SO hazardous was travel in Herefordshire 150 years ago that before starting out on their 'adventure' many people would make a will.

Coach proprietors would frequently add to their announcements the solemn truism: 'If God permits.'

Apparently, men, women, boys, girls and animals would be sent diving for cover when a coach suddenly appeared and, having regained their composure, watch as the vehicle would attempt the notoriously difficult corner from Broad Street into Eign Street.

Those on board possibly didn't notice for they would have been quaffing 'early purl' - a mixture of rum and hot milk - to banish the chill of a raw winter morning.

These vivid word pictures were provided in a memorable address entitled 'Some Ancient Customs of Hereford' delivered by the president of the Woolhope Club, EJ Bettington, in 1938. All that he had gleaned of life a century earlier had come from word of mouth; none came from books or written records.

What made the talk such a good listen was the diversity of subjects.

Given a good airing, for example, were the 'Charleys' - forerunners of today's police. "They were neither efficient nor fine physical specimens and they advertised their presence during the night with such remarks as 'Two o'clock, fine night'."

They carried staffs and horn lanterns and were provided with shelters. Local youngsters regularly played pranks on them.

Apparently, aldermen were liable to be kidnapped and held to ransom, so it was said that these city fathers were not supposed to leave its boundaries without an escort.

On the Hereford to Leominster road near the entrance gate to Pipe and Lyde Vicarage was a stone, a yew tree and an ash. On the arrival of the Assize Judge from Shrewsbury he was met at this spot by a large concourse of leading men of Law and their officers accompanied by a battery of javelin-armed minders as escorts.

It was said that those who took part in the ceremony were entitled to a dinner on their return to Hereford. The room in which the learnd counsel dined was in St Owen Street.

Those who did not care for the difficult method of obtaining a light with flint and steel visited the bakehouse early in the morning and gave a light to other householders on their way back. The last three places where tallow candles were made were Bewell Street, 10 Eign Street and West Street at the rear of Marchant's grocery premises.

News was conveyed by coach, but The Hereford Times used carrier pigeons. Items of interest were read out loud at the Grapes Tavern where details of the Fall of Sebastopol and the Indian Mutiny were first revealed to Herefordians.

What must have been one of the earliest forms of telephone was a speaking tube attached to the pulpit for the benefit of the deaf at the Coningsby Hospital .

Recreation was vigorous in those days and on Sunday mornings fights were staged at various venues including an inn at Lower Bullingham. Stripped to the waist, contestants used bare fists and fought to an often bloody finish.

Another sport was the lifting in each hand of a sack of corn and swinging it round the head!

Then as now flowed the dear old River Wye. What a busy waterway it was. Below the Wye Bridge were three wharves, the Hay tramway terminus was where Jordan's boatyard later stood and a little above was the field where the Greenwich meantime gun was fired at 1pm each day.