My parents were married during the Second World War when they were both very young. My father was stationed near Hereford, and as my mother was living in London during the blitz, he brought her down to live in a rented cottage on an estate in the Golden Valley. This is an area on the border of Herefordshire and Wales running between two rivers and butting up against the Black Mountains.
I was reminded of the area when rewatching "Shadowlands", the film about CS Lewis, and so we decided to take the campervan down to visit. The day we travelled was glorious sunshine. We stopped to take the dog for a walk by a long barrow known as Arthur's Stone and there were some people packing up their picnic as we arrived. The woman had very loud verbal diarrhoea and the husband kept posing on the top of the stone while the kids sat morosely in the car! We went for a walk so that we could return after they had left.
The following day the weather had deteriorated but this was to my advantage as everything became misty. We visited the hamlet of Rowlestone and looked at the church, St Peter's.
We next went to the charming village of Grosmont. There was a church, a tiny shop and a castle, one of the border castles built to keep out the Welsh! The church was called St Nicholas and the pews had been cleared out of the nave presumably so the it could be used for events.
I fell in love with the castle in Grosmont. This ruin, standing impressively on a mound, was built in the 11th century and gradually expanded as a military fort until the 15th century. In 1404 the English were victorious against the Welsh led by Owain Glyndŵr, but the following year Owain's son Gruffudd besieged the castle which was finally relieved by forces sent by Prince Henry V. After this the castle was abandoned and by 1613 was described as being "ruynous and decayed". But it is very romantic decay and set off nicely by the mist so I took a great many pictures, a few of which are below.
Comments
Post a Comment