Village Squire, 1976-03, Page 22Travel
RURAL ENGLAND- another world
BY TED PARKS
Few towns or villages in Britain can quite
match the medieval beauty of those which lie
along the Welsh border, where the Wye coils
for 130 miles from the Plinlimmon Mountains
to the Severn Estuary, and where the Severn
itself tumbles from the Berwyn Mountains
through Shropshire and towards Wales
before meeting the sea.
It was at Corve Dale, on the Severn, where
A. E. Housman, the Shropshire Lad, found
inspiration and it was at Ludlow where
William the Conqueror kept his belligerent
knights occupied with dreams and promises
of Welsh kingdoms.
It was in Oswestry that the poet Wilfred
Owen was born and it was at Tintern Abbey,
on the Wye, that William Wordsworth wrote.
The farthest point of this area from
London's airport is no greater than 175 miles
to the northeast and the journey is worth
every effort, for none of it should disappoint.
Furthermore, there are certain to be inns
which once gave refuge to travellers seeking
protection from highwaymen long ago and
which now provide comfort for today's
tourist.
The journey is worth the effort, too,
because it illustrates what Feudal England
was and what rural England is. In one moving
picture, it shows black and white half-timber
ed houses, both Tudor and ,Jacobean,
lichen -covered abbeys and churches and
ancient, crumbling castles, lush country and
rolling hills, farmlands crossed by high
hedged roadways
Along the length and breadth of the Severn
and the Wye there is startling beauty.
In fortressed Shrewsbury, in the Forest of
Clear, ar,ross from Tintern, nothing hurries, at
„r• ord's tat tr, the squat knob of the Wrekin
20, VILLAGE SO1,IRE/MARCH 1976
One of the prettiest villages in Herefordshire, Eardisland. The
River Arrow flows past houses and gardens.
and northwest to Long Mynd, Linley Hill and
the Stiperstone.
Yet, of them all, Herefordshire, perhaps,
embraces everything.
Industry of consequence has bypassed this
tiny shire, only 120 miles from London's
heart, and its country side remains lush and
unscarred by major development; its soil is
rich and red and its hop fields rival those of
Kent.
But its most telling aspect is the black and
white, half-timbered villages and there are at
least a dozen in a country where no two points
are more \than 30 miles apart.
Hereford, standing on the banks of the
Wye, is a cathedral town, in the centre of the
county, thus a good touring base for the rest. -
Here, a thrit..ig market provides a
fascinating insight into the agricultural scene
which virtually dominates the way of life.
The Cathedral Church of St. Mary the
Virgin and St. Ethelbert the King of Hereford
is small, but among the most important in
England. It is basically Norman and a fine
example of early English architecture.
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