shop / restaurant etc., please make sure that your story does have real news value and is not simply an advertisement for your business. It would be unfair to those who support Wyenot.com and Wyenot News by advertising to publish blatant advertisements disguised as editorial material.