Leominster Library has held its first public event since the start of the pandemic.

The event was a public talk about childhood on Clee Hill by Alf Jenkins MBE. It was organised by the group Friends of Leominster Library (FOLL).

Mr Jenkins was born in Clee Hill in 1936. His father was the publican of the Dhustone Inn near Titterstone and his youth was coloured by life in a pub in what was then an industrial area of mines and quarries, employing over 1700 men.

Mr Jenkins described the constant need to carry water 100 yards up the hill from a spring. Water which was not only used by his family, but by animals too.

Hereford Times: James Lindsay, Chair of FOLL, with Alf Jenkins at Leominster LibraryJames Lindsay, Chair of FOLL, with Alf Jenkins at Leominster Library

He also talked of how in the winter of 1947 the snow piled up to the roof of the house and access was only possible via an upstairs window, and how his father's pub was run with only candles and no power.

He said his childhood was "of the time", money was scarce, luxuries of any sort were absent and facilities all but non-existent.

Mr Jenkins went on to a career in teaching and he received an MBE in 2008 for his research into the industrial and social history of Titterstone Clee and services to education.

James Lindsay, the chairman of FOLL, said the talk was a reminder of earlier, hard times and showed how much things had changed over one life time.

He said: "As well as a wonderful talk, this has been an opportunity after the lockdown for the Friends of the library to meet once again".