Dear Editor

On a recent visit – my first, to Ross-on-Wye I decided not to follow the usual tourist routes but to go walkabout to see what I could find.

And what a find! I am afraid to say I can’t give all the street names, I didn’t notice many but people who know Ross will probably recognise some parts.

I started off at the river bank, the Rope Walk, then I followed a stream inland, passing some senior citizen’s bungalows on my right until I reached a road. Having crossed this, I followed a tarmaced path between a corrugated metal, decorated fence and a stream. Parts of the path appeared to be in serious danger of collapsing into the stream so careful stepping was sometimes called for.

At the end of the path I turned right into a road which appeared to head uphill and was a bus route, as just before reaching the top, a double-decker bus carrying the board 33/Hereford, turned into my road from the top end and proceeded down same.

At the top I was confronted by a mini roundabout, I turned right, only to face another one soon after. At this one I also turned right, down a slight slope and I headed towards the main areas of the town.

Almost immediately my attention was attracted by some letter which appeared to be carved into a wall on the right.

Closer inspection showed this was not a wall but a stone trough for horses which had been presented to the town by the RSPCA.

Sadly it is now full of weeds and rubbish rather than water but the building behind did not look much better.

It appeared to have been a church or chapel but now a combination of neglect, the passage of time and the ever-spreading undergrowth were combining to ensure that unless something is done soon it will come crashing down.

Come on people of Ross. Parts of your town’s heritage and history are in danger of disappearing for ever, and seemingly like those pedestrians I saw that day, on-one seems to know or care about either, especially the RSPCA dediated trough.

Mr R?J?Powell

Monmouth

Editor’s Note,

It was a sheer coincidence that this letter arrived at the Gazette office just after the paper including the report that a new charity had purchased the Old Mill, the building referred to by Mr Powell, and work has started on the repair and refurbishment.

Enviroability will be moving into the building and work is already well inhand to make it safe and attracted once again

Originally the building was a mill and is possibly on the site of the Town Mill referred to in the Doomsday Book.

The Brookend Mill, known as the ‘Town Mill’ was built in 1893 and the brook was used to provide its power right up until the 1950s. Flour production stopped in 1947, after a fire, but it continued to mill animal feed until the 1980s.

The horse trough carries the inscription ‘Presented to the Ross Town Commissioners by the Herefordshire Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals October 8 1891’ and the quotation; ‘by water everything lives’. The stone water trough was originally used in the Brookend area but is now at Five Ways. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals(RSPCA) was founded in 1824 and was mainly concerned with the welfare of working animals, such as pit ponies. At this time horses were the main source of power for agricultural machinery, and this part of Ross, close to the mills, would have been much used by horses.

The horse trough is very overgrown with weeds, as Mr Powell