Eleven walkers joined Joy for the trip up to Goodrich in Herefordshire and on a beautiful winter’s morning under blue skies and in bright sunshine, a short walk led to the red sandstone substantial ruins of the Grade 1 listed Goodrich Castle and its deep surrounding moat.
It was originally established in 1095 by Godric Mappestone when it was ‘Godric’s Castle’ as he held the manor at the time of the Domesday survey in 1086 and it probably consisted of a simple enclosure with a palisade and tower. Then in 1204 the castle was passed by King Richard the Lionheart to the great castle builder William Marshall, 1st Earl of Pembroke and William’s son Walter built the surrounding outer stone walls and turrets between 1220 and 1245.
Then in the late 13th century William de Valence who was King Henry III’s half-brother turned the castle into a great stronghold with four huge walls surrounding the keep and included a gatehouse, drawbridges and portcullises as extra protection.
During the 14th century the castle was held briefly by Hugh le Despenser who was an ally of King Edward II and then by the Talbot family and during the middle ages, the castle did not really see much action and in fact by 1616 it was disused.
Then came the English Civil War and in 1642 Goodrich Castle was held firstly by the Earl of Stamford for the Parliamentary forces, then by the Royalists and eventually in 1646, Sir Henry Lingen who was commanding the Royalist forces was forced to surrender after months of siege when threats, lack of food and the famous ‘Roaring Meg’, the only surviving mortar of the Civil War was utilised by Colonel Birch for the Parliamentarian army. This canon was capable of firing 200lb shells and made great holes in the castle walls but even so the remaining walls were deliberately ‘slighted’ so the castle could no longer be used as a fortress.
Heading back along the road and passing behind Goodrich Primary School and the perimeter edge of a cropped field into the churchyard of the elegant tall-spired St Giles Church, as boots were already muddy only a quick peep inside to view the lovely stained glass windows.
This is a Grade II listed building and very well cared for and it was first mentioned in 1196 as the Parish Church of Castle Godric. During the mid-13th century the church sustained a lot of rebuilding and the magnificent spire, which is a landmark for miles around, was restored firstly in 1884 and again in 2001 and has a peal of 6-bells.
Thomas Swift, the grandfather of Jonathan Swift of ‘Gulliver’s Travel’s’ fame, was the vicar of Goodrich from 1624 until his death and he married Elizabeth Dryden, a close relative of Dryden the poet and they had a very large family. He was renowned as a strong supporter of King Charles I and the Cavaliers or Royalists and this got him into a great deal of trouble. He built a rather unusual shaped house beside the church which had large cellars so that he could store the valuables from the church away from the Parliamentarian forces and upon his death in 1658 he was buried at the church.
Heading along a grassy track and then a lane leading downhill to cross the B4229, a well-worn track through a ploughed and seeded field led them uphill to a lane and then up steep muddy steps to an open path leading up to the trig point at 188m on Coppet Hill, which afforded them great views back to the castle and Goodrich village, even though it is not truly the highest point of the hill.
Pausing for morning coffee at the ruins of The Folly, in 1799 Thomas Bonner referred to a ‘little white building’ on the highest point of the hill which he was informed was the home of the warriner, and this ruin is all that remains of that building. Rabbits were originally introduced in very small numbers by the Romans but did not adapt very well to the British climate. When the Normans invaded they brought rabbits with them and the warriners job was to care of the rabbit population by providing them with food, shelter and protection in artificial warrens. During the Middle Ages they were called coneyglaze, coney yard, coney green, coneygar, coneygarth and basically were heaps on the ground giving the appearance of mounds, some are shaped like pillows, other bolsters, others are cigar-shaped and some were even ‘E’-shaped with stone lined tunnels beneath them. Rabbits like dry peaty soils and do not like water, so channels and moats were dug and walls were built to stop them escaping and when it was time for the cull, dogs were sent down the tunnels to flush them into a pit where they were trapped and killed. Artificial warrens were set up by wealthy landowners and by the 17th century estate owners employed warriners to manage the warrens in order to supply food for the table. The phrase Pillow Mounds was introduced during the 20th century to cover these artificial warrens which are significant enough to warrant being included on OS maps.
An interesting fact is before Myxamatosis was introduced in 1953 to cull the growing rabbit population; around 40-million rabbits were sold each year for meat, skins and fur for the felt hat trade as rabbits can produce a litter every two months!
From this point the views stretched to the Malvern Hills, the Black Mountains, the winding River Wye and the rather mysterious ridged Queen Stone situated in a ploughed field near a huge horseshoe river bend in the valley below and clearly marked on the OS map. It is also known as the ‘Woman Stone’ or ‘Cwen Stan’ which could relate back to Anglo-Saxon times. This standing stone is about 7’6” tall and composed of red conglomerate rock with deep grooves running from top to bottom. On the southeast face are 5-grooves, on the northwest face are 3-grooves, on the northeast face are 2-grooves and only 1-groove on the southwestern face. It was excavated in 1926 but nothing of any significance was found perhaps disproving the rumours that it dates back to the Iron or Bronze Age and the deep grooves remain a total mystery!
Tramping along the very muddy ridgeway whilst enjoying the sunlit views before descending through woodland to the north bank of the River Wye, there were views up across the river towards the viewing platform perched high on Yat Rock, whilst towering above them across the riverbank the tall cliffs of the Coldwell Rocks where Peregrine falcons nest.
Heading along the river bank there was a stop to view the memorial within the woods to John Whitehead Warre, who on 14 September 1804 at the age of 15, tragically drowned after swimming in the Wye. Mrs Warre was recovering from a serious illness and to aid her recovery the family decided to take a trip by boat along the River Wye to try and improve her health. So they removed John from school and with two siblings they set off on their trip and upon arriving at this particular point on the river decided to stop for a picnic. They alighted onto the riverbank whilst the boat was moored further along, so the boatmen could enter the woods to gather nuts.
As it was a beautiful day in early autumn John decided to go for a swim in the river, but soon developed cramp no doubt from the cold water and sank to the bottom. Alerted by the distress of his family the boatmen came rushing up and one named John Smith immediately dived in to rescue John. However the boy panicked and grabbed onto his rescuer so tightly they both went under the water and in order to save his own life Smith was forced to let the boy go. The boat they had arrived in was too far away to be of assistance, so a lighter craft was used to convey the boy back to the riverbank in order to revive him, but it was too late he had perished and was taken to a nearby home on the opposite riverbank before being conveyed to Monmouth where he was buried. Later, his parents devised this monument complete with the story of their loss, to warn other parents and children about the dangers of what they called ‘this deceitful stream.’ The family rewarded John Smith for his attempts at saving their son, gave silver cups to the householder where the boy was taken after being brought out of the water and gold mourning rings to those involved in his burial.
Making their way upstream below the farm buildings of The Green, a farmer zoomed through on a small truck past the sedate herd of Hereford cattle with their growing calves in the valley and disturbed a small herd of roe deer from a copse that ran gracefully at speed across the hilltop towards Coppet Hill.
Moving onwards along very tricky paths oozing with thick squelchy mud led them on to a badly eroded bank beside the river and into a small wood containing banks of snowdrops and along to the old railway bridge. Emerging from a tunnel in Park Wood the Ross and Monmouth Railway made its way across the river Wye to the old Lydbrook Station which served the Edison Swan Cable Works that played an important part in both World Wars. The cable for field telephones was manufactured there in WW1 whilst specialist undersea cable to link the EMPIRE and PLUTO, the pipeline under the ocean was partially produced in WW2 to supply fuel for the D-Day landings.
Carrying on along the riverbank to Welsh Bicknor, a stop followed for lunch below St Margaret’s Church where work is being carried out on what is now private property.
Historically Welsh Bicknor was in the county of Monmouthshire but with the boundary alterations it is now firmly part of Herefordshire and a church had stood on this site since the 11th century. The original Norman church was demolished in 1858 by the wealthy rector the Rev John Burden, along with landowner Stephen Allaway who paid for the demolition of the old church which was soon replaced with the present Victorian church in 1859. The rector also built the rather grand 3-storey stone rectory next to it, which is now a very active Youth Hostel and on this particular occasion was overrun with youngsters yelling and shrieking.
After admiring the stunning carpet of snowdrops near the church before continuing along the riverbank, the huge Courtfield House owned for centuries by the Vaughan family came into view.
The estate was known as Greenfield in the 1380’s and Lady Margaret Montague who was descended from Edward I, along with her husband who owned the estate nursed Henry V as a sickly infant and brought him up in their care, so his father Henry IV changed the name of the estate to Courtfield to reflect this fact. In 1562 the Vaughan family established itself at Courtfield when the estate was bought for £800.00 and when Sybil Gwillym married James Vaughan of Llangattock this became the family home. Their second son William was the first to be persecuted for being a staunch Roman Catholic and later their son John had two-thirds of his land confiscated for refusing to attend Church of England services. This situation carried on through the generations with the estate being passed through a line of male heirs.
Also known as ‘The Mansion’ this present house was built in 1805 by William and Teresa Vaughan but the family can actually trace their roots back to Sir Cradoc a Knight of the Round Table. The church was also built during the 19th century and unfortunately destroyed part of the earlier buildings and the ruin to the left of the house which looks ancient also relates back to the 19th century when it was part of a folly. Joseph Herbert Vaughan with no male heir sold the house and around 500-acres of land to missionaries and it was used as a retreat until 2007 when it closed, probably because the upkeep was too great, but it now has been sold back into the Vaughan family.
Following a huge half-moon bend in the river there were numbered pegs of wood at intervals indicating this area is used for shooting purposes or certainly had recently been used for this purpose, as the entire empty shotgun cartridges had just been left in heaps beside the pegs creating a very nasty eyesore.
Passing a caravan park on the opposite side of the river which looks as if it has been fortified against river flooding and entering a path through Thomas Wood, with the imprints of deer hooves in the thick wet slippery mud just above the turbulent Wye, after spells of recent heavy rainfall several fallen trees lay across the path which made the going tough.
Then exiting back onto the open riverbank the sturdy 5-arched Kerne Bridge spanning the river lay ahead and memories of the old Ross and Monmouth Railway line which brought passengers along the River Wye between 1873 and 1959. It was nicknamed the ‘Wye Valley Line’ running for a distance of 13-miles and Kerne Bridge was the first station after leaving Ross-on-Wye and it also served Goodrich Castle. The road bridge was built as a toll bridge in 1828 to carry coal and iron ore from the Forest of Dean to south Wales and the railway crossed from the left bank by means of a single track bridge just south of the station. When water on the railway line forced the train to slow down to a walking pace it was affectionately nicknamed the ‘Monmouth Bullet’.
Climbing steps to the road and heading back towards Goodrich village the old Augustinian Flanesford Priory sits elegantly beside the road. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book and built in 1346 by Sir Richard John Talbot, Lord of Goodrich and dedicated to St John the Baptist and housed Augustinian monks and when Sir Richard died at Goodrich on 23 October 1356, he was buried at Flanesford Priory.
In the mid1300’s when the Black Death swept through the country the priory numbers decreased rapidly and as only a fraction of monks remained it was dissolved in 1537 becoming the first priory to succumb to the Dissolution of the Monasteries Act under King Henry VIII. Its ownership then passed to George Talbot, the 6th Earl of Shrewsbury who died in 1590 when he was succeeded by his son Gilbert. However he died without producing a male heir so the priory buildings were adapted into farm buildings until 1980 and now they have become self-catering holiday flats, no doubt something the original owners would never have contemplated!
Continuing along the road to a footpath leading up beside a bridge, crossing a stile back onto the road led them gradually across the bridge and back to the car park ready for the journey home.
