Visitors from Salisbury

Pam and Phil from Salisbury, subscribers to our e-newsletter, timed their visit to Herefordshire especially to coincide with Borderlines. They sent us this account of how they got on:

We only know about Borderlines because we were in Herefordshire 3-4 years ago in late March and discovered it was on.  

We went to 4 Festival events during our 3 night visit to Herefordshire, which is pretty good going! Would like to have attended more. These were:

Of Gods and Men at The Courtyard;

The Moviebus at Bodenham;

Neil Brand at Cawley Hall;

Another Year at Goodrich Village Hall.

All 4 venues are very different and all brilliant in their own ways. We thought The Courtyard is an excellent facility for the area. It was great to see the Moviebus; we had quite a chat with the owners and they seem to have a good little business going there (obviously rather specialist).

©Luke Doran

Cawley Hall is really good - was this a Millenium Project? It must have cost rather a lot to build, but hopefully it is well used - certainly the programme that we could see looks like they have plenty of events there. And Goodrich Hall is also excellent - originally a nineteenth-century Reading Room. They've recently installed all sorts of environmental improvements for which they must have worked incredibly hard to get all the grants. The sound and visual system used there is very good.

In terms of the events themselves, they were all great:

Of Gods and Men was very moving - I hadn't realised beforehand that it's based on real events. I like the feedback forms that The Courtyard used - no pen required! 

Another Year was very enjoyable - we like Mike Leigh, and had missed the film when it was doing the rounds here so it was good to have a second chance to catch it. We hadn't realised it was going to be subtitled, which was a little distracting but we learned to ignore it, and it must have been helpful for those hard of hearing. 

The selection of shorts shown on the Moviebus were great - educational and/or amusing, and just the right length. Again, the projection system was very good. Nice that this event was free.

Neil Brand, as you know, was just such a good presenter. I really liked the way he combined his own presentation with audience participation.

©Michelle Gerrard

We did a circular walk from Goodrich to Welsh Bicknor, then by the river to the foot of Symonds Yat rock and back over Cobbetts Hill (2-3 hours); next day we went out to Golden Valley and walked in a circuit from Ewyas Harold up to Riverdale and back via Dore Abbey (4 hours). Both lovely walks despite rain on the first one. We got them from the AA 1001 walks in Britain folder which I can thoroughly recommend!

Finally, what really put the icing on the cake for us was how friendly and welcoming people were. We chatted to people at every venue and it was good to see how well the local amenities are supported. Long may it last.

Best of luck  for the rest of the Festival, and for next year which I daresay you'll be  planning soon! I have raved about it to many friends and relatives since our  return, so you might find a few more tourists coming to you next  year.

Phil and Pam