Welsh Border Trip
We went on a 5 day tour of the southern end of the Welsh border, mainly Chepstow and Bath areas. Once again we hired a car, and hit probably the worse traffic I have ever been in (it was a Bank holiday weekend). It took over 2 hours just to get out to the M25, that's like an average of 4 miles per hour or something! Once we got to the M4 things went much speedier, and we got to out B&B in Chepstow by 8:30pm. The first thing I noticed was peoples funny accents, I have no chance of reproducing it, but it is kinda like those village yokel stereotypes. Wales is also much greener and cleaner aired than SE England. It was then a quick trip to the local pub for a relaxing drink, and then some much needed sleep, to be ready for going off in the morning to Penhow castle.
This
castle was built as a support, or early warning outpost for Chepstow. It suffered a
few raids back and forth with the Welsh, and gradually got turned more and more into a
country manor as peoples lives became more civilised. It has been well restored, has
two nice, but evil looking, cats (One of which caught and brutalised a mouse while I was
stalking it for photos), and lots of interesting things to look at inside. You can
get an audio tour, and most of the rooms are laid out as they would have been in the 13th
century. I liked this place, nothing was roped off, and it gave you a wonderfully
atmospheric feeling as you rove around exploring nooks and crannies. Although
looking small, it has more actual "stuff" inside it than many larger castles,
and it isn't just broken walls to look at. There is a nice church nearby, and sheep
if your so inclined.
From there we took a spontaneous side trip to Caldicot castle.
This encloses a massive area. Some bits have been restored, and you can see
that this was built a little better for defence, although it isn't as awe-inspiring as
Warwick, it does have a "grand" feeling about it. Unfortunately there just
isn't mush to see or do inside. It suffers from that English thing whereby you get
modern painted rooms with one or two huge reproduction pieces of furniture to make it look
medieval... So quite scenic but not worth going to see by itself.
In the afternoon we went off to Chepstow Abbey, a huge ruined area which includes the actual church, plus all the living quarters, hospital, kitchens, libraries etc. for the monks. Our tour guide, who was a re-enactor who has done Kentworth house, was great. Really knew his stuff, and projected it in an interesting fashion.
The ruins
were moderately interesting to explore, but I think cathedrals which are in good condition
are probably better to see, it was often a case of "imagine that over
there...." no carved panels, no tapestries, no effigies even.
Feeling hungry we headed back to Chepstow and had a pub dinner, and feeling tired, was in bed reading a book by 9 o'clock, and asleep pretty soon after (remember I am on night shifts at the moment). Next day we headed into Chepstow again for the re-enactment show at Chepstow castle.
This is a long narrow castle, built to overlook the river. Similar to Caldicot, it is big and slightly ruined, but with much better displays to look at, and better information about it's history. This is the oldest Norman castle in Britain, and with its many extensions it really does impress. The SCA turned up to do a demo, along with WW2 British and USA, American civil warers, and RedCoaters. In between waiting for demos, we had a better look around the town, and even went to the local Tesco (I was amazed at how cheap the film was, three rolls for 6 pounds!).
At 2 o'clock we headed off to the local museum, which had the "Shakespeare in Love" costumes. Tricia had a good look, and used a roll of film getting ideas, and close-ups of the embroidery and stuff. Then it was off to Bath, despite getting slightly lost, we arrived earlier than planned to out B&B "The Manor House" which is actually in Monkton Combe, just outside of Bath.
Truly a
nice place to stay, with four-poster beds, and cute cats. This once-upon-a-time
manor laid on the luxury. It has computers to surf on, and books, videos and music
CD's to help entertain you. One of the nicer B&B's we have stayed at.
Bath was
interesting, we saw the Roman baths, the Museum of Costume, and the Eastern art
museum. After searching the streets for 30 odd minutes, we found a nice French
restaurant, just by Sally Luns. The food was tasty, and not too expensive (when your
used to London prices), and did a good job of filling your stomach. It was
definitely not low-fat, there was a vegetarian place next door which may have been better
health-wise. Although we had two days allocated for Bath, there just didn't seem
that there was that many interesting things to actually see.
So the next day we went off a little way to see this manor and gardens. Nice
but a trifle bland. Don't get me wrong, it was pleasant enough, but it just doesn't
stick out from any other generic English country manor.
Having done that it was back to "The Manor House" (I am being hassled about making a 4-poster bed now) for some much deserved rest, and after a hearty full-English breakfast, we braved the traffic back to home. Fortunately, and this is why we stayed an extra night, the traffic was much lighter. Collapsing back to the comforts of home, we unpacked and looked aghast at the number of rolls of film to be developed.
And thus was the trip concluded. All in all quite pleasant, but Bath was somewhat disappointing compared to the hype. Best thing we saw was Penhow Castle, definitely recommended. But nothing was really very outstanding from other parts of the UK. It might be I am just starting to get historied-out, but more likely it was because nothing was really very new or outstanding. This was mostly for a break from work, and it succeeded admirably in that capacity, "The Manor House" B&B helped tremendously in that respect, as it was nice to have a big roomy place that was more hotel than hostel. I definitely want to see more of Wales, especially the north where all the castles are that get used in movies.
