Browsed by
Category: Powys

Keeping our trip on track

Keeping our trip on track

Comments 2 Comments

First of all we'll do the inevitable bit about the weather. About a week ago Thursday of this week was given as sunny but by the weekend it had changed to sunny intervals and on Wednesday it was going to be mostly cloudy. Thursday morning about 7:00 AM the forecast was still mostly cloudy but 30 minutes later it had changed to mostly sunny. That's british weather forecasting for you.

We decided to re-visit Welshpool and travel on the narrow gauge Welshpool & Llanfair Light Railway which first opened in 1903. I bought tickets online using my smartphone before we left and that was straightforward enough. It provided us with a PDF version of the ticket for two which I was able to show on the train. All very satisfactory.

We arrived at Welshpool about an hour after we left home and parked in the station's free car park. The train had arrived a few minutes earlier and stays in the station for about 30 minutes so there was plenty of time.

The trains start from Llanfair Caereinion, which is where the engine sheds are, and the locomotive runs in reverse as far as Welshpool. You can see what I mean if you look at the previous blog post. The locomotive then runs around the train to couple on to the other end when it will then be facing forwards. The locomotive is called 'Joan' and was built in 1927 by Kerr Stuart of Stoke-on-Trent which makes her just 9 years older than me. She is a lovely old lady.

The carriages are wooden with wooden seats and have a raised platform at each end, known as a balcony, with a door to the interior. This photograph was taken from inside looking through the window as the locomotive was starting its run around the train.

You can see in this next picure that our carriage has a partition across it about halfway along but another similar carriage did not have this partition.

At 11:15 AM we set off and started climbing almost immediately. Looking out of a side window I was able to see the track ahead and the gradient was easily discernable. Much steeper than a 'normal' railway but then these narrow gauge railways were built to work in this type of countryside. The curves on the track are also much sharper than you'd normally expect and I was able to get this photograph, on one such curve, by leaning out of the window.

The train passes through a visual feast of welsh countryside views on its 8 mile journey. Some views include the inevitable sheep and we also saw a lot of pheasants.



Amanda, who was sitting in the seat opposite mine, was far more interested in the countryside than she was in me. smilies

It took 45 minutes to arrive in Llanfair Caereinion Station and we were there by 12:00 midday.

They have a nice little tea shop at the station where we had a light lunch. I had carrot and coriander soup with a crusty roll and Amanda had a ham sandwich. We both had some coffee cake for our dessert. Yum!

We boarded the train once again, after lunch, for the journey back to Welshpool. This particular train stops here for an hour probably because it is around lunchtime and then sets off for Welshpool at 1:00 PM to arrive back at 1:45 PM.

I don't know what speed the train reaches but I would estimate that at times we were hurtling along at 20 MPH. smilies

We enjoyed that little trip and will have to re-visit that railway again.
 

Little legs and Little Wheels

Little legs and Little Wheels

Comments 0 Comment

We found ourselves with no builders here today and the weather forecast was for sun and clear skies all day so do we believe the weather forecast? Of course we do. So were we too trusting? Of course we were!

We decided to visit Powis Castle, a National Trust property about 30 miles north of us, and set off in bright sunshine. The journey was straight forward and we arrived about an hour later.

Having reached the entrance the first thing that became apparent were the Peafowl. There were numerous birds around and they ignored people completely to the extent that one could walk up to one of the birds and they would carry on doing whatever it was they were doing as if you weren't there.


In that last picture there are two youngsters with their mother – can you spot them? When their mother moved off on her long legs the young birds had to run like hell on their little legs to keep up. Rather cute.

This was our first view of the castle which is an end view and not along the length.

Just out of the picture to the left is the restaurant which is why there are people sitting at tables in the courtyard although there are tables and chairs inside.

The castle was apparently built as a medieval castle but by the Welsh not the Normans. It never became ruinous and has been modified over the centuries to the stately home it is today.

The interior is impressive but not spectacular. The rooms are large but not as grand as some. What we didn't like was how dark it all was. We understand that light will cause fabric colours to fade but as it's then not easy to appreciate them is it worth it? Photography is also prohibited anywhere inside the house which I think that the National Trust should make more obvious in their publicity but they don't.

I remember a particularly impressive table with an inlaid stone top which was near a window with the curtains open and so was brightly lit. That was because, of course, stone colours will not fade in the light. We don't have any desire to revisit the house interior but we will revisit the gardens.

As it was now near lunchtime we decided to pay the restaurant a visit. Amanda chose sausage and mash which she thought was a bit dry and I chose a vegetable and coconut curry which was very tasty. I enjoyed it very much but would have prefered some rice or bread to go with it. One can buy bread of course but at this time of day the restaurant is very busy and if I'd queued for bread my curry would have been cold by the time I returned to it.

So – on to the gardens.


The gardens are laid out as a series of terraces which descend to the flat ground that you can see right at the bottom. Plenty of leg work required to look round.

You may also notice how murky the weather is. It was like that at the start of the day and we hoped that the mist would burn off – but it didn't. You may also notice that cloud has started to appear although there is still plenty of sun.

We went down to the next terrace, the Top Terrace, to start looking around. There are plenty of interesting, unusual and colourful plants and some interesting topiary in these gardens.

Time to go down another level to the Aviary Terrace.


The brick facade features open arches with a relatively small space behind with bench seating. I have tried to find why this is called the 'Aviary Terrace' but failed. One has to assume that there may have been an aviary here at some stage but there isn't any evidence of one now.

There is a great variety of plants on this terrace but now down to the Orangery Terrace but  before we go there is a good view of the Orangery Terrace below.

Here we are on the Orangery Terrace having come down the steps you can see on the right of the picture below with the Orangery on the left.  The orangery would have been used for growing citrus fruit and protecting it during the winter months.


Inside the Orangery is Lady Amanda resting on a seat and outside is an abundance of flowering plants in a multitude of colours.

Further along this terrace, on one of the paths, there is plenty of topiary in the form of mega-hedges. I would not like to have to look after something like that especially that high.

We had now arrived at the lowest part of the garden where we saw this building.

This, apparently, is one of the National Trust's holiday cottages which you can rent for your holiday. I don't know any more than that but you could probably find out more on the National Trust's web site.

We wandered around a little more then decided we'd had enough and headed back to the car park. On the way we had this rather nice view of the castle and the terraces together with a variety of coloured foliage.

We weren't, however, quite finished yet. We drove all of two miles into the town of Welshpool nearby to a railway station on the Welshpool and Llanfair Light Railway to see if we could catch sight of a train. When we got there we discovered that a train was due in about 30 minutes so we settled down to wait.

Eventually there it was steaming into the station.

What a cutie and such little wheels! This is just one of Wales' narrow gauge railways which now has a track length of eight miles to run on and runs between Welshpool and Llanfair Caereinon. We hope to travel on it one day as it has some quite steep inclines and sharp curves to negotiate which should make an interesting journey.

You may notice now that it has clouded over making the sky white. So much for 'sunny all day'.

After slogging up all those hills the poor little thing needed a drink.

After the drink the locomotive ran around to the front of the train to haul it back home.

That was a rather nice end to a rather nice day.
 

Up and Down and Round and About.

Up and Down and Round and About.

Comments 3 Comments

Two for the price of one! You lucky people!

Work on the house is still progressing satisfactorily and this coming week will be a significant stage as the scaffolding around the house is coming down. smilies

We are, however, still managing to make a few trips and this time we did a half day walk followed a day later by a trip to Leominster ( pronounced Lemster ).

Trip 1. (Powys)

We walked from the top of Panpunton Hill at Knighton along the ridge to Cwm Sanaham Hill near Knucklas. We have walked up Panpunton Hill before and I even took a photograph of Knucklas Viaduct from the top but we didn't get anywhere near Cwm Sanaham Hill that time.

It was a fine warm day, which is unusual this summer smilies, and we set off towards Cwm Sanaham Hill with Amanda in the lead; quite a bit in the lead actually (that's her on the skyline).

You can see that there is plenty of Gorse in flower at this time of year and you should be able to see that we are still going up. Then we get our first sighting of Cwm Sanaham Hill; the one dead ahead.

As we cross another path we can see Knucklas down below and if you look carefully you should be able to see the railway viaduct.

Cwm Sanaham Hill is getting nearer and, on the extreme right of the next picture, you can see our path curving round the edge of the trees just below the horizon.

We have been following undulating ground all the way along this route but this is the final undulation. We are now going downhill into a small valley and then we start our final climb along the path which passes just below the trees on the left.

We finally reach the summit to be rewarded with some tremendous views and Amanda tries to stop the trigonometry point from falling over.

We didn't stop here for long as we were soon accosted by a big buzzy fly which we suspected was some sort of biting fly looking for a free meal and we didn't intend to supply it. So with much wild waving of arms we descended below the summit and, luckily, the fly didn't follow.

I took this photograph just below the top looking homeward as we set off back. The total distance travelled out and back was 4 miles and for most of that time the only sounds were sheep bleating in the distance and the breeze rustling in the trees. Wonderful!

We returned home without incident.

Trip 2. (Herefordshire)

We weren't able to go out the following day (building work y'know) but the day after we set off in the car to Leominster which is just under 30 miles from us. We hadn't been there before so we were looking forward to exploring.

The weather forecast for today was sunny and clear skies. There was, of course, about 80% cloud cover and little sun when we arrived and it stayed like that until the afternoon when the amount of sun did increase.

Our nearest point of interest was the church so we went there first. The church was once part of Leominster Priory, which no longer exists, and it was huge. There were three naves the earliest of which was Norman but there was also an interesting object now stored in the church.



Although the church was Norman and was very large it didn't really have much of interest although the roof over the earliest of the three Naves was nicely decorated.

I didn't take any photographs of the exterior of the church because of the lack of sun and because we will go to Leominster again hopefully on a better day.

By this time it was actually getting near lunchtime so we found somewhere for lunch and after lunch, when the sun appeared, we wandered off to see Grange Court.

Built in 1633 it is the last surviving market house, built by John Abel a local master carpenter, which originally stood at the top of Broad Street and housed the weekly butter market, selling chickens, eggs, and butter. It was then known as the Butter Crosse.

By the mid nineteenth century the market hall was proving to be a traffic hazard so the building was dismantled and lay in pieces in a builder's yard until 1859 when the building was bought and then rebuilt on the park known as the Grange.

This is Broad Street.

Although it is perhaps wider than usual it's not that wide and I'm sure a building like Grange Court plonked in the middle of the road would have been a significant traffic hazard.

This view of Corn Street which is like a little square shows where we had our lunch in the Merchant's House. The Merchant's House is the black and white timber-framed house on the left-hand edge of the picture.

There is an alley running down the left-hand side of the Merchant's House which leads to Grange Court and in the centre of the picture you should be able to see a small gap in the buildings which is the entrance to a little lane called School Lane. This is School Lane:

Another nice little lane is Drapers Lane.

There were also a number of alleyways of which these are two:


We'll leave you with this view of High Street.

As I said above we will be back for further explorations.
 

‘Hello Dolley’ then ‘Up, Up and Away’

‘Hello Dolley’ then ‘Up, Up and Away’

Comments 1 Comment

This is where it all started:

It looks pretty inocuous doesn't it? The start of a path in a little place called Dolley Green. This is part of Offa's Dyke Path where it passes through Dolley Green on its way to Knighton. From here to Knighton is 5 miles which is what I'll be walking having been dropped off by Amanda.

I watched our car disappear into the distance and started up the path. The only sounds were those of the birds and along each side of the path were Red Campion (red), Bluebells (blue) and Greater Stitchwort (white) – lovely!

I new that I'd be going over some significant hills so the fact that the path angled gently upwards wasn't a surprise and the highest point was some way away so I wasn't expecting anything steep. The path was lined with trees so that I couldn't see any of the surrounding landscape until I came out into the open.

That small group of buildings to the right is where I started; not a big place. I still couldn't see anything ahead because of the rising ground until I came to the brow of the hill.

Now that isn't a bad view and look at all those buttercups. Then the path became a little steeper. I expected to see a lot of sheep and I wasn't disappointed. This one was curious enough to come and get a good look at me.

It didn't come very near and eventually decided that I was decidedly boring and moved away so I moved on too. A little further on I stopped to look back.

Dolley Green is still visible but you can see that I've gained more height. My little black friend is also still visible on the path. I carried on along the path and then it started to get steeper and steeper and I went up, up and up. Remember me saying that I wasn't expecting anything steep? Well I was wrong.

 Having gained significantly more height I took two more photographs. The first looking back and the second looking ahead.


I was glad to see that the slope reduced a bit but I was still climbing. The path is well waymarked with signs such as this, english on the right, welsh on the left although some features such as gates or styles show just the acorn symbol.

The acorn denotes that this path is a 'National Path' and, as this is the only national path around here, it shows that you are on Offa's Dyke Path. The 'National Paths' are long distance paths including ones such as the Pennine Way.

The views from up here were tremendous, as you might expect, and included the inevitable sheep. There are changes of direction on this path but they are well signed.

I have just come through that gate having turned a right-angle and you can see the 'National Path' symbol not to mention the view beyond. I must now have reached maximum elevation, thank goodness, and still the views are endless but that, of course, is one of the reasons for coming.


One thing you may have noticed and that is that there has been no sign of Offa's Dyke. That is about to change as I reach a part where the dyke is apparent. The dyke bank in the first picture should be visible with the ditch on the right and in the second picture the dyke is decorated with bluebells along its length.


I mentioned earlier about the acorn symbol and this is another example:

The acorn symbol is visible on the left-hand gatepost which tells you that you are on the right path. Just beyond is a lovely patch of Bluebells and the line of trees is actually growing on the dyke which is well formed along this length.

This next section shows the dyke very well as the bank is quite high and has a well formed ditch this side of it.

I am now approaching Knighton and I see that the rounded hump off to my left is in fact Garth Hill which is very near our house. The TV transmitter mast on the top is also just visible.

Soon after that I start down the wooded slope which will take back into Knighton. It's not very steep at first but I know, from looking at the closely packed contours on the map, that it's going to get steeper and it does.

I can now see the buildings in Knighton below me, through the trees, and the slope is steep enough that the ends of my toes are resting against the front of my boots which becomes uncomfortable after a while. However I am soon back down and it's a short walk home.

The GPS statistics for my walk are below but you may want to skip them.

Distance 5.45 miles
Total time 3 hours 10 minutes
Of that time I was actually moving for 2 hours 4 minutes
Average speed 2.62 MPH
Maximum altitude 1112 feet starting from an altitude of 314 feet
I was climbing for 1 hour 11 minutes and descending for 1 hour 37 minutes

 

How not to plan a trip

How not to plan a trip

Comments 1 Comment

I planned a trip for today. I was going on my own because Amanda thought it might be a bit too strenuous for her. Amanda went off to a Coffee Morning (sounds pretty strenuous to me) and I left the house about 20 minutes later. I hadn't got very far when I realised that I was still wearing ordinary shoes so I rushed back and changed into walking boots and set off once again.

I still made it to the bus stop 5 minutes before the bus was due to arrive. I was planning to go to a place called 'Dolley Green', which is in the middle of nowhere, and walk back to Knighton. When the bus arrived the driver told me that the bus doesn't go through Dolley Green anymore and I was so surprised I got off.

It was only as the bus disappeared around the corner that I remembered that the driver did say it now goes directly to Norton instead of the round-about way through Dolley Green. So what's significant about that? Well, when I planned the trip originally I had planned to start in Norton and then discovered that Dolley Green would be a better place to start from. So, if I had my wits about me, I could have stayed on the bus and travelled to Norton and used my original route. Doubly irritating.

I will do that trip on another day and I'll tell you about it when I do but for now, in the afternoon, we did a short walk instead.

We went up onto Garth Hill and saw this lovely view over Knighton with lots of Bluebells.

Further along the path there were more Bluebells.

We had been along this path before but not during Bluebell time. A little way back we spotted a path going up the hill which we certainly hadn't traversed and Amanda said that she wanted to explore that on the way back.

So, on the way back, we explored. It was moderately steep and went up, and up, and up. We finally arrived at a little lane which afford us this view.

I wonder what that large lumpy hill left of centre on the horizon is? As we are looking toward Ludlow it could be either Brown Clee Hill or Titterstone Clee Hill. Can't say for certain.

We made our way down the lane and eventually to home.

 

Squaring the circle

Squaring the circle

Comments 1 Comment

Another sunny day. Another dash for the car. Another zooming off to somewhere.

This time it was Radnor Forest which is 10 miles (or 20 minutes) from home. The nearest village is New Radnor and it’s called ‘New’ Radnor because it was new when it was built in Medieval times to replace Old Radnor.

We passed through New Radnor and travelled on the A44, heading south-west, for about 1.5 miles until we saw a car park signposted where we turned off. We followed the rather bumpy track for about 0.6 of a mile and parked the car.

We walked along the track until we saw a path and stream going off to our left and followed it. Here is the intrepid Amanda following the stream.

We are both keen to see what’s around that bend ahead and, when we got there, this is what we saw:


It wasn’t quite as high as we expected and it certainly wasn’t impressive but it is pretty. It is fairly dry at the moment and we can always pop back after some heavy rain when it should be carrying a lot more water. There is no way in other than the path that we used and there’s no other way out.

The path is easy to navigate and it has been supplemented with boarding in places where the bank would otherwise be too steep to walk on without falling into the stream and, to prove it, Amanda didn’t fall in.

When we arrived back at the junction we turned left instead of back towards the car and carried on. We soon found ourselves climbing a very steep slope. So steep that had it been a bit steeper it probably been a hands and knees job. We got to the point where we were wondering whether to turn back when we saw the top not too far up and decided to continue.

On the way up we met this chunky little chap.

That is a Dor beetle. They are not uncommon and are of a type of dung beetle which all have the rather unattractive habit of eating dung. I thought that you might like to know that. We left it to its business, so to speak, and finally made it to the top of the slope.

We were rewarded with this sight after we realised we were being watched.

It was a Roe Deer. It watched us for a short time then trotted away. We joined another path and headed downhill. This time the slope was reasonable and at the bottom we were greeted with this view:

We rejoined the track and were soon back at the car.

We hadn’t quite finished yet and although we were headed back home we were looking for something on the way. How would you like to see a stone circle? Well unfortunately for you there isn’t one but we might manage a stone square. A stone square?

What can I say? Apparently these groups of four stones are not uncommon hereabouts and they are more common in Scotland but nobody has any idea what they are for.

Amanda had also noticed, on the map, another item marked ‘standing stone’ which was on our route back so off we went. We found the right area and found a place to stop the car and get out. We looked over a nearby field but couldn’t see anything remotely like a standing stone. We moved to the gate of the next field which had a lot of sheep down the far end and spotted a small stone near the sheep. There was no public access in that field but there was a public footpath in the next field so I thought I’d walk along it to see if I could get a photograph.

Now this is where it gets embarrassing. I found a gap in the hedge which enabled me to get a clear view of the stone.

Then one of the sheep spotted me and started bleating which started some of the others bleating as well. That soon moved through the whole flock. I realised that they were all looking at me and going baaaa. Time to move, I thought, and headed back to the car. I was horrified to see them start to follow me. Remember that I’m not in the same field but in the next one and there is a stout hedge between us.

By the time I got to the car the sheep had reached the gate of the other field and we noticed that there were some small metal troughs on the ground with some of the sheep putting their noses in them. It suddenly dawned on us that they thought I was Mister Food and were waiting for the goodies. We didn’t have any, of course, and as we drove away we could see dozens of little faces watching us through the gate. I felt really mean.

We went home.

The quietest place under the sun

The quietest place under the sun

Comments 0 Comment
Clunton and Clunbury,
Clungunford and Clun,
Are the quietest places
Under the sun.

 (A. E. Houseman)

Of those four places, mentioned by A E Houseman in his poem, we visited Clun.

On our outward journey we didn't actually stop in Clun but drove straight through to Clunton where we turned north past Radnor Wood and Steppleknoll to Sunnyhill. We parked our car in a free car park provided by the Forestry Commission which was very handy otherwise we couldn't have stopped because the lane was so narrow (one car's width). We set off up the track where Sunnyhill didn't live up to its name – it started raining. smilies

Luckily the rain didn't last long and we started to see some sunny spells although the wind was still cold. After a short walk we arrived at Bury Ditches.

Bury Ditches is a British Iron Age Hill Fort dating from about 500 BC and one of the best preserved in the country. In the picture above Amanda is standing on one of the banks with a ditch to the left and another bank to the left of the ditch with another figure on the top. The main area enclosed by the defences is to the right.

You may notice that the views from up here are pretty spectacular.


This is how the fortified village would have looked when it was in use.

Having had a thorough look round we went back to the car and headed back to Clun.

Clun is a small, attractive market town in Shropshire just over 7 miles from us. This photograph shows the Market Hall and the square beyond.

The 2011 census recorded a population of 680 and research by the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England suggests that Clun is one of the most tranquil locations in England.

We arrived at lunchtime and liked the look of the Maltings Cafe next to the Sun Inn. So, based on that, we went in. It was a good decision. They had an amazing range of food for a small cafe and the food turned out to be excellent. We would recommend it without hesitation.

After lunch it was back to the hard work of looking round. We wandered along one of the narrow back streets looking at the old buildings and liked what we saw.

At the end of this lane we stumbled on the Hospital of the Holy and Undivided Trinity which is a well preserved example of courtyard-plan almshouses. This was founded in 1607 and in this case the term 'Hospital' is another name for 'Almshouses'. The pretty gardens and the chapel are open to the public but the inner courtyard is not. We had a look at the garden and the chapel.


A rather attractive and peaceful garden. Clun is not exactly a bustling metropolis and this is right on the outer edge of this quiet town so it was, well, very quiet.

Back towards the 'town centre' we started looking for the castle ruins. We knew Clun had a castle so all we had to do was find it. I remembered that it overlooked the river and we knew where the river was so we headed in that direction. We spotted some pinnacles of wall ruins and soon found the castle.

It has to be said that there isn't much of it left; the largest part being the remains of the Keep but up close that Keep looks fairly impressive. The whole thing was built on a grassy knoll high above the town and the surrounding countryside.


You can just see a small part of the river way below at the bottom of the top picture. All we have to do now is find our way down to that river and cross it. We walked across the top of the motte and were rewarded with this view.

That bridge is our way across so we scrambled down and it was pretty steep in places. There is the main road bridge, of course, but that route would have been slightly more circuitous. You can probably see the car park, which is free, and entry to the castle is free. However, having got down there, we walked towards the main bridge because I wanted to photograph it. It is an old packhorse bridge built in 1450.


It's not very wide as you can probably see (it was built for packhorses) but it is one vehicle's width so traffic can, and does, use it.

Our final destination was the church. The oldest part of the building appears to be the tower which was built around 1200 AD. The Nave is 12th century; the Chancel is actually 19th century.



That is a pretty impressive 14th century roof.

We were both feeling a bit tired by now so decided to call it a day and headed for home. The weather could have been better, but wasn't, and in any case it's only 7 miles from home so we can, and probably will, come back to Clun any time we like. smilies