Report of the talk by County Archaeologist Dr Keith Ray, Friday 19th November.

A good crowd (about 50 people) attended this fascinating talk entitled "Whitbourne in the Middle
Ages", at Whitbourne Village Hall. Dr Ray showed us a few slides, mainly aerial views of the Whitbourne area, and several maps of the area, from different periods in Whitbourne's past. It was
interesting to see how many years passed with little change to the countryside, interspersed with
periods of quite rapid change, such as the loss of many orchards.

Dr Ray spent some time describing the Whitbourne Court site, with its lake and dry moat, this being the site of a now-demolished bishop's palace. Much was made of the enormous number of staff that ran the palace when the bishop was in residence, and the impact this temporary population would have had on the village community. Questions were aired as to whether the ornamental lake was in fact a fish pond, since records show that much fish was consumed, and also whether the moat was originally dry of water-filled.

Much more historical information about the Bishop's palace can be found in "A Bishop's Manor" by Phyllis Williams (available from the Bromyard history centre). Dr Ray ended by taking a few questions, and encouraging us to visit the "Historic Herefordshire On Line" site at www.smr.herefordshire.gov.uk.