THIS week our walking correspondent treats readers to a trip taking in many of the locations linked to one of Hereford's most famous residents – Sir Edward Elgar. Garth has also tracked down the last person alive to have sung under the baton of Edward Elgar some 80 years ago.

EDWARD Elgar was making his last appearance at Hereford Cathedral. His daughter Carice would later say: “He seemed so full of vitality yet I felt so sure all that summer that we were doing things for the last time.”

Among the close friends he met during Three Choirs Festival week were George Bernard Shaw and distinguished festival favourite Ralph Vaughan Williams, best known for The Lark Ascending.

In the choir, a fledgling songster was making his debut under the regal composer’s baton.

Michael Morris still vividly recalls: “I was a very small probationer chorister and remember Sir Edward conducting a number of his best known, wonderful works, notably The Dream Of Gerontius and The Kingdom.

"I am the sole survivor of the 1933 Three Choirs Festival. One other person, Mrs Molly Proctor was a young woman who was in Hereford Choral Society but she did not sing in the 1933 festival. Dear Molly is about 101 now, I think.”

For the first three decades of the twentie20th century Elgar bestrode the Three Choirs Festival. From 1904 till 1911 he lived in Hereford at Plas Gwyn.

It was here, in the city's suburbs, that he composed Wand of Youth and first played, with Percy Hull, the piano duet arrangement of Enigma Variations.

When Hull apologised for misreading some of the quick passages in the bass part, Elgar, almost pre-empting Eric Morecambe, replied “Never mind the right notes, it’s the rhythm that matters.”

Michael sang many times under Hull, Hereford Cathedral organist and conductor of Hereford Choral Society.

Though small, Hull was a resilient man who survived four years as a prisoner of war in Germany.

He also made a remarkable recovery from serious illness in time for the 1933 festival; always in a hurry, he was typically busy throughout.

One of the highlights of his own week conducting was the performance of Bach’s Mass in B minor B Minor mass.

He was to be knighted for his services to music in 1947, and Elgar’s fifth Pomp and Circumstance March is dedicated to him.

Like Carice Elgar, Percy Hull remembered Elgar as the “life and soul” of that Three Choirs Festival in September.

For several generations of Hereford Cathedral schoolboys the name “Hull” lived on in the cross-country running course up the Wye riverbank and back along the lanes of Breinton which Elgar cycled.

Michael Morris goes on to say “My mother was a chorus member and she and I followed Elgar and his daughter along King Street and through St Nicholas Street, past the turning to Friar Street and to the second house on the right in Barton Road normally occupied by Mrs Gibbs, a shorthand and typewriting teacher.

"She had vacated the house and let it to Sir Edward, his daughter Carice and friends.”

Our town riverside and country lane walk returns in harmony with this route, and part of the “Hull” course.

Along the way we pass a spot heralded by a statue of Dan the Bulldog. It was here that Dr. George Robertson Sinclair’s constant companion fell into the river when they were walking with Elgar, a happening interpreted for posterity by Enigma Variation No. 11 and it was on the opposite bank that Elgar’s friend and “bodyguard” Canon Gorton drowned in mysterious circumstances below Quay House in 1912.

If he had still been around in 1933, he would probably have stopped a starry-eyed youngster getting Elgar’s autograph outside those lodgings in Barton Road.

Sir Edward Elgar died five months after the festival, 80 years ago. Michael Morris, who spent 53 glorious years in the Three Choirs Festival choir, still fondly remembers the man wielding the wand of his own youth.

Hereford and Warham Cathedral, Castle Green, town and riverside. A 4½ mile easy walk. One field only. Pleasant road walking. No stiles. Map: OS 189, Hereford and Ross-on-Wye.

1. Hereford Cathedral Close. The statue of Elgar leaning on his Sunbeam bicycle - “Mr Phoebus”. Walk towards east end of cathedral, left of Elgar’s gaze, TL into Castle Street and TR into Quay Street. Follow the path ahead, up to the Castle Green and along R edge railing which overlooks the River Wye. Bend L and leave Green down slope towards road. TR across Victoria Bridge. Follow riverside path to statue. (It was across on the left bank of the river that Canon Gorton drowned).

2. Dan the bulldog. (Elgar’s Enigma Variation No. XI). Carry on up to the Wye Bridge. Cross the road, re-joining the river path and continue under Greyfriars Bridge to the disused Hunderton railway bridge ahead. Go up steps and cross river. At end of bridge go down steps on left, continue ahead to riverside. Turn right along path. Follow this Wye Valley Walk along the bank, past the Monitoring Station, for 1½ miles.

3. WVW Kissing-gate. TR through gate up the field away from the riverbank. (The area through the gap on the right is where Brian Hatton painted Fields By The River at Warham, and Wye Bank at Warham, in oil). Go up to skirt the front garden of Warham House and leave the field via the “fishermens” gate on to lane, just to the right of bungalow called Stonehurst.

4.Warham. TR up the country lane past Old House and Warham Court, with the Water Tower coming into view. Pass Broomy House and the drive, on your right, to Hereford Waterworks Museum. Continue past the old Mount Craig home/studio of Brian Hatton. When you reach the T-junction at Barton Road, TR, along pavement.

5. The Priory, 4 Barton Road is on left just before Friar Street. (This was Elgar’s retreat during the 1933 Three Choirs Festival). Join right hand pavement, and use subway to return to Cathedral.