HEREFORDSHIRE VBCW

[leadboy]

The Herefordshire VBCW Autumn Big Game 2019 ("Mortimer's Cross Redux aka Operation Scylla") will take place in our usual venue, Burley Gate Village Hall, on Saturday 12th October 2019 10am - 5pm. All the scenario information is on our blog, plus a full (and fully illustrated) account of our last Battle, the Spring Big Game 2019 ("The Second Battle of Shobdon"). All welcome to our Big Game as usual (PM me if you want to come along) and for those who can't make the trip this time, we hope you enjoy the blog! (http://hereford1938avbcwtng.blogspot.com/)

[Plynkes]

I did enjoy the blog. It's so strange (and fun) seeing this imaginary war being fought over places I know so well.

Is it true you can really gain a peerage simply by capturing the coat of arms? I'll have to try that.  Sadly for the participants, the Bateman Arms village pub is now the only reminder of that extinct line.


As usual though, I do have one pointless nitpick (hey, don't judge me, nitpicking is fun!). I'm fairly sure that Shobdon Airfield was constructed during the Second World War. It's one of the places where they trained the glider pilots for airborne operations. But hey, things went differently in the VBCW world. 

Good luck with your game!

[leadboy]

Thanks for your kind comments, Plynkes. Shobdon Airfield was indeed constructed only on the outbreak of WW2 - see this historical blogpost:

http://hereford1938avbcwtng.blogspot.com/2019/02/shobdon-cockpit-of-history-2-shobdon.html

That said, we've placed the main Government airfield on Hereford Racecourse in our VBCW world, so, as you've intimated, we're not too worried about "bringing forward" Shobdon Airfield in history by a couple of years. We work on the basis that the advent of the VBCW "speeds up" all sorts of developments!

The fun of the VBCW is that it enables a bit of local historical research as a background to VBCW events. Who knew, for example, that Herefordshire had its own "1930s aerial hero"?
See the allied Ludlow blog here:

http://bolvbcw.blogspot.com/2016/12/what-would-he-have-done-vbcw-aerial-hero.html

or that "Shobdon Instructional Centre" actually existed during the 1930s, as part of a "progressive" (or perhaps "reactionary") scheme to relieve unemployment, as per our original blog here:

http://hereford1938.blogspot.com/2013/08/sent-me-to-place-called-shobdon.html

As you know, the lovely country house that was Shobdon Court no longer exists : apart from the Bateman Arms (which does contain some family pictures, as you say), the visitor can only see the Church, Servants Quarters and Stables (mind you, the interior of the church is wonderful and the best ecclesiastical of "Strawberry Hill Gothic" in the country - the Prince of Wales is a particular fan...). Hence, instead of the sad reality of an estate sale and demolition to pay debts/provide building materials etc., the VBCW allows us to give it a proper (i.e. highly explosive) send-off!

I'll keep putting up notices of our Big Games on the forum and glad you enjoyed the blogposts!

[Plynkes]

Shobdon Court completely slipped my mind. Typical of me to be thinking only about pubs.   

My abiding memory of the Bateman is being treated for a nasty ear infection there. Nowadays the Mortimer Practice (the local NHS practice) has swanky premises in Kingsland, Orleton and Leintwardine, but there was a time when if you wanted a doctor you went to his house, or some designated vaguely public place where they would hold a surgery. The Bateman Arms was such a place, and thus I found myself being treated by the GP in the pub!

I was given a course of antibiotics that did absolutely nothing, by the way.

[Plynkes]

Oh, and speaking of pubs, your picture of the Mortimer's Cross monument made me a little bit sad, and brought back memories of my youth. Right next to that monument stands a building that once was The Monument Inn. In the 1980s it had a local reputation as a pub that was quite lax and friendly towards under-age drinking. So naturally, that's where I got my start as a pub-goer, while I was still at school.

But sadly she is gone now. I weep for the pubs we have lost. Kingsland used to have about thirty thousand* pubs at one time, now there are only two. Ah well, at least the Cross is still open, at Mortimer's Cross.





*Rough estimation, actual number may vary.

[leadboy]

Ah..dodgy drinking. Good memories.

Actually, I came across this website (to make you weep into your beer) a while back:

https://www.closedpubs.co.uk/herefordshire/hereford.html

I've been weighing up the idea of making VBCW Hereford's Pubs centres of "Red" interest, as the Anglicans have the Churches (http://bolvbcw.blogspot.com/2017/01/vbcw-herefordshire-churches.html) and the Royalists/BUF/Government have the Country Houses (http://bolvbcw.blogspot.com/2016/11/herefordshire-country-houses.html). Rather amusing to think of Comrade Professor Winters having a clandestine revolutionary cell meeting in "The Barrels" or "The Lichfield Vaults". I was only put off the idea - which I'll probably bring back - by reading that the International Brigaders in the SCW (or at least the early SCW) rather frowned on drinking spirits, preferring coffees instead. Dedication to the cause!

[Plynkes]

Oh that link breaks my heart. So many gone...


Some old friends there, notably the Nell Gwynne and the Newmarket (though I never liked it as the Newmarket, that's when it got all ponced up, before that it was The Market Tavern, a spit-and-sawdust pub for farmers and football hooligans). Though there is hope. The section for my village is a little out of date, and one of the dead pubs there has recently reopened. I need to get in touch with those people and give them the good news. 


Coffee?!!! My opinion of the International Brigades has gone down. Bloody hipsters! I knew I should have joined the POUM. 

[leadboy]

Yes, coffee. So the POUM might have been a lot more fun (with Orwell), although people like John Cornford, very intense, very disciplined, probably a coffee only drinker at the time, also served early on with POUM. I rather think I'd have preferred cocktails at the Hotel Florida with Hemingway...

[leadboy]

Oh and by the way, Plynkes, if you ever intend to re-visit your youthful haunts on a Herefordshire weekend, let us know well in advance and we'll get a VBCW game up for you!

[Plynkes]

That's awfully kind of you. I'm currently sitting out war gaming on the subs' bench due to a bout of prolonged ill-health. But hopefully that will change at some point and I'll be able to take you up on your offer. Thanks!


I've thought about going to your Burley Gate event in the past, but somehow never got around to it. Hope you have fun with it tomorrow. I semi-jokingly refer to Burley Gate as the beating heart of Herefordshire war gaming these days.

[leadboy]

No problem, Plynkes. Hope you're able to get off the subs bench just as soon as possible and join us at the "beating heart of Herefordshire wargaming", the Burley Gate Village Hall (well, on a Saturday in March and October, anyway)! Drop me a PM whenever...