Yearly Archives: 2018

Christmas approaches and we reach the half-way point of this project, new images continue to emerge from the Derek Evans Christmas-stocking-of-an-archive. Some catch the eye more than others. With Christmas lunch shopping lists being hastily compiled, visions of roast goose, mince pies and lashings cream piling up, it is a relief to the digestive system to step away from these frenzied festivities and have an indulgence of a different kind, this time in the his ample and varied photographic archive.

If anyone could represent the 'wise old man' persona, then surely hop farmer the late Barry Parker must be it. His memorable, delightful, and philosophical phrases are remembered long after his interview has finished.

In his eye-catching violet cassock, he ascended the spiralling stairs of the Helter Skelter, placed his large frame on the mat, and slid to the bottom...

I've been a 'migrant' of sorts myself I suppose, picking apples and boysenberries in New Zealand, and filling shampoo bottles in Australia. In the 1970s, my school, a Catholic Secondary, was a microcosm of post-WWII migration, you just had to take a look at the names in the register to get the picture: Irish of course, then the Italians, the Portuguese, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Latvian, and Polish.

We are pleased to be able to offer DVD copies of Herefordshire Life Through a Lens: Stories from the Hop Yards and other titles