THE very essence of rural Herefordshire is captured in a unique collection of pictures and cuttings that tell the story of Eskleyside Agricultural Society.

That story unfolds in a book compiled by former Peterchurch farmer Cecil Pritchard, 85, of Eaton Court Farm, near Leominster, and Grace Davies, whose grandparents once farmed at Michaelchurch Escley.

The two are connected by the scrapbooks of Mrs Harry Pritchard of the Clothiers, Urishay, that Grace saw when visiting her grandparents.

Evelyn May Pritchard saved 61 years of cuttings from the Hereford Times between 1911-1972 relating to Eskleyside and the county’s western border country, on the basis that one day they would make a book.

That collection is the basis for Reflections, a compilation that accounts for the Eskleyside Agricultural Society from 1897-2002.

Reflections offers plenty for aficionados of ‘old school’ agriculture to mull over but works best as an account of how one farming community moved through and changed with its times.

Reflections is circulating throughout that community, and the response there will dictate the potential for wider circulation.