Town trails can, at their best, be an excellent way to learn about and enjoy the architecture and history of our cities and towns. And Dr Joe McCall’s Hereford Trail that is now available on the English Stone Forum website is one of the best.

Dr McCall has produced a large number of geological (and other) publications during his long career and has been closely involved with the Geological Society’s magazine, Geoscientist, so it is not entirely surprising that his town centre guide includes a lot about the stone in the buildings of the city.

He describes buildings from Medieval to fairly modern times, including, of course, Gloucester’s glorious Cathedral.

The trail is not available in paper copy but can be freely downloaded for non-commercial use from the English Stone Forum website (www.englishstone.org.uk, in the ‘Publications’ menu).