Friday, August 8, 2003 (Ross-on-Wye – Herefordshire/England)
More castles springing up in surprising places.
What did the Romans ever do for us? Following the trail of English heritage
sites.
Day 149. On the way into the campsite yesterday
evening, we noticed another castle that we hadn’t previously planned on
visiting so this morning we drove over to check it out. It turned out to be the
ruins of the Hungerford Farleigh Castle. Lord Hungerford was the first recorded
speaker of the House of Commons and apparently the founder of the civil service
as well as the parliamentary treasury several hundred years ago. This castle was
built to display his wealth and standing but little of it remains today. We
strolled around the ground listening to the audio tour on the provided handsets.
A number of elderly artists were dotted around the grounds drawing and painting
pictures of various vantage points of the
ruins.
After leaving Farleigh Castle,
we set off for nearby Bath. Although not a major English city, it is still a
very big place nevertheless and certainly a lot easier to find than Wardour
Castle from yesterday. Bath is famous for the roman baths that reside there and
we ended up spending the best part of the afternoon visiting the ancient site.
We also took in the Bath Abbey that lies just next-door. Bath is a very
picturesque city but the £6 charge to park the brick in a coach parking lot
for four hours took the edge of our enjoyment just a
little.
We left Bath late in the
afternoon and headed North towards the next English Heritage site on our list.
Since we were heading in that general direction, I gave Aunt Violet and Cousin
Joan each a call in Coventry to let them know we would be passing through. It
will be nice to see them again after so many
years.
We are now situated in another
quaint little campsite and have cleaned up after having had dinner. There is a
nearby forest that we may explore in more detail tomorrow depending on how we
feel. As usual, the decision will be made on the spot so it’s still
anyone’s guess as to what we will be doing tomorrow.
Posted: Fri - August 8, 2003 at 01:09 PM