HEREFORDSHIRE cricket enthusiasts were given a personal insight into the history of the Ashes when the county's cricket society met last week, writes Richard Prime.

The meeting was addressed by Lord Darnley, who lives near Tenbury Wells and is the grandson of the Hon. Ivo Bligh, the first MCC captain to venture forth in trying to retrieve the Ashes back in the 1880s.

Lord Darnley, introduced by the society's president Tim Lowe whom he had met on joint service with the Hereford Cathedral Perpetual Trust, told the fascinating tale of how the celebrated urn had been created.

In August 1882, after Australia had defeated England at the Oval, a mock obituary notice had appeared in the Sporting Times lamenting the death of English cricket and relating how 'the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia'.

In the following autumn, when Bligh and his team set sail for Australia on the steamer 'Penshawur', fellow passengers included wealthy landowner, Sir William Clarke, a leading cricket enthusiast, and his entourage among whom was one Florence Morphy, the Clarkes' music teacher and companion to Lady Clarke.

The team was invited to spend Christmas at the Clarke family's Rupertswood estate and, after a friendly cricket match, Florence and some other ladies burnt a veil - not a bail as in popular folklore - and placed the ashes in a small urn which they presented to Ivo.

In true romantic tradition, Ivo returned to Australia the following winter to make Florence his wife and, when the pair eventually returned to England, the small urn remained on his desk until he died in 1927.

Two years later, Florence, by now Lady Darnley, presented the urn to Lord's for safe-keeping, where it has remained ever since.

With demand growing from Australia that they should be given the Ashes to keep as winners of every series between the two countries since 1989, Lord's has been reviewing whether the trophy should leave its safe berth in the museum at cricket's headquarters.

But the current Lord Darnley, who has been in considerable demand by the Australian media since the story was first revealed in a Daily Telegraph article shortly before Christmas, reaffirmed his belief that the urn was a romantic keepsake and not a sporting trophy.

It should therefore remain at Lord's and not be transported to the other side of the world despite the current Australian ascendancy in the contest.