The family of a 16 year old boy who died in a road traffic collision on the A40 at Ross-on-Wye earlier this month have spoken of their loss for the first time. Dean Fulford from Ross-on-Wye suffered multiple injuries when the moped he was riding was involved in a collision with a blue Mitsubishi Colt and a white Citroen Saxo on Monday, 20th August. He died at the scene.

His parents, Andrew and Louisa Fulford have described Dean as loving teenager with a strong sense of his own identity who would always put others first. They say they are heartbroken to lose him. In a statement, the Fulford family said:

'Dean’s memory will be carried by many as he touched the hearts of everyone he encountered. We will always have him in our hearts and minds and are heartbroken that he has been taken from us. Dean’s friends have the memory of a ‘biker goth’ who skated the half pipe in his leather trench coat. No matter what the weather, Dean always wore his trench coat! He wasn't afraid to be different and would dress how he wanted and wouldn’t let anyone change him.

The hidden strength that Dean had helped him to get through so much, helping him to stand up for what he believed in. Dean would sometimes seem to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders and would often take long walks to mull things over. But he would always help to right wrongs or take time to listen and understand other people’s problems. He was there to help us all, putting everyone else before himself.

Continued . . .

He also had a special love with his girlfriend Rebecca and they were very happy together. They had planned their future together right down to the last detail.'

The teenager, who would have celebrated his 17th birthday on Monday, 27th August was a keen biking enthusiast and was looking forward to taking delivery of a 125cc motorbike. The former John Kyrle High School pupil was taking an engineering apprenticeship at Haigh Engineering in Ross and had plans to go to art college after this. His ultimate ambition was to design and build custom motorbikes.

An inquest was opened and adjourned by the Herefordshire Coroner on Thursday 30th August. For information concerning the funeral, the arrangements of which are yet to be confirmed, please contact Abbotsfield Funeral Directors on 01423 356445.

Police are continuing to appeal for witnesses to the collision, which happened on the northbound side of the A40 at 9.50pm on Monday, 20th August. In particular, they are keen to speak to the driver of an articulated lorry which is known to have stopped at the scene.

The driver of this vehicle is likely to have important information about the collision and police are keen to trace him or her as a witness. No further details of the lorry are available and it is not known where it may have been headed to or from. The driver and any other motorists who may have witnessed the collision are asked to contact PC Richard Pearce at the Hereford Roads Policing Team on 08457 444888. Two men were arrested at the scene on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and have been released on bail while enquiries continue.

Nobody will miss Dean Fulford more than his family and his girlfriend, Rebecca, but Dean had many friends, including members of our family, who are devastated by his death and will miss him for a long time to come.

The photograph below shows the floral tributes, bearing cards with beautiful messages that some of Dean's friends laid near to the scene of the accident.

During the School Summer Holiday a series of workshops has been offered at the Heritage Centre in Ross. These workshops, which are free and open to all children accompanied by an adult, have proved hugely popular this summer, especially with the uncertain weather! The workshops are organized by the Heritage Centre in conjunction with Herefordshire Council Leisure Services and the Green-eyed Monster Company, which specializes in craft activities and workshops.

Amy King is a veteran of these workshops and has attended every one this summer, producing some wonderful works of art and craft, as well as having a thoroughly good time. First up, on 31st July, was "Forts and Fairy Castles" where children could make either a fort or castle from a shoe box and tissue paper. With few exceptions the boys chose to make a fort and the girls chose a fairy castle. Amy made a castle straight out of Disney, all pink and purple tissue paper and pink satin ribbon flags!

On 7th August the session was "Saggy Raggy Dragons" and the children made some fantastic dragons simply by rag-tying scraps of fabric around a length of plastic tubing. This was a bit of a marathon, especially as some children were a bit ambitious about the length of dragon they wanted to create and so they (and their Mums!) spent hours tying fabric around the tubing to make the dragons body.

9th August was Hedgehog Day when the children learned about hedgehogs, coloured in pictures and made hedgehogs out of recycled envelopes.

14th August and we made a kite out of a simple frame and a plastic bag! Again all of the materials were recycled, even the lovely long tail with it's multicoloured bows.

The last session was "Wondrous Weaving" where the children created pictures by tying and weaving wool, plastic and fabric scraps, buttons and pom-poms onto a cardboard frame.

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Telephone: 01989 564041
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Dear Alan,

You should move on from this 'spectre', which is nothing more than dappled light hitting the edge of the church doorway and spilling out along the surfaces. Strappy dress indeed! No question, you are imaginative.

Regards,

Art Bristow

Thank you for that, Art. 'Imaginative', I may be, especially where fantasy women in strappy dresses are concerned, but it seems that you are somewhat imaginative yourself, Art because nowhere in last week's article did I say that the image was that of a 'spectre'. I said it was a 'strange photo of St. Dubricius Church'.

Below are various enlargements plus one contrast adjusted cut-out from the photograph, which is something I did not have time to do last week as the photo arrived right on last week's news deadline, when I was busy.

I still stick to my original guess and say that it looks like a lady with black hair in a brown, knee length dress with shoulder straps. She appears to be holding what also looks like it could be a folded child's buggy in her right hand.

If the image is of the lady I imagine, rather than dappled light - whether she was there at the time or whether she constitutes an X-File, I'll still leave the viewers to guess for themselves.

Continued . . .

What I can say with absolute certainty, from study using my photographic software is: even though I neither took the photo myself nor know the man who did, the original photograph sent in had not been tampered with in any way whatsoever. Assuming the time is set more or less correctly on the photographer's camera I can see from reading the unchangeable 'metadata' that the original image is shown to be taken on the 15th, May 2007 at at 14:54 and 42 seconds with a Samsung Digimax S800 / Kenox S800 digital camera at ISO 50, f2.8 with an exposure of 0.00285714 second. No further editing had taken place.

Over to Mulder and Scully . . .

If, on the other hand you are really looking for imaginative . . .

I gave the date above as in 2007 but there is a certain element of assumption involved here because the date the 'metadata' actually gave was, '2027:05:15 14:54:42'. The 'assumption lies in the fact that I guessed the clock on Glyn's camera had been accidentally set wrongly and that it is running approximately 20 years fast.

But what if it had not? There could be a wormhole in space/time within the grounds of St. Dubricius Church, and on the 15th May 2027, that lady will walk into the church at a little before 3 o'clock in the afternoon. Meanwhile, a little further down the path, the 'spectre' of a man taking a photo with an old Samsung S800 digital camera will appear.

If I am not at that great gig in the sky myself in twenty years time, I think I'll go to St. Dubricius and take a look. The fact that I do not appear in the photo myself, as the 'spectre' of a 73 year old man with a Nikon camera standing behind that grave stone at the back so that I can capture both parties in my picture though, is perhaps indicative that I will either forget to go, or that I do not make the twenty years.

Continued unexpectedly . . .

Curiouser and curiouser. Maybe I do make the 20 years . . .

I have just received the following information from the photographer's wife, without any prompting. Her email arrived after I had already written the above article, but before I had shown it to anybody - not even Tina, who was still snoring in bed whilst I wrote it . . ..

"I have just read the comments attached to Glyn's photo in the news article. He took this shot the first afternoon we were there in June. It was just after four o'clock and the only other person there was an oldish gentleman, quite round, wearing shorts and he was leaving as we arrived.

Glyn and I actually went into the church for a short while. It was so cool and peaceful. I entered our names in the visitors book and paid for a post card of the church. Before leaving we had a wander round outside looking at the gravestones [as one does when on holiday]. We didn't see anyone else at all."

Bearing in mind that I will be 73 years old then, I'm pretty round and prone to wearing shorts, the description fits. When Dan Brown's future best seller, * 'The Simcoe Code' hits the big screen, you will know where the idea came from!

* General Simcoe, first Governor of Canada's family are buried in the grounds of St. Dubricius Church.

For those very serious people out there who do not understand humour . . .

There are bound to be some who will write in just to call me a nutter. I am only joking with the above explanation. But then. Albert Einstein has proved that time is not a constant and, the way I see it, a warp in space/time is just as likely an explanation of ghosts as that of them being the souls of dead people.

The photo is serious. Maybe it is just dappled light. Whatever. I really would like an explanation, and so would Glyn, the photographer and his wife, Josie. With a 1/285th second exposure (which is an absolute fact as the metadata cannot lie about that), unless she was walking/running extremely fast, the lady I see in the photo cannot be simply motion blurred.

Other people have seen a 'hooded monk' in the image. I think it is one of those images which people see differently, depending on which side of the brain (left or right) is more dominant.

Thank you

Hi Alan,

Well done that man for keeping me in touch with my home. I was born at Brights Orchard, Hole in the Wall, Foy and lived there until I was five years old, moved on to Glewstone Villas and then on to live in Ross town. I went to School at Goodrich in the late Sixties early Seventies and from there went on to Ross Secondary I even worked for Jacqui Danter in the Arcade and Nightclub in the early Nineties.

I miss my home very much indeed and hope to return one day. Thank you, once again as I can still keep in touch with what is happening in my beloved town I will be coming for a visit early next month for a few days and I will not feel so much like a stranger.

Keep up the excellent work. Say hello to Tina for me as she seems familiar.

Regards,

Heather Wadley

It's a pleasure, Heather and I hope you enjoy your visit next month.

Whittaker - Can you help

I don't know if you can help me or point me in the right direction. I have traced my great grandfather, Richard Michael Whittaker, to Much Marcle, Herefordshire. Born 1872, he married an Eleanor Anne Lloyd, daughter of William Lloyd (b.1855)

I would like to find out more but have reached a possible dead end. I live in Namibia, Africa so can even pop up and have a look at what the internet shows to be a beautiful village.

Alisan Greeff

Tina Dancing

Hello Al,

I must say what a surprise it was to seem my letter printed on your site, I felt rather stupid after reading your lengthy reply, it just shows how genuine you are and actually made me look rather big headed when I seemed to try and change your successful policies. This was not what I was trying to do I just thought I saw a danger for your young lady Tina but as you say she could handle any silly remarks then who cares what the odd idiot says.

I am quite dedicated to your site and look forward to reading what's gone off over the previous week, I do feel that with all the work you put in there should be a very good income from the successful site. Maybe one or two of the guest houses or hotels will consider the idea of using the site to show their special offers when things are quiet, let's remember I visit Ross on Wye several times a year so have a reason to see the special offer section if it ever became a weekly thing.

I do not know how you cope with all the work you have to do early in the week, it is a good sign of dedication with out pushing to hard for a large profit. I apologize for any of the remarks I put in my previous letter that might have annoyed you or Tina. Thanks for the reply and you can be assured I shall be watching your site as always each and every week.

All the best,

Ken

Nice to hear from you, Ken. It was not a problem and neither Tina nor I were upset by what you wrote. We realize that you had our best interests in mind.

We hope you keep reading and that some of the local hotels and guesthouses take up your excellent idea.

Coping with the workload - blimey, you're right there. As I type this, it is 1:08 am on Wednesday morning, I have been on the go since 8:30 am Tuesday and I still have three hours of work ahead to get this issue on-line before the real morning arrives. It has been a really big issue to prepare, with an unexpected visit to Hereford Hospital, to take my son, Matt for a scan - which I did not know about until the day before. (He forgot to tell me about the letter. Kids - no matter how old they get . . .!!!) That unexpectedly took 5 hours out of my final news prep day - hence this very hurriedly written reply.

Keep in touch.

Kind regards,

Alan and Tina

Two decades have passed since local musician Ron Rogers and his then-partner, the flame-haired Carol Decker, set the charts alight with T'Pau's début singles Heart And Soul and China In Your Hand, the latter holding the Number One spot for five weeks in 1987. "Performing for Prince Charles and Princess Diana at the London Palladium and touring sold-out arenas was like being at a brilliant party that lasted five years," recalls Ron Rogers.

A change in direction by the record label and the breakdown of Decker's and Rogers' personal relationship led to band's split in the early 1990s. Ron Rogers now performs locally with acoustic quartet The Ronaldos, as well as producing music by other artists at his recording studio set upon the Welsh mountains overlooking Monmouth.

For her part Decker remains a household name, regularly touring across Europe and, earlier this year, singing duets with Beverley Knight and Tony Christie on BBC One's prime time show Just The Two Of Us. Carol Decker's new single 'Just Dream' marks not only the twentieth anniversary of T'Pau's initial success, but also the reunion of Decker's and Rogers' song writing partnership. Rogers explains, "I had a basic idea for 'Just Dream' and asked Carol if she could add anything to it. We now live one hundred miles apart so we get together as often as possible and keep in touch via the internet." The simplicity of switching on the computer and downloading music greatly appeals to both Decker and Rogers, who have bypassed record labels in favour of overseeing every aspect of the single's release themselves. Rogers adds, "The idea of a download-only single is to keep the whole process as creative as possible. We are in control, right down to the single cover shot."

'Just Dream' is available now, exclusively as an internet download, from i-Tunes, Amazon.co.uk, Napster and many more.

The absolute deadline for Wyenot News stories and other items is 12:00, midday on Tuesday, for inclusion in the following day's edition.

PLEASE NOTE HOWEVER: This is an absolute deadline and not the time I am asking for articles to be sent in. Mondays and Tuesdays here at 'Wyenot News' are Hell with by far, the most events I cover occurring at the weekend. The photography that the public sees happening is only one tiny part of the whole picture (please excuse the pun) of running this weekly news publication and the bits of prep that people do not see, are actually the most time consuming part of getting the story out.

If at all possible, please send your story in as early as you can, rather than wait until the very last minute, so that I can have at least a fighting chance of getting to bed before 3:00 am every Tuesday and Wednesday morning after what has lately become two 18 hour working days on the trot.

Thank you very much for your understanding and help.

Alan

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