Round The World and other travel

June 2015: The Wye Valley

The River Wye flows from the Cambrian Mountains towards the Severn Estuary, marking the English-Welsh border for much of the way. My own journey took me upriver from Chepstow, via Ross-on-Wye to the city of Hereford, through countryside that has been officially recognised as an area of outstanding natural beauty.

Chepstow

The attractive little town of Chepstow stands on the right bank of the Wye, close to the river's end point. Chepstow itself is in Monmouthshire, Wales, while the opposite end of the town's Old Wye Bridge is in Gloucestershire, England. Chepstow is best known for its ancient castle and its racecourse. It is easily accessible from Bristol via the Severn Bridge, which carried the M4 for thirty years until the Second Severn Crossing was opened in 1996.

Ross-on-Wye

This pleasant small market town in Herefordshire made an attractive lunch stop on my one-day tour of the Wye Valley.

Hereford

The small city of Hereford, county town of Herefordshire, is located in the western fringes of England. Although it is situated approximately 65 miles by road from both Birmingham and Bristol, Hereford's position well to the west of the M5 and close to the border with Wales gives the city a surprisingly rural feel. Hereford's main attraction is its 11th-century cathedral, which is home to the Mappa Mundi (a map of the world dating from medieval times) and the wonderfully preserved Chained Library of early books. (The name refers to the collection's original seventeenth-century, anti-theft security system.) The cathedral's oldest and most precious book is The Hereford Gospels, dating from AD780.