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Wednesday 13thAugust 2008
Kington to Chepstow
The Youth Hostel at Kington didn’t provide breakfast – so we walked down the road into the village to take on calories at the local café – which had been recommended. The breakfast was huge and none of us completed the challenge. They also provided lunch packs (for a fee). By the time we had finished it was raining steadily so our walk back to the hostel (without raingear) was slightly dampening.
We hadn’t quite made our cycling target of Suckley yesterday to the east of Bromyard. Today we were dropped off near Ocle Pychard to the south west of Bromyard to pick up the route south to Chepstow. Lyre Ocle is the site of another Priory that belonged to Lyre, which has some stone in the present buildings which may have come from the priory. From here we cycled to Hereford and the Cathedral, which also had strong links with the Abbey of Lyre shortly after the conquest, where we stopped to have tea and cake and make a flying visit round the church. We met up with Malcolm here – he is very interested in the stone masons marks or “graffiti” so we spent a little while searching for these with the help of one of the stewards. The sky looked extremely threatening as we entered the Cathedral and it wasn’t long before the heavens opened. By the time we had finished our visit the rain had more or less passed – excellent timing!
My right knee was beginning to play up and I was not sure how far it would be wise to cycle. Cycling on the flat wasn’t too bad but the hills of Wales were not good news. We cycled on southwards initially aiming for the village of Kilpeck where the church (according to our friends at Eardisland) was a site not to be missed. They were right. The ornately carved door contains elements of Celtic, Saxon and even Scandinavian (Viking) art. There are also many corbels around the tops of the walls (originally 89 but some have been removed). It was completed in the 12th century and had been altered very little since then. The carvings are very well preserved with only small amounts of erosion.
From Kilpeck we cycled to Llangua via the village of Ewyas Harold were we met up with Malcolm and partook of the packed lunch – very thick sandwiches and a huge slab of currant cake with apple and crisps. Llangua a few miles futher on was the site of priory number 3. The church was not open so after a quick walk round the building we were on our way again. Tony W was now on his own – I had decided to call it a day as the hills down towards Chepstow would not do my knee any good. I had cycled 30 miles – there was another 30 to do.
We met up with Tony in Monmouth for tea and cake and then again at St Briavels church high above the valley of the River Wye. It was now raining heavily and TW arrived at the top of the 1¾ mileclimb wet and dripping. It is in this church that there is a decorated slab to Robert the Abbot of Lyre who died here in 1272. It was found under the floorboards at the West end of the church during 19th century alterations to the building. The woman's head is a Victorian addition!
It was then officially downhill to Chepstow to our B&B for the night – but even downhills have their ups!
The mileage at the end of the day was 60 miles. (29.7 miles for me)