This morning we woke up relatively early, so we went for a
walk down to the Uffington Church and behind, over paddocks and through
turnstiles and down little country lanes along the river. I Skyped Sean before
we left, and then we headed down to Ludlow, a medieval market village which has more listed buildings per head of population than any other town in England. Ludlow
is particularly famous for it’s
medieval castle, which housed famous residents
like Catherine of Aragon and her first husband, Prince Arthur. It is also where
Arthur died, and an old man at St Laurence’s church today told me he thought
Henry VII had sent Arthur to Ludlow to finish him off. He knew it was cold and
wet and Arthur had a sickly constitution, so it’s an interesting theory. Ludlow
Castle also played host to Mary Tudor (Catherine’s daughter) and Edward V and
Richard of Shrewsbury, the famed Princes in the Tower. It is a ruin similar to
Conwy, but is a little more intact. It has only just been reopened after the
winter, and a pigeon had made it’s nest right next to one of the staircases and
gave us major stinkeye when we walked past it’s eggs. Hopefully they can
arrange to have the nest moved, because it’s going to get accidentally stepped
on otherwise. We also headed into the Tudor apartment bit and looked up to find
ourselves surrounded by birds glaring at us.
Afterwards we walked through the Ludlow market and I had a quick squiz in St Laurence's Church, which has a stained glass window depicting a number of figures associated with Ludlow including Edward V, Edward VI and Prince Arthur. Then we stopped for lunch in a lovely little sandwich shop with a little Tudor sitting room upstairs.
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| St Laurence's |
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| St Laurence's |
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Tudor sandwiches!
Then we drove to the nearby town of Tenbury Wells, which has some really unusual Pump Rooms built around a well, which is how the town got it's name. The well was built after a mineral water spring was discovered in a farmer's paddock. It brought lots of money to the town, because people would pay to drink and bathe in the water which was supposed to be good for ailments. It sounded like pretty horrid stuff - it contained sulphur and was twice as salty as seawater - but people paid a lot of money for the privilege of using it. The most lovely woman was just locking the place up when we arrived, but she was delighted to see us and took us on a tour of the place giving us a lot of history and explanation. She made us sign the guestbook when she found out we were from Australia and insisted on us taking lots of photos. The Pump Rooms look a bit Seuss-ish. The style is often described as Chinese-Gothic. Tenbury Wells is also famous for growing hops and cider apples. Queen Victoria visited and referred to the town as 'my little town in the orchard'. I tried to find a local cider to sample, but had no luck so I bought some English cider anyway to toast the place. |
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| The fountain |
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| Pump Rooms |
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| The well |
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| Pump Rooms |
Then we jumped back in the car and as we drove, we saw some actual gypsies and their horses and caravans (forgive the political incorrectness. Do I say gypsies, Irish travellers or something else?). Then it was on to
Hay-on-Wye! We are in a gorgeous little 2-bedroom cottage for 2 nights, with neck-breakingly steep stairs, so we are being very careful. We've had dinner and done two loads of washing, and been for a walk through the town. For anyone who doesn't know, Hay-on-Wye is referred to as 'the town of books' and is stuffed to the brim with bookstores. Obviously, it has been a longtime dream of mine to come here. I'm going to sit down and plan my day tomorrow to get the most out of it. Cannot. Wait.
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