Welcome to the Portrait of Pembridge Online Blog

Welcome to the Portrait of Pembridge blog. Following the success of our exhibition on Pembridge station and school we are now launching online. We’ll aim to post once a week and to cover a wide range of news, events, information and features about Pembridge parish and its people. That includes the hamlets of Bearwood, Broxwood, Weston, Marston and the part of Staunton in Pembridge.

Events

Our website is designed to be a one stop shop for all things Pembridge.  Everything from Auctions to Zumba is on the agenda. Whether you are interested in knowing what Films will be shown at the New Inn,  when the next Darts match will be at the Red Lion, Folk Music night at the King’s House, or what’s going on at the Church, www.portraitofpembridge.co.uk  will be the first place to look. 

If you are running an event in Pembridge, please let us know what you have coming up and we’ll add it to our events calendar.  Click here to find our events form.

Photo Gallery

They say a picture paints a thousand words. Look at our picture gallery to see what’s been happening in Pembridge.  If you’ve attended a village  event, do send us your photos. We aim to build up a library of village life, to show future generations what life in Pembridge was like in the 2020s.   We’d love to see your pictures of  the Coronation Tea on the church lawn, please send them to www.portraitofpembridge@yahoo.com or text to 07711 406306.

Pembridge school kindly lent us some of their photos, from  the 1920s to the present day. We’ll be featuring them on our Facebook page and website and asking you to identify the people in them. We hope to help the school create a pictorial  record of all the pupils educated there.

People

There are many interesting people in Pembridge today and there certainly have been in the past. Our People column tells their stories. Do share your memories and news. 

 Did you know that Pembridge has produced not one, but two leading  jockeys, a world champion ploughman, two published authors, two bishops who both met untimely deaths, more artists than you can shake a stick at, and a Paralympian. A centenarian former WAAF and a 90-year-old former WREN still piloting her aircraft feature in our People section. 

 We are  telling the stories of the men whose names appear on our war memorial. They were just ordinary Pembridge folk, who showed enormous courage, and paid the ultimate price for their bravery. This week we feature brothers Charles and Joseph Dykes.

Farming

We live in a rural community and farming remains a key employer. We know that many of you, who are not farmers, would  like to know more about what goes into producing your food. We’ve persuaded a panel of local farmers to write a regular column and to answer some of your questions.

Social History

The medieval history of Pembridge has been well documented. The  medieval history group have done a great job, www.mediaeval-pembridge.com The story has been retold in the Pembridge tapestries.  Others, such as Duncan James and Peter Klein, have researched the story of our many medieval buildings. In 1966 the Women’s Institute produced a history of Pembridge. It’s their source material which inspired our recent exhibition. 

Portrait of Pembridge aims to build on the work that has gone before, to create a social history of the parish.   We aim to stir memories of yesterday, record the present day, for the villagers of the future.  

For this to be a success we need your help. The exhibition lit the spark of interest. Visitors shared their memories of travelling on the railway, and as pupils at Pembridge school. We will include their recollections  in our social history series.  The first of these is  on the Leominster to Kington railway  line which connected Pembridge with the rest of the world.