January

The year started off strong when the Zero Waste Stall at Ross Food Hub helped hundreds of people by giving out free food.

A “long and happy” queue of 150 customers were served with free food that was collected by a team of 40 volunteers from supermarkets in Ross, Monmouth and Ledbury.

The stall has been open since 2020 and at the start of year they had given away nearly 70 tonnes of food to over 200,000 customers.

The season of good will continued with a gala raising £1,500 for a local mental health charity.

The event was hosted by Herefordshire-based mental-health organisation Sing out Strong which was set up by Ross local Emma Rowland.

The organisation, which included local Ross group the Border Belles, preformed a concert in August 2022 at Hereford Cathedral to raise money for mental health charity Herefordshire Mind.

February

Pancakes were on the menu at the annual Ross Pancake Race as people of all ages took part in 14 races to run through Bond Street whilst flipping pancakes.

The event was supported by Ross Town Council as well as the Ross-on-wye Lions and the Ross Rotary Club, and saw 100 people participate in the race, with 300 more providing their support on the sidelines.

The community brought from this event was plain to see by the racing, and pancake day 2024 should be on the diary for all pancake racing enthusiasts!

Ross’ Library Development group hosted a book launch for author Maddie Please with her book “Sunrise with the Silver Surfers.”

The library resumed its normal opening hours at the start of 2023 and has been at work providing valuable community work, such as hosting English lessons for non-English speakers as well as providing Dementia Awareness Sessions.

Group chair Clare West would step down in June after a decade of work for the organisation, but she said at the Annual General Meeting that: “I retire knowing that Ross Development Group is as strong as ever and has a real and productive future”.

March

The start of month saw the unfortunate news of the passing of the first woman mayor of Ross, Joyce Thomas MBE DL, at the age of 92.

Mrs Thomas was the youngest parish clerk in the country at 17-years-old, and her MBE in 2003 acknowledged her years long commitment to public service, such as being a governor for John Kyrle High School, her setting up of the Ross Pre-School Playgroup, as well as doing fundraising work for the Charles Renton Breast Care Charity group.

She was elected mayor as the first woman mayor in 1975, and her work with the local community gave her a tremendous legacy in the Ross area.

Ross’ own Hank’s Meat & Game won their third Best Game Butcher award in a row at the Eat Game Award in London.

The Broad Street shop saw the expert judges give them the award after being voted in by the public for nomination.

Owner Tim Hank’s was given the £1,000 award by host and TV presenter Adam Henson, and Mr. Hank said that he was “completely over the moon” about winning the award for a third year in a row.