WHAT’S NEW?

Update: 1^st January 2013

Welcome to our ‘What’s New?’ page

ELSG Website

One of the delights of exploring local history is that it occasionally leads to something totally unexpected – a case in point being the revelation that one of our villages, Michaelchurch Escley, is directly connected with one of the most famous military adventures in the history of the British Empire. We are indebted once again to James Baxendale, through whose researches we discover that Lionel Trafford, once of Michaelchurch Court, led the attempt to rescue General Gordon from the besieged city of Khartoum during the colonial war against the Mahdi in the Sudan in 1884/5. A ‘cause célèbre’ in its day, the action is depicted in vivid and unique detail in this new research paper, which draws on contemporary diaries and private papers from the Trafford family archives.

Closer to home, we are also privileged to be able to publish previously unseen material about the Golden Valley Railway, including an extensive private collection of photographs courtesy of Mr David Smith from Ewyas Harold, and a collection of documents about the railway’s construction held by Mrs Gail Hales also from Ewyas Harold. We are grateful to them both for their generosity. With the benefit of the new documents we have also written a new theme paper about a local landowner’s long-running legal battle with the railway company in the 1880s.

Last but not least in the last 6 months we have designed, tested and implemented a new version of the website software. Much of the benefit is ‘behind the scenes’ in smoother operation of the site, but we hope researchers will welcome the improved search engine features, notably the new facility within search pages to refine results with additional key words.

New: Records

• Transcript of Legal hearings in the Court of Exchequer regarding allegations of fraud over the ownership of Michaelchurch Mill
• A private collection of documents relating to the construction of the Golden Valley Railway c.1875 and the purchase of land in the parishes of Abbeydore and Ewyas Harold by the  Railway Company.

New: Research

• Guest Contribution: Lionel James Trafford and the Gordon Relief Campaign in the Sudan , 1884-85, by James Baxendale
• Update of Guest Contribution ‘Randolph Trafford, the Flying Years’ , by James Baxendale [to incorporate extensive new material from contemporary letters and diaries]
• Theme paper entitled “Elizabeth Pugh versus the Golden Valley Railway Company.”

New: Digital Archive

• A major collection of photographs of the stations, staff and operation of the Golden Valley Railway from c.1900 to c.1953, courtesy of D. Smith, Ewyas Harold
• Photographs of Olchon Farm Mill , Llanveynoe
• Photographs of Little Mill at Lower House Farm , Michaelchurch Escley