A NEW festival will celebrate Herefordshire's past when it kicks off for the first time next year.

The first Herefordshire Histories Festival, scheduled for May 10 to 18, 2025, promises to be an ambitious new historical venture.

Festival organisers hope to inspire local groups to host a weekend of open days, walks, talks, research evenings, exhibitions, and even VE Day street parties.

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Organisers of over 40 events have already indicated that they will be running events during the festival, including established history organisations and local groups. Events will include talks, walks, exhibitions, and celebration events connected with the contribution the county made to two world wars.

“Our county has over 50 different history organisations from Snodhill Castle Trust and the Waterworks Museum to family historians, city guides, town museums and oral historians,” said one of the organisers, Herefordshire ward councillor David Hitchiner.

Herefordshire brims with history, boasting everything from Ice Age ponds and Iron Age hill forts, Roman villas and the Viking Hoard, Hereford Cathedral and the city execution of Owen Tudor, Herefordshire cattle and Victorian cider makers, D Day glider pilots at Shobdon and SAS troops at Stirling Lines... and not forgetting the epic 1972 battle between Hereford United and Newcastle United!

Herefordshire Histories Festival will help support, co-ordinate and publicise the celebrations.

“If each event attracted 100 visitors this would be 5,000 visits over the period," said Councillor Hitchiner.

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The High Sheriff of Herefordshire, Pat Churchward said: “I am delighted to see the introduction of a countywide history festival, which will add another wonderful dimension to the county, increasing tourist footfall, our economy and ultimately the facilities for all Herefordians.

"The festival will open the eyes of not only the visitors but further increase the pride we, ourselves, all feel for Herefordshire. I look forward to the launch and have huge praise for the team that has initiated this project. I’m sure it will be a success and will definitely be supported”

The not-for-profit festival group is supported by a range of county groups including the Family History Society, Herefordshire Archives and Records Centre, Herefordshire Lore/In Our Age, Orphans Press and Hereford Times.

While the festival website is under construction, David Hitchiner can be contacted on dhitchiner@hotmail.com or 077 864 30542.