Portrait of Pembridge Blog 18
Portrait of Pembridge
Blog 18
July 2025
Village Show
The Village Show is set to return to Pembridge on Saturday 26th July.
There are classes for fruit, vegetables, preserves, baking, flower arranging, art, and handicrafts.
Entry forms are available online at www.pembridgeparishhall.co.uk/events and from the New Inn, Steppes, and Pembridge Primary School.
Free entries in the children’s section.
Entries stagged by 11am
Open to the public from 1pm with prize giving at 5pm
Medieval Weekend
Leominster Medieval Society returned to Pembridge for their Medieval Weekend Encampment. The weather was much kinder than in the previous year with many more participants and visitors.
The excellent displays of medieval crafts, archery, horsemanship and a re- enactment of the Battle of Mortimer’s Cross gave insights into life in the Marches at this most turbulent time.
We are grateful to all the organisers and participants for coming to Pembridge and hope to see them again soon.
We’ve curated a selection of photos and videos of the weekend on our past events page.
www.portraitofpembridge.co.uk/past-events
Pembridge Home to Endangered Species
Pembridge is the host of several rare species of plants and animals.
Tree Warden and farmer Tony Norman explains the importance of preserving the native black poplar. There are 6 of these trees in the parish out of 100 in the county and 6,000 in the country.
A planting scheme has produced 40 more trees from cuttings. Find out more and how you can help halt their decline.
www.portraitofpembridge.co.uk/learnaboutfarming
Crayfish are dying in the River Arrow due to a highly infectious disease. This particularly affects the stretch between Pembridge and Kington. The parish council has highlighted the problem and provided guidance from the Environment Agency on how we can help prevent this spreading. The disease isn’t transmissible to humans but threatens the white crayfish population.
Do not enter the river while this outbreak is ongoing and do not touch any dead fish but report findings to the Environment Agency.
For more information on this see the Parish Council website on
www.pembridgeparishcouncil.gov.uk
Wildflower Identification Walk
Pembridge Ecology Group will be hosting a wildflower walk on Tuesday 24th June from 5pm at Bridge Street Car Park.
Footpath Group
The parish council are looking to set up a volunteer footpath group, to walk parish footpaths, maintain and report problems for action.
If interested contact Cllr Hancock 01544 340799 or Cllr Zagni 07360205777
War Memorial
The War Memorial is looking splendid thanks to maintenance and planting completed by Pride in Pembridge and members of the Royal British Legion.
The memorial now contains the names of all the Pembridge men who gave their lives and the link to www.portraitofpembridge.co.uk/warmemorial which tells their stories is now accessible through a QR code on the bench installed at the site.
Defibrillators
Apologies for an error in our last edition which stated that a defibrillator was in Bearwood, this should have read Broxwood.
For clarity the four defibrillators in the parish are at:
-The Parish Hall, Bearwood Lane, Pembridge;
East Street Car Park Toilets, Pembridge;
Telephone Box Broxwood;
The Leen Farm, HR6 9HN.
Marston Man Raises Over £2,000 for charity
Ian Smith of Marston recently completed the Netherlands Liberation Trail, which followed the route of cemeteries linked to Operation Market Garden when allied troops liberated the Netherlands at the end of WWII.
The ride of 200 miles was a poignant one for Ian whose father was killed serving in the war just before he was born.
Ian was given the honour at the end of the ride of laying a wreath on behalf of the Royal British Legion at the Grebbeberg Dutch War Cemetery.
Ian would like to thank all who supported him and helped raise over £2,000 for the Royal British Legion.
Pembridge Film Nights
Pembridge Film Nights will be back at the end of August and into September with a mini festival of arts films to include amongst others :” Mrs Lowry and Son” starring Timothy Spall, “ Memories of the St Ives Modernists” and “Eric Rivillious -Drawn to War”
You can find full details on our Community Groups page.
New Team Member
We are pleased to announce that Cllr Mark Clegg has recently joined our team and is working alongside Haydn Osborne-Brookes in designing and maintaining our website.
If you’d like to join our team of historians, researchers, writers, photographers, and website designers you would be most welcome. Please email us portraitofpembridge@yahoo.co.uk
We Need You
Portrait of Pembridge is a volunteer run community resource. Please let us have your stories and news, share your expertise on topics ranging from local history, farming, the environment, events and fund raising.
Please email portraitofpembridge@yahoo.co.uk or call Kay 07342 625796 or Barry 07711 406306 for a chat about what’s involved.
We are keen to reach as many parishioners as possible. If you know someone who doesn’t yet receive our blog and “ Dates for your Diary” straight to their inbox, please encourage them to sign up for this free service on www.portraitofpembridge.co.uk
For updates follow us on Facebook or log on to our website: www.portraitofpembridge.co.uk
