Tales from the River Wye

Voices from the River Wye is filled with stories of the Wye told through the words and photographs of those who have known the river all their lives – ferrymen and ferrywomen, boatbuilders and bridge builders, rowers and swimmers, anglers and poachers, ghillies and river bailiffs, otter hunters and more.

In the summer of 2017, Marsha O’Mahony travelled up and down the Wye in Herefordshire recording the experiences of the people who have lived and worked on the river, or simply been drawn to its waters in search of recreation or a jam jar of minnows. Thanks to then a wealth of memories surfaced, of a much-loved river teeming with often startling tales, and peopled by a rich assortment of characters, many long-gone. Stories, photographs and artefacts have been gathered and preserved, and the voices of the ‘ordinary’ men and women of the Wye now have their place in the history of the river.

Marsha O’Mahony is a writer, journalist and oral historian from Hereford. Her work includes River Voices an oral history of the river Wye; writing and researching a series of films about Herefordshire (funded by HLF).

Project Lead Voices of the Wye, Hereford Museum
Writer The Sun US Lifestyle Desk
Writer Mirror Online Lifestyle https://www.mirror.co.uk/authors/marsha-omahony/
Journalist Gloucestershire Live https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/authors/marsha-omahony/
Scratch of the Hop, Logaston Press, social history of hop growing in the West Midlands, launched summer 2021
The Severn Sea & The Gwent Levels, launched 2023
The Guardian, BBC Countryfile, Country Life, The Field, This England, Impress Magazine.
River Voices: Extraordinary Stories from the Wye, Hay Festival 2019