Lydford Gorge, Devon

Lydford Gorge is a beauty spot on the edge Dartmoor, Devon, that is well worth a visit if you don’t mind a strenuous walk over some uneven ground.

The River Lyd has carved a steep narrow gorge as it makes its way off the moor. The tree-lined ravine is a haven for wildlife and you might see a kingfisher or a dipper at work in the river. The woodland floor in Spring in covered in wild garlic that provides a heady scent.

You can follow the river for over a mile, past the Devil’s Cauldron, which is a whirlpool of white foaming water, down to where it falls 30 metres over the White Lady waterfall (see picture).

The site is managed by the National Trust, who make a charge for entry, but if you enjoy seeing the English countryside at its unspoilt best, and you have a decent pair of walking boots, the visit will be well worth it!

© John Welford

Merrivale Stone Row, Dartmoor

Merrivale Stone Row is high up on Dartmoor, in the southwest England county of Devon. There is a great deal of evidence that this region, now largely deserted, was home to many people during the Bronze Age (c. 2000-650 BC). The Merrivale Stone Row is one of about 60 similar ancient monuments on Dartmoor, as well as many stone circles, solitary standing stones and tomb remains.

The Merrivale Stone Row stands out from the rest by virtue of its length and completeness. It consists of two nearly parallel double rows of stones thirty yards apart.

The northern row is about 180 metres (590 feet) long and the southern row is about 260 metres (850 feet) long. There is a burial cist (stone-lined grave) and small stone circle about halfway along the longer row.

Why was it built? No-one can be absolutely certain, but the prominent position of a burial cist suggests that it could have been a processional route to honour the memory of great clan leader.

© John Welford

Some natural wonders of the Dorset coast

The county of Dorset, on the south coast of England, has one of the most fascinating coasts of any county, with many features of interest packed into a short distance. Here are some of Dorset’s natural wonders along this stretch of the world-famous Jurassic Coast.

Chesil Beach

This is a shingle ridge that connects the massive lump of limestone known as Portland to the rest of Dorset. It stretches for a total of 18 miles (29 kms), is up to 60 feet (18 metres) high and has created a salt-water lagoon, known as The Fleet, between itself and the mainland. At the far western end of The Fleet is the famous Abbotsbury Swannery.

A strange feature of Chesil Beach is that the pebbles that comprise it are graded in size, from “duck eggs” at the eastern end to “marrowfat peas” at the western end. Experiments have been done that demonstrate the process by which this happens – marked large pebbles will eventually be transported by the sea from west to east by the process of “longshore drift”.

The material that comprises Chesil Beach may have originated in landslides at the end of the last Ice Age, after which the sea gradually pushed the eroded material onshore. Chesil Beach has probably been in its present position about four or five thousand years.

Lulworth Cove

This is a small natural harbour that was created thousands of years ago when the sea broke through a narrow band of limestone rock and eroded the softer clays behind it, before being restricted by harder chalk rocks that now form a cliff at the back of the Cove. This is therefore a microcosm of the geology of much of southern England, with the broad swathes of Jurassic limestone (such as the Cotswolds) and Cretaceous chalk (such as Salisbury Plain), separated by broad clay vales, being reduced to a compass of a few hundred metres at this point.

Next door to Lulworth Cove is Stair Hole, which is a more recent example of erosion of the limestone. Eventually, Stair Hole and Lulworth Cove will join together. Stair Hole also shows evidence of ancient folding of the limestone in a dramatic “zigzag” of the strata at the back of the Hole. This is known as the “Lulworth Crumple”.

Lulworth Cove is a popular stopping-off point for sailors of small boats as they proceed up the Channel coast, as it offers a safe and sheltered anchorage.

Under the cliffs just to the west of Lulworth Cove a “fossil forest” can be seen. These are the fossilised remains of ancient tree stumps that were growing some 150 million years ago.

Durdle Dor (or Door)

A mile or so west of Lulworth Cove is another example of the power of the sea in eroding ancient rocks. The narrow band of limestone that once stretched along the whole coastline juts across a small bay, and a large hole has been cut through this outcrop to form a perfect example of a sea arch.

In calm weather it is possible to swim or canoe through the arch, or it can be admired from the shingle beach nearby, especially when the evening sun catches the Dor’s inner walls.

The name Durdle comes from Old English “thirl”, which means “to pierce”, and “pierced door” sounds like a perfect description.

Old Harry Rocks

These mark the eastern end of the Jurassic Coast, although the rocks are composed entirely of younger Cretaceous sediments.

The series of rocks that jut out into the sea from the end of Ballard Down are sea stacks that are entirely due to coastal erosion. There is local controversy over which of the rocks is actually Old Harry, but the consensus is that this honour belongs to the cylindrical stack that is furthest out to sea. However, within historical times there were other stacks further out than this one, which were given various names including “Old Harry’s Wife and Children”.

At low tide it is possible to walk along the shore from the north side, but walkers should beware of rock falls from above, given the process of erosion that is always taking place.

From the cliff top one can look across to the Isle of Wight and The Needles, which are also sea stacks carved out of chalk. At one time there was a continuous band of chalk between Old Harry and The Needles, before this was breached and the large expanse of Poole Bay was formed.

So who was Old Harry? One candidate for giving his name to the Rocks was the famous pirate Harry Paye, who was based in Poole Harbour and created havoc to Spanish and French shipping in the late 14^th and early 15^th centuries. Another possibility is that the name simply refers to the Devil, one of whose nicknames has long been Old Harry.

© John Welford

Wylye, Wiltshire

Wylye is a small village about ten miles northwest of Salisbury, Wiltshire, in southern England. The river that flows through the village is the River Wylye, a Celtic name that is the origin of “Wil” in Wilton, the town a few miles downstream from which the county of Wiltshire took its name.

Evidence that this area has been inhabited and cultivated from ancient times was confirmed in 2012 by the discovery, close to the village, of the Wylye Hoard, consisting of 41 copper-based objects that date from the Bronze Age. The hoard can be seen in the Salisbury Museum.

During Roman times the Wylye Valley was an important food source for the legions. Extensive grain pits have been excavated at Bilbury Farm, a mile from the village. Edible snails can still be found in the Wylye Valley; these are the descendants of snails originally imported by the Romans.

The village is a bridging point of the River Wylye, although in earlier times there was a ford here. When a stagecoach, back in the 18^th century, tried to cross the ford when the river was running high, it overturned and a post-boy, whose task was to blow a horn to announce the arrival of the coach at its various stopping points, rescued several passengers but was himself drowned. A lead statue of the post-boy, blowing his horn, was erected in the river close to the village mill, to commemorate his bravery and sacrifice.

Many of the older cottages in the village are typical of this area in having been built from Chilmark stone and flint, and with mullioned windows – i.e. divided into separate panes by stone uprights. However, few of the houses in the main street have thatched roofs, which might have been expected. This is because of a fire in 1924 which started at a farm in the village and was fanned by a strong wind so that all the thatched roofs were lost. The replacement roofs were made from fire-resistant tiles or slates, although some more recent owners have reverted to traditional thatch.

The oldest cottage, which dates from the 14^th century, is Wylands Cottage which was originally two adjoining cottages, one of stone and the other of timber. It has a massive gable and steep red-tiled roof.

The Church of St Mary the Virgin was largely rebuilt in 1846 on the site of a 13^th century building. The tower, which is 15th century, survived the Victorian restoration. The richly carved oak pulpit dates from 1628.

In the churchyard is a large tomb surrounded by wrought-iron railings, which visitors might think contains the remains of a local dignitary. However, this is not the case, according to tradition. The story that is usually told is that a man named Popjay commissioned the tomb for his mother and sister. Before it was finished, Popjay left the village without having paid for the work. The rector decided to fund the work himself and it was his own remains that eventually occupied it.

Next to the church is the Bell Inn. Hanging above the fireplace can be seen the 19^th century bell clappers from the church. 

© John Welford

Southern Scotland: some natural wonders

Scotland abounds with natural wonders. Here are brief introductions to some those to be found south of the highlands.

Loch Lomond

This freshwater loch, famed for its “bonny, bonny, banks”, is 24 miles long, 27 square miles in extent, and marks the point where Highland and Lowland Scotland meet.

Geologically, this region is known as the Highland Border Complex where an ancient mountain range collided with lowlands composed of Devonian rocks, with a mixture of marine sediments thrown in. It is possible to see the corresponding fault line, running across several of the islands in the loch, from the summit of nearby Conic Hill.

Loch Lomond and its surrounds are very rich in wildlife, this being a sanctuary for many over-wintering wildfowl such as Greenland white-fronted geese. Over a quarter of all native British plant species can be found here.

There are many islands in the loch, most of which are privately owned, but access can be had to the nature reserves on Inchcailloch, Bucinch and Ceardach.

Arthur’s Seat

The area that is now Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland, is the result of extremely violent volcanic activity in the distant past. Arthur’s Seat and nearby Salisbury Crags are prominences that were created when a volcano erupted some 335 million years ago.

The summit of Arthur’s Seat, 820 feet high, offers a stiff climb that is rewarded by magnificent views over Edinburgh and the surrounding area. There is evidence of occupation by people during the Bronze and Iron Ages, thus demonstrating the strategic importance of the area in past times.

Traprain and North Berwick Laws

“Law” simply means “hill”, these two being in East Lothian. They stand prominently above the surrounding countryside, Traprain Law being 734 feet high and North Berwick Law 613 feet high.

They are all that is left of ancient volcanoes.

Traprain Law, to the east of Haddington, was a fortified site during the Iron Age and may well have been occupied since the Stone Age. It is the largest hill fort in Scotland.

North Berwick Law overlooks the small coastal town of that name, and quarrying of the hill provided the red basalt stone that can be seen in many local buildings. From the top there are splendid views of the Firth of Forth, Edinburgh and the Lammermuir Hills. At the summit is an arch made from the jawbone of a whale.

St Abb’s Head

This headland in Berwickshire is of great interest both to naturalists and geologists, as well as offering superb sea and coastal views.

There is evidence here of the continental collision, around 400 million years ago, that joined what is now northern Scotland to the rest of Great Britain.

This is one of the largest seabird breeding colonies in Europe, and the birds to be seen here in huge numbers include razorbills, shags, puffins and fulmars. St Abb’s Head was established as a National Nature Reserve in 1983 and is looked after by the National Trust for Scotland.

The area has been occupied for at least 3,000 years and it was the site of an early Christian community. The ruins of a 7^th century monastery, founded by St Ebbe, can still be traced on the cliff edge.

Bass Rock

This is the most prominent of four islands in the Firth of Forth close to the shore near North Berwick. It is volcanic in origin, being the plug of a volcano that emerged in the Carboniferous Era around 300 million years ago.

It rises from the sea to about 350 feet, with sheer cliffs on three sides and a more gentle slope on the fourth. A castle was built here in the early 15^th century and a lighthouse in 1903.

The rock has world importance due to the fact that up to 800,000 gannets nest on its cliffs. It is home to about 10% of the world’s North Atlantic gannets. The gannet’s scientific name – Morus bassana – derives from its presence on Bass Rock.

Boat trips can be taken to the Rock from North Berwick, and visitors are likely to see gray seals swimming near the Rock as well as vast numbers of gannets during the breeding season.

The Grey Mare’s Tail

This is a spectacular waterfall near Moffat in Dumfries and Galloway. A small loch, Loch Skeen, which is one of the highest in Scotland, drains via a small burn (stream) into the valley below. It does so via a 200 foot (60 metre) drop, hence the waterfall.

This is the result of glaciation about 15,000 years during the last Ice Age. The valley below Lock Skeen was occupied by a glacier that excavated a typical U-shaped valley that was somewhat deeper than would have been achieved by a normal river, and with much steeper sides. When the glacier melted and normal drainage patterns resumed, tributary valleys, such as that draining Loch Skeen, would have been left “hanging”, with their streams plunging down the steep sides of the glaciated valley.

The waterfall is best seen when there is plenty of water coming down from the loch, and this is normally in late winter or early spring.

The Grey Mare’s Tail was described by Sir Walter Scott as “white as the snowy charger’s tail”.

The area around the waterfall is renowned for its rare upland plants, this being one of best places to find them in southern Scotland.

© John Welford

Worth Matravers, Dorset

Worth Matravers is a village on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, although the word “isle” is misleading because Purbeck is only surrounded by water on three sides.

The village owes its existence to stone quarrying, there being a number of quarries (active and disused) in the area from which Purbeck stone and marble has been extracted and used in the building of many houses, churches and cathedrals. The houses in the village were originally occupied by quarrymen and stonemasons.  These are grouped around a small pond that has a resident community of ducks.

The village pub, the Square and Compass, takes its name from two of the tools used by stonemasons.

The local fields, which are virtually treeless, are criss-crossed by dry stone walls, and it is possible to spot ammonite fossils (coiled cephalopods that lived at the same time as the dinosaurs) in some of the stones.

There are splendid views to be had along the Jurassic Coast from footpaths starting in the village. Also to be seen are medieval strip lynchets alongside steep valleys leading to the coast. These are terraces that were formerly used for agriculture.

Worth Matravers Church, dedicated to St Nicholas is Norman in origin, although much restored in the 19^th century. In the churchyard is the grave of Benjamin Jesty, a farmer who discovered the secret of inoculation for the prevention of smallpox some twenty years before Edward Jenner, who is usually credited with this.

On a nearby headland is St Aldhelm’s Church, a square building with only one small window, that dates from the 12^th century. It is said to be the only church in the country with no east wall, because the four corners are at the points of the compass.

© John Welford

Scarborough, North Yorkshire

Scarborough in North Yorkshire (35 miles north-east of York) has a good claim to being considered Britain’s first seaside resort, but it has a much older history than that.

There was a settlement here in prehistoric times and the Romans established a signal station here in the 4^th century as part of an early warning system against raiders from across the North Sea.

A massive castle was built on the Roman site in the 12^th century, with a keep 80 feet high, plus outer walls and other towers. The castle faced many sieges in medieval times and was even targeted during World War I when it was shelled from the sea.

The town of Scarborough grew up between the castle cliff and South Bay harbour.

The narrow passageways known as The Bolts were flushed by the sea twice a day during the 12^th and 13^th centuries and thus served as hygienic public lavatories! However, after 1300 a new quay was built and The Bolts became dry alleyways.

The church of St Mary is medieval but suffered serious damage during the Civil War. The Victorian restoration was not to everyone’s taste.  The writer Anne Bronte was buried in the churchyard.

Scarborough became somewhere to visit after a mineral spring was discovered in the 1620s. Local medical “experts” managed to persuade people that the water – despite its foul taste – had powerful medicinal qualities and could cure a whole range of ailments. People who could afford to travel to the town and spend several weeks there did so in considerable numbers and created a social circle of the well-to-do, leading to the building of elegant hotels, assembly rooms and ballrooms.

One innovation that later spread elsewhere was sea bathing.

Scarborough’s popularity grew considerably when the railway reached the town in 1848. Much of modern Scarborough is therefore a Victorian town, with its houses, hotels and terraced gardens. The Grand Hotel, which dominates the sea front on the south side, has 365 rooms on 12 floors.

The church of St Martin on the Hill is notable for its pre-Raphaelite work including stained glass by Edward Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris and Ford Madox Brown. 

Other places worth a visit include Scarborough Art Gallery, housed in a villa built in 1845, and the Wood End Museum of natural history in what was once the home of the Sitwell family (Edith, Osbert and Sacheverel).

The Rotunda Museum of Geology was built in 1829 to the design of William Smith, who is regarded as the “Father of Geology”. His idea was to display fossils and other geological specimens in a gallery built to a spiral pattern so that they could be seen in relation to the geological strata in which they were found.

© John Welford

Stac Pollaidh, Scotland

Stac Pollaidh (which is often anglicized as Stac Polly) is a craggy outcrop that rises above a desolate moor in the far northwest of Scotland (to the north of Ullapool). Bristling with rock pinnacles, it has been likened to a gigantic porcupine.

The mountain is composed of rocks that are extremely old, and those at its base are older still. It is composed of Torridonian sandstone that dates from around 1,000 million years ago – long before dinosaurs roamed the planet. 

The Lewisian gneiss that forms the plateau is one of the most ancient rocks known in the world, being some 2,800 million years old.

Very few people live round here. There are only about 12,000 inhabitants in an area of around a million acres in extent. The population was once higher, although life round here can never have been easy. The Highland Clearances of the 18^th/19^th centuries turned thousands of people off the land to make room for deer and sheep.

Despite the remoteness of this region, Stac Pollaidh is not difficult to reach and climb, although some of the pinnacles are only accessible to experienced and properly equipped rock climbers. The views from the higher slopes are magnificent and extensive – on a fine day, that is!

Stac Pollaidh is one of several sandstone remnants in this area, although the others look somewhat different because they retained their caps of quartzite, which give them a rounded appearance. Because Stac Pollaidh’s cap has been eroded away, the sandstone has itself been subject to erosion that has produced its jagged skyline.

The area has been designated a national nature reserve that includes wild moorland, scree slope and bog. The Inverpolly Nature Reserve is the second largest in Great Britain (after the Cairngorms). 

Plants to be found here at higher levels include dwarf azalea, starry saxifrage, cowberry, and alpine forms of club-moss, lichen and fern. Lower down one can find sea pinks, rock speedwell and alpine hawkweed.

Animal life includes red and roe deer and wildcats. Bird life includes golden eagles and – in the lochs - black-throated divers. 

This is a truly wild landscape that cannot fail to impress.

© John Welford

The Priest's House, Easton on the Hill

This two-storey stone building dates from around 1495. It is in the village of Easton on the Hill, which is in the top north-east corner of Northamptonshire. 

The rector of Easton at that time was Thomas Stokes, who came from a very wealthy family. In his will he left money to pay for the services of a chantry priest, the idea being that the priest would have the sole duty of saying masses and praying for the soul of the departed so that he would not have to spend too much time in Purgatory before being admitted to Heaven. 

The Priest’s House was the home of the chantry priest, who was appointed when Thomas Stokes died in 1495. After the custom was abandoned in 1545 at the time of the dissolution of the monasteries, the house was used by village priests until a new rectory was built in 1698.

Later uses of the building included a school and a farm building for the housing of livestock. In 1868 alterations were made so that hay could be stored in the upper room and passed through a trapdoor to the animals below.

The Priest’s House is now in the care of the National Trust and is open to visitors free of charge – as long as you can find the man with the key!

The two rooms, upstairs and downstairs, are a local museum devoted to local affairs, particularly the ironstone and slate industries that were once the mainstay of the local economy. The area played an important role during World War Two as the location of airstrips that were used by the Royal Air Force for missions against Nazi Germany. This activity is also featured in the displays to be seen here.

A question that must strike many visitors is how the exhibits on the upper floor got where they are, given that the two rooms are only connected via a narrow spiral staircase. Presumably the 19^th century trapdoor was brought into play for this purpose!

© John Welford

Knockan Crag

The road heading north from Ullapool, in the North-West Highlands of Scotland, passes beneath a mile-long cliff that dominates the landscape. This is Knockan Crag, which tells a violent story that dates from before the time of the dinosaurs.

The rocks that form this part of the British Isles are extremely old, dating back more than 1,000 million years. They comprise a complex mixture of ancient sedimentary layers and igneous and metamorphic rocks that were laid down during periods of intense volcanic activity.

They are also the result of the collision of ancient continents, and that is what can be seen at Knockan Crag, where older rocks overlie younger ones, which logic suggests should be impossible.

Some 400 million years ago an event known to geologists as the Moine Thrust took place. Deep underground, a layer of schist - a medium-grade metamorphic rock – was thrust over the top of younger quartzite and limestone rocks. Over millions of years, further earth movements and erosion by wind and rain exposed the Thrust to the surface, as can be seen today.

Today, Knockan Crag is a National Nature Reserve with well-marked paths and observation points. As well as being able to look at very old rock formations at close hand, visitors can see rare plants and animals, catch a glimpse of golden eagles wheeling overhead, and look across a vast, barren landscape of lakes, moors and mountains that has seen little change for an unimaginably long period of time.

© John Welford

Staffa

Staffa is a small island off the western coast of Mull, which is a much larger member of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island, which has been uninhabited for centuries, is less than half a mile long and a quarter-mile wide.

There are two main reasons why people visit this island, which is completely devoid of roads or buildings. One is the wildlife, which includes colonies of puffins, fulmars and black-legged kittiwakes, as well as dolphins, grey seals and pilot whales offshore. The other is the geology.

Staffa is entirely the result of volcanic activity about 60 million years ago when vast sheets of lava poured across the region. In places, these cooled very slowly to form massive crystals of basalt that can be seen today as six-sided columns. A noted location is the Giant’s Causeway on the coast of Northern Ireland, and Staffa is another. Here, the columns are topped by a mass of non-columnar basalt that clearly cooled at a much faster rate and did not form crystals.

At the southern tip of Staffa is the feature for which the island is world-famous, namely Fingal’s Cave, where the basalt columns can be seen to best effect, punctured by a sea cave.

Over the centuries Fingal’s Cave has had many distinguished visitors, including Queen Victoria and the composer Felix Mendelssohn, for whom the cave was the inspiration for his “Hebrides Overture”.

Not surprisingly, there are legends about how the island came to be. One is that the giant Torquil MacLeod was on his way home from building the Giant’s Causeway when his sack burst open and some of the rocks he was carrying fell out. Another is that it was the work of Finn McCool, and that the Giant’s Causeway and Staffa are the two ends of the bridge he built so that he could cross over to Scotland to fight a rival giant.

Boat trips from neighbouring islands will take modern visitors past the entrance to Fingal’s Cave and land them at the only available jetty on the east side of the island, if weather conditions permit. From the jetty one can walk to a point close to the cave entrance.

The paths that cross the island are fully exposed to the prevailing winds and there is no shelter should the weather turn bad. The cliffs are generally sheer, so sticking to the paths is always to be advised, especially as this avoids disturbing the wildlife.

On a fine day, visitors are rewarded with splendid views towards the nearby islands, the Scottish mainland and out to sea.

© John Welford

Clovelly, North Devon

Clovelly is a very unusual village on the north coast of Devon, south-west England, between Barnstaple and Hartland Point. 

The village is privately owned and has been carefully preserved so that it looks as close as possible today to the way it looked centuries ago. However, that does not mean that the residents are prevented from having TV aerials, or telephone lines coming to their homes. They must, however, keep their cottages whitewashed and in good repair.

The main feature that sets Clovelly apart from other villages is the fact that its main street is very steep and cobbled, which means that no wheeled vehicles can pass up and down. Goods are transported by donkeys or on wooden sledges that are hauled by hand.

The reason for Clovelly’s existence is that its small harbour is one of the very few safe anchorages along this stretch of coast, which is typified by steep wooded slopes and sheer cliff faces that rise up to 400 feet above the sea. A small fishing community formed around the harbour, and the cottages were originally occupied by the fishermen.

Not much fishing is done here today, but the village has become a tourist attraction in its own right. Visitors must leave their cars at the top of the village and walk down to the harbour – although donkey rides are also possible. Once at the bottom, the only way to get back to one’s car is to climb back up to the top!

As one might expect, Clovelly’s High Street and the harbour area are very popular with tourists, and on sunny days in the height of summer the place can become unpleasantly busy and crowded. A good time to visit Clovelly is therefore out of the tourist season.

© John Welford

The Great Hall and Round Table, Winchester

Winchester Great Hall (Hampshire, England) is just about all that is left of Winchester Castle, built by William the Conqueror in 1087. The hall was extended by King Henry III and has been described as the second finest medieval hall in England – the first being Westminster Hall next door to the Houses of Parliament.

It consists of a double cube of five bays, with aisles supported by shafts of Purbeck marble.

The feature that most people come to see is “King Arthur’s Round Table”, which hangs from the wall at one end. King Arthur presides at the top, with places marked for each of his 24 knights.

However, there is absolutely no reason to believe that this has anything to do with King Arthur. The wood has been dated to the 14^th century, and it would appear that the table was constructed in the hall in 1348.

The decoration is somewhat later, with every chance that it dates from the Tudor period of the early 16^th century. Evidence of this can be seen from the Tudor rose at the heart of the table, and the fact that King Arthur bears a striking resemblance to the young King Henry VIII.

Whether anyone ever connected the table to King Arthur prior to its Tudor decoration is open to speculation. However, it would appear that somebody had the bright idea of doing so in response to a renewed interest in Arthurian legend that was characterized by Thomas Malory’s highly dramatic and imaginative “Morte D’Arthur” which was published in 1485 and printed by William Caxton. Why not link young King Henry to his legendary predecessor?

There can be no doubt that many people have believed down the centuries that this really was the Round Table, and it must therefore be assumed that the trick worked at the time, thus giving Henry a boost that was welcome if wholly undeserved!

© John Welford

Sites maintained by English Heritage in Cambridgeshire

Denny Abbey and Farmland Museum

Denny Abbey is just off the A10, about halfway between Cambridge and Ely.

The building was originally a Benedictine monastery, founded in 1159. By the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s it was a nunnery run by the “Poor Clares”. After the Dissolution the buildings became a farm, and they stayed that way until the 1960s. 

A notable tenant of the farm was Thomas Hobson (1544-1631) who was a carrier who kept a large stable of horses. When these were not needed for his business they were rented out to Cambridge students who always had to take the horse that was offered to them and not their personal preference. This is the origin of the expression “Hobson’s Choice”.

Visitors can trace the history of Denny Abbey from nunnery to farm – some of the nuns’ original floor tiles survived from when their refectory became a barn.

Some of the farm buildings house the Farmland Museum which displays items relating to the history of farming in the region. These include recreations of craftsmen’s workshops, a fenman’s hut from the 19^th century and a village shop from the 1930s.

Duxford Chapel

This is in the village of Whittlesford (near Duxford) in the far south of Cambridgeshire. 

It is a complete and well-preserved 14^th century chantry chapel that was originally part of the Hospital of St John but is the only building that remains from that time.

 

A chantry chapel was dedicated for the purpose of holding masses for the soul of a named person, normally someone of wealth who had stipulated in his or her will that this be done.  The practice was suppressed in 1545 during the reign of King Edward VI, and Duxford Chapel became a barn that was used by the owners of the Red Lion inn next door (which also survives).

Isleham Priory Church

Isleham is a small village to the southeast of Ely, close to the border with Suffolk. It is a remarkable survival from the past, being an almost perfectly preserved example of a Norman Benedictine priory church.

The priory was founded in 1090 but dissolved in 1414 – long before the Dissolution of the Monasteries under King Henry VIII. The church owes its preservation to having been used as a barn for much of its subsequent existence.

Longthorpe Tower

Longthorpe is a suburb of Peterborough, a cathedral city in north Cambridgeshire. 

Longthorpe Tower was built in about 1300 as part of a fortified manor house, which has since disappeared. The tower, which is three storeys high, is not only an unusual structure to find in the heart of a city suburb, surrounded by modern housing estates, but it contains an important and very rare set of domestic wall paintings that date from the 14^th century.

The paintings had been covered by whitewash at some point in the 16^th century and only rediscovered in 1945. They adorn the walls and vault of the Great Chamber at the top of the tower.

The paintings have been described as a “spiritual encyclopedia”, although the subject matter is both religious and secular. Along with scenes of everyday life and representations of locally found birds there are depictions of the “Seven Ages of Man”, the “Labours of the Months” and “Wheel of the Senses”.

© John Welford

St David's Cathedral, Wales

St David’s Cathedral is the largest church in Wales, but its home city is the smallest in Great Britain.

St David

Legend has it that David (Dewi in Welsh) was born (in about the year 500) on a clifftop during a wild storm. His mother, Non, is also recognised as a saint and the bay below the supposed birth site is known as St Non’s Bay.

David founded several monasteries in Wales and further afield, including Brittany. St David’s Cathedral, in Pembrokeshire, stands on the site of one of his monastic foundations.

David insisted that his monks should live as simply as possible, refraining from meat and beer, and having no personal possessions. He had a particular liking for leeks, which is why the leek is one of the symbols of Wales.

He died in his monastery at what is now St David’s. The year of his death is disputed, although it was probably around the year 590, which would have meant that he was about 90 years old. The tradition is that he died on 1^st March, which has been recognized for centuries as St David’s Day.

David was venerated as a saint by Pope Calixtus II in 1120. He ruled that two pilgrimages to the shrine of St David were equivalent to one pilgrimage in Rome, in terms of the spiritual reward that would accrue to the pilgrim. David has long been recognised as the patron saint of Wales.

The Cathedral

The Cathedral dates from 1181, having been funded by donations from pilgrims. The current building contains work carried out in most centuries since that date, but the additions have been made in keeping with the original style.

Despite its size, the building is not particularly prominent due to its location in a hollow, this being the valley of the small River Alun.

Visitors cannot help but notice the slope in the Norman nave, which is 14 feet (4 metres) higher at the high altar than at the west end. Also impressive is the bishop’s throne, which dates from 1500 and is almost 30 feet (10 metres) high.

In front of the high altar is the tomb of Edmund Tudor, the father of Henry who defeated the English King Richard III to become King Henry VII and the founder of the Tudor line of monarchs.

During the 19^th century restoration by Sir George Gilbert Scott, bones were found in a recess behind the high altar that were widely believed to be those of St David (and at least one other person). It is possible that the contents of the original shrine were hidden here at the time of the Reformation in the 16^th century.

The Bishop’s Palace

The ruins of the Bishop’s Palace are on the other side of the River Alun. This suite of buildings, set round a large quadrangle, occupies a site that is similar in size to that of the Cathedral itself and would clearly have been very impressive when complete and a testament to the wealth of the medieval church.

The building was abandoned in the 16^th century due to the fact that Bishop Barlow had five daughters. These all needed large dowries in order to make good marriages and the bishop raised the money by gradually stripping the lead off the roof of his palace and selling it. After the fifth daughter had been suitably provided for, the building was uninhabitable.

All the daughters married bishops! The fact that the five husbands all demanded substantial dowries from Bishop Barlow, as well as the size of the original palace, says something about how the Church in Wales had changed since the time of St David. 

© John Welford

Sites maintained by English Heritage in Bedfordshire

The English County of Bedfordshire contains four properties that are maintained by English Heritage and made accessible to visitors

Bushmead Priory

Bushmead Priory is in the far north of the county, close to the border with Cambridgeshire.

This was a small priory, founded in 1195 as a community of Augustinian “black canons”. It was never home to more than four canons plus the prior.

All that can be seen here today is the Refectory – the only building still standing - but this has been well preserved. It is notable for its original timber roof and 14^th century wall paintings, one of which shows the Creation of Eve.

De Grey Mausoleum, Flitton

The village of Flitton is between Silsoe and the small town of Flitwick. The Mausoleum is attached to the parish church and can only be accessed via the church.

This is a large sepulchral chapel that contains 17 monuments to members of the de Grey family of Wrest Park, these dating from between 1614 and 1859.

Houghton House

This is the unroofed shell of a country mansion built in the early 17^th century for Mary Sidney Herbert, Dowager Countess of Pembroke. It is near the small town of Ampthill, a few miles south of Bedford.

Houghton House may well have been the inspiration for John Bunyan’s “Palace Beautiful” in “The Pilgrim’s Progress” – Bunyan was a native of Bedford.

Houghton House is of interest for its architectural style, combining as it does features of the Jacobean and Classical styles, given that the Classical Revival was in its early stages at the time of its construction.

There are two Italian-style loggias (covered walkways) that could have been designed by Inigo Jones.

Wrest Park

Wrest Park (pictured above) is near the village of Silsoe, about half way between Bedford and Luton. It was the estate of the Robinson family who were also Barons Grantham. Wrest House was completed in 1839 to designs by Thomas de Grey, 3^rd Baron Grantham.

The house resembles a French chateau-style mansion, although visitors are restricted to seeing only a few of the ground floor state rooms.

The main interest at Wrest Park is the expanse of gardens, designed by Capability Brown and covering some 90 acres, that surround the house. These are what most visitors come to see.

English Heritage is overseeing a 20-year restoration project at Wrest Park, so return visitors will be rewarded by seeing more features of the 18^th century gardens (which pre-date the current house) that have been brought back to life.

The park is notable for the many “follies”, statues and other constructions that adorn it, such as the Archer Pavilion – designed in the early 18^th century by Thomas Archer. This domed building stands at one end of the Long Water, in which it is reflected on fine days.

The Bath House, dating from 1770, was designed as a “classical ruin” with a thatched roof. The area around this has recently been restored.

There is a Chinese bridge and temple with a copper roof.

There are many individual garden areas including a rose garden, an Italian garden and a French parterre.

Many woodland and waterside walks can be taken. These lead to features that include an orangery, built in the 1830s, a dogs’ cemetery and a sculpture gallery in the former dairy.

Also of interest at Wrest Park is the Archaeological Store that houses more than 150,000 items that have been gathered from English Heritage sites around the country. These range in date from prehistoric times to the Victorian era. Some 6,000 items have come from historic houses in London and include around 1,000 wallpaper samples.

© John Welford

Newstead Abbey gardens

Newstead Abbey, near Mansfield (Nottinghamshire), was founded by King Henry II as an Augustinian priory in the 12^th century and became a domestic property after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16^th century. It is probably best known today as the former home of the poet Lord Byron. It is now owned by Nottingham City Council and is open to the public at restricted times throughout the year.

The gardens are worth visiting in their own right, and are actually more accessible than the house, being open on more days and for longer times. 

The formal gardens occupy 25 acres of the 300 acre estate, and are approached by way of a long drive that sweeps through rhododendrons (planted in the 19^th century) and an area of open heathland.

There are sixteen distinct areas within the gardens. Notable among these is the Japanese Garden that was commissioned by Ethel Webb, whose family owned Newstead Abbey during the early 20^th century. This garden features stepping stones and hump-backed bridges that cross streams bordered by rhododendrons, azaleas and bamboo.

The former kitchen garden is now home to vast numbers of roses, the varieties being both modern and traditional, with climbers and ramblers adorning the brick walls.

There is a fine rock garden beyond the great Yew Walk, and a dark tunnel leads to the Eagle Pond, which is one of the original “stew ponds” in which the monks stored fish before they became part of the menu. 

Nearby is the famous memorial to Lord Byron’s dog Boatswain, who was commended for possessing: “Beauty without Vanity, Strength without Insolence, Courage without Ferocity, and all the virtues of Man without his Vices”. The monument is larger than that to Byron himself.

Newstead Abbey Gardens should not be missed if you are in the area!

© John Welford

The Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall

The tip of Cornwall’s Lizard Peninsula is the most southerly point of England. The cliffs rise to 70 metres (200 feet), broken by small rocky coves, some of which house harbours and tiny fishing villages.

The rocks that form the Lizard are of great interest to geologists. Serpentine is predominantly green in colour and can be worked into attractive ornaments, which are less popular now than they were in Victorian times. The parish church of St Wynwallow at Landewednack was built from blocks of granite and serpentine, and the pulpit and font were both carved from serpentine. Landewednack is the most southerly parish in England.

Soapstone is another interesting rock found here.

Popular coves include Mullion Cove, which has a picturesque harbour and an island bird reserve, and Kynance Cove which has caves to explore and a blowhole called the Devil’s Bellows through which the sea spouts when the tide comes in.

On the eastern side of the Lizard are the villages of Cadgwith and Coverack. The latter name is Cornish for “hideaway”, which refers to the previous use of the area as a smuggler’s haven.

Offshore are the dangerous rocks known as the Manacles, which have been responsible for many shipwrecks in the past. The tall spire of the church of St Keverne was a vital landmark for ships in the Channel, and the churchyard is the burial place of many sailors who failed to set their course correctly despite the spire’s guidance.

Myths abound in a place like this, and these include stories of mermaids. One tells of an old man who rescued a mermaid and returned her to the sea, for which kindness she granted him three wishes. When his time came to die she came for him and took him out to sea with her. 

Whether or not you believe tales like this, The Lizard is still a place of particularly grandeur and wild beauty.

© John Welford

John O'Groats and the legend of Jan de Groot

John O’Groats is a Scottish village at the northern end of the longest possible direct route on the mainland of Great Britain, with Cornwall’s Land’s End marking the other end. The settlement is not particularly inspiring, consisting of a few cottages, a hotel, some bed-and-breakfast establishments and gift shops, a garage-cum-post office, a signpost pointing to various places including New York and – that’s just about it! It has been described as “Scotland’s most dismal town”, which is fairly accurate apart from the place not even being a town! 

John O’Groats is not actually at the most northern or north-eastern point of Scotland – you need to go a few more miles to Dunnet Head to reach the former or Duncansby Head for the latter. 

The name of the village is certainly a bit unusual. It is a corruption of Jan de Groot, who was a Dutchman who lived here in the late 15^th century. He operated a ferry service to the Orkney Islands, which was quite a profitable venture. He had a large family, the members of which looked forward to inheriting the business when Jan died.

The problem was that the junior de Groots became so obsessed with the matter of which of them would become the new ferry master that Jan decided to take a leaf out of the book of the legendary ancient king of Britain, Arthur. 

According to the old stories, King Arthur sat all his knights at a round table so that none of them could claim precedence by being at the head of the table. Jan de Groot’s family comprised eight people, so he built an eight-sided house, inside which was an eight-sided table. That is the legend, although there is absolutely no evidence to support it. 

The hotel, which overlooks the Pentland Firth that separates Caithness from the Orkneys, has a tower with an eight-sided roof, but that was just a piece of whimsy on the part of the building’s Victorian architect.

The idea of walking from John O’Groats to Lands End (or vice versa) dates back to at least 1871, when the feat was accomplished by John and Robert Naylor, a pair of brothers. It was not until 1916 that they published their account of the trip, which was not via the most direct route to judge by the book’s title: “From John O’Groats to Lands End: Or, 1372 Miles on Foot”. The route usually taken today (if sticking to the roads) is 874 miles, but walkers generally use off-road footpaths and can walk as much as 1200 miles as a result.

The Naylors recounted their search for Jan de Groot’s octagonal house, but all they found was “a few mounds of earth covered with grass”. During their stay they were shown a book dated 1839 that contained a poem written by a previous searcher who had also been unsuccessful.

So it could well be that the story of the octagonal table and house was fiction from start to finish, or maybe the house existed but the table did not? 

All one can say for certain is that Jan de Groot ran ferries to the Orkneys, and it is still possible, during the summer months, to take a boat from John O’Groats to Burwick at the southern end of South Ronaldsay, which is the closest of the Orkney Islands to the Scottish mainland. The journey takes 40 minutes and is accessible only to pedestrians and cyclists.

© John Welford