Quaker Town

 

Today we went to Croft Castle to visit and for us to activate our recently renewed National Trust membership, some good few years after we let it lapse when the family membership became redundant on James leaving home. Afterwards, we drove into Leominster for a mooch around. It's a town I've visited in the past, either as a child, as my family has connections there, or more latterly, on my way to or from somewhere else, as it used to be part of the main route into and out of Herefordshire on the north-south axis. We found a very quiet and much prettier town this bank holiday, bathed in sunshine and baking in 28-degree late summer heat. Pictured, one of the narrow alleys that connect the streets in the town, one to the other, the centre now made over to pedestrians, the heavy through-traffic of yore having been banished and diverted around the old town; which like so many in Shropshire and Herefordshire, have long and storied histories, mirrored in the fabric of the town's architecture itself. A lovely place and a historic market town; it also has the distinction of being one of the major meeting places for Quakers, and along with the parish of Bishop's Frome, forming the nexus of my mother's side of the family: the history of which I still continue to try and unravel...