Walford Primary School were visited by Bjarni Eriksson of the Longship Trading Company on Thursday 8th February, who gave the pupils an insight into what life was like as a Viking. The children were allowed to dress up and looked at artefacts, learned about crafts and re-enacted a battle.

A new initiative by the Basement Youth Trust, with the backing of the Herefordshire Youth Service and the Baptist Church has received a tremendous boost with a grant of £1,692 from the Ross-on-Wye Lions Club. Now that indoor football can no longer be played at the Y-Zone there is a lack of facilities for activities requiring physical exertion and this leaves a lot of young people with huge amounts of energy to spare.

Following meetings between the young people and the youth workers it became apparent that something should be done to allow these young people to release their energies and the idea of taking them on structured football sessions was born.

One of the Basement Youth Trust Workers is a qualified football coach. When he was unable to find a space locally, the indoor pitch at Monmouth Leisure Centre was booked. A 16 seat minibus has been arranged to transport 12 youngsters and three adult youth workers to Monmouth on Monday evenings during the winter months. During the spring and summer it is expected that the sessions will be held on the football pitch at Tudorville.

The Basement Youth Trust was originally a project of the Ross-on-Wye Lions Club and two members are still involved in running the organization. These are Lion Bernard Fowkes, who is the Chairman of Trustees and Lion Keith Wilding the treasurer. On hearing of the proposed football sessions, the president of the Ross Lions Club, Brian Goodfellow decided he wanted to use this new initiative as his 'project of the year'. On hearing that it could benefit more than 100 young people, the Lion members supported their president and voted to finance it completely.

The Trustees, workers and members of the Basement Youth Trust wish to thank the Ross Lions for their generosity and continued support. Chairman Bernard says every effort will be made to make this project a great success and trusts in the dedication of his youth workers and the youth workers from the Herefordshire Youth Service and the Baptist Church.

Libraries in Herefordshire are to celebrate the release of a new film based on the classic children's story Charlotte's Web by running a competition and a wealth of fun activities for youngsters. The film, which was released on Friday, 9th February is based on E.B. White's touching story of friendship and loyalty. It follows poor Wilbur the pig who finds his days are numbered until a special spider named Charlotte sets out to save the day with her wonderful web of words.

Herefordshire Libraries offered the chance to win a family ticket to see this film at Hereford Odeon.

Activities with a Charlotte's Web theme will be staged at libraries throughout the county offering a chance for children to weave webs and make pompom pigs. Artist Mary Roberts will be leading an activity session to make spider books and piggy pencils at Ross Library on Thursday, February 15th from 11am until noon. All craft events need to be booked in advance. Tickets for this event cost £1 and are available from Ross Library, Cantilupe Road, Ross-on-Wye.
Tel. 01432 383280.

Other craft events will be taking place at:

Colwall Library: Wednesday, February 14 from 10.30am until 11.30am.
Leominster Library: Wednesday, February 14 from 2pm until 3pm.
Ledbury Library: Friday, February 16 from 2.30pm until 3.30pm.
Hereford Library: Friday, February 16 from 11am until noon.

The craft events need to be booked in advance, tickets cost £1 and will be available from the relevant library.

There will be also be special piggy storytimes for under fives at:

Hereford Library: Wednesday, February 14 from 10.15am until 10.45am.
Leominster Library: Friday, February 16 from 2.15pm until 2.45pm.

Storytimes are held every week. These are free events and there is no need to book for them.

For children under two, there are Baby Bounce and Rhyme sessions at:

Hereford Library: Wednesday, February 14 from 11.15am until 11.45am .
Leominster Library: Thursday, February 15 from 10.30am until 11am.

Baby Bounce & Rhyme are held every week. These are free events and there is no need to book for them.

The sign in the window of Lucas Motor Cycles was too much of a temptation not to investigate on passing the shop Saturday morning.

On enquiry, it turned out that Andrew Lawrence did not have a bed for the night on Wednesday, 7th February. After being refused service in both the Gwalia store and the Barrel Inn, he threw a lump of concrete and cracked the window of Lucas Motorcycles so that he would be arrested, thereby gaining a bed for the night.

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