A HISTORIC Herefordshire calendar has been launched which offers a nostalgic look at the past.

Those who still have memories of Foxley School in the 1950s, for example, or Allensmore’s mobile butcher’s shop in the 1940s can bring them flooding back in 2011 through a special photographic fund-raiser from Herefordshire Lore.

Other familiar scenes, which came from readers of the voluntary group’s quarterly magazine In Our Age, also include county market workers in 1958, a post-war Polish family picnic, former mayor Ivor Williams handing out toffee apples at the May Fair and ‘pin-up’ Topsy Price from Ross-on-Wye, who featured on Land Army recruitment posters in the Second World War.

Editor Bill Laws, who with fellow members has been publishing local memories through various outlets since 1989, said the 2011 calendar came after a successful first outing last year and would considerably boost funding for the next edition of the magazine.

The group’s own calendar of events has been somewhat disrupted, however, by the recent cold snap after supporters were forced to postpone a recital of local music and memories originally planned for this month.

“Bad weather scuppered our rehearsal plans so we’ve postponed it until Easter Saturday, April 23,”

Mr Laws said.

In the past Herefordshire Lore has also published accounts from the county’s munitions workers – dubbed the Canary Girls because of the effects of explosives on their skin and hair – as well as the recollections of workers at Hereford’s cattle market.

Recent work with the Cathedral Close’s Living Memory project is also expected to be followed by a celebration of Hereford Buttermarket later this year.

The £5 calendars, which were also sponsored by the County Record Office and local firm BOSS, are available at Hereford’s Garrick House or on 07845 907891.

For more information on Herefordshire Lore, visit herefordshirelore.org.uk or email info@herefordshire lore.org.uk.