PLACES OF INTEREST ON THE ROUTE
Sutton Walls.—Remains of Offa's castle.
Bodenham.—A village with a large and handsome church.
Hampton Court.—A house dating from the time of Henry IV.
Leominster.—A very picturesque town; the Town Hall; the church, with the nave of a former Priory; the Butter Cross.
Ludlow.—An old and very interesting town; the church, one of the finest in England; the Guildhall; an excellent museum; Richard's Castle near the town.
Stokesay Castle.—One of the most perfect fortified houses of the thirteenth century in the kingdom; strikingly picturesque.
Craven Arms.—The camp of Caer Caradoc; the Long Mynd district; extremely picturesque hills of exceptional interest to geologists.
Church Stretton.—A pretty village in charming surroundings of wooded hills and valleys; Norman and Transitional cruciform church.
Loop 6 (First Portion). HEREFORD TO CHURCH STRETTON.
Continued on [p. 230].
(For description and plan of Hereford, see [pp. 176-179].)
The road to Leominster passes due north out of Hereford by, or rather through, the racecourse, and directly afterwards Holmer Church is seen upon the left side of the road. It belongs to Early English times, and has a detached tower.
Moreton-on-Lug has a church which has recently been restored, but it contains some altar-tombs of the Dauncer family. From this point onwards Robin Hood's Butts and the Sugar Loaf Hills become prominent objects in the landscape on the left, their rugged summits of sandstone resisting the action of the weather better than the soft marls through which they protrude.
Sutton Walls lie to the right upon a wooded hill, and are of great historical interest. Offa, king of Mercia, had a palace there, and to it Ethelbert, king of the East Angles, was invited, the ostensible object being his marriage to the daughter of the Mercian king. The young prince was foully murdered by the connivance of Quendrida, Offa's queen, and East Anglia annexed to Mercia in A.D. 782. In expiation of this deed Offa founded the great monastery at St. Albans. There is a large encampment upon the hill, with four entrances, apparently of Roman origin, and containing an area of about thirty acres.
Entering a low-lying district, upon which stands Wellington Marsh, Marden Church is seen upon the right, the place of Ethelbert's first interment, the original building having been erected by Offa. Wellington Church, lying to the left of the road, is chiefly of modern construction. Two miles farther on a bifurcation occurs, and the road to the right may be taken if one wishes to avoid the rather steep way leading over Dinmore Hill. Bodenham is the next village on the route. It possesses a large church of the Early English and Decorated Periods, containing an alabaster tomb of Sir Walter Devereux, 1401. In the village will be seen the remains of a large cross and a well. A sharp turn to the left at England's Gate leads back in a few miles to the junction with the main road near Hope-under-Dinmore, crossing the River Lug just before the junction. Hope Church, standing on the hill-side, contains many tablets to the Coningsby family. About two miles to the right of Ford lies Risbury Camp, of an oval form, with deep ditches surrounding it, and containing an area of about eight acres. Hampton Court was built by Sir Roland Lenthall in the time of Henry IV., and much enlarged by ransoms subsequently obtained from prisoners at the Battle of Agincourt. It was once the home of the Earl of Coningsby. Mr. J. H. Arkwright, a descendant of Richard Arkwright, is now the owner. The Court has been partially rebuilt.
LEOMINSTER
This town presents an exceedingly picturesque aspect, a number of medieval or Renaissance buildings having survived. It was a place of importance in the days of the Heptarchy, and a monastery was instituted by Merewald, king of the West Mercians, in the seventh century, which, however, disappeared subsequently in the Danish invasions. A residence of the Saxon kings, together with a stronghold, was also raised here, only to be destroyed in a Welsh raid in 1088. In 1125 Henry I. established a Benedictine cell under the rule of Reading Priory, and the buildings now form part of the workhouse!
The Church includes examples of almost every style of architecture. The nave is Norman, and originally formed part of the Priory Church standing upon this site. The monuments are very numerous, and some of the finest window tracery in any ecclesiastical building in the British Isles exists here. A fire in the eastern parts of the church in 1699 led to a restoration in a very debased style. The Butter Cross is an object of interest, and in the Bargates are Georgian almshouses dating back to 1736. They have an effigy with an inscription containing an admonition against the exercise of charity without discrimination. The road to Ludlow lies upon the eastern side of the railway, and a sharp turn to the right occurs in the town. Ivington Camp is a British earthwork, but was considerably strengthened by Owen Glendower when he retreated from Leominster and was vigorously pursued by Prince Henry. One mile to the right lies Eaton Hall, now a farmhouse. It was erected in the time of Henry V., and was once occupied by the old family of Hakluyt.[1]
Eye lies to the left of the road, and has a church with some fine alabaster monuments in it—one figure with the collar of SS. Berrington Hall and Park, the seat of Lord Rodney, are close by. The country passed through for some miles past is a cider district, and numerous orchards can be seen on every side. Near Woofferton is a fine open stretch of country, in which the highlands upon the left, wooded to their summits, form a welcome break. Richard's Castle, of the motte and bailey type, lies under the hills. It was erected in the reign of Edward the Confessor, and stands upon a mound 60 feet in height, with some peculiar earthworks adjoining. It is a matter for remark that this stronghold was erected and occupied by a Norman, Richard, the son of Scrop, before the Conquest, and thus is one of a little group of castles of peculiar interest. An old church at the town of Richard's Castle has a detached belfry.
[1] A Welsh family, of whom Richard Hakluyt (1552?-1616), the famous geographer, is the best known.
LUDLOW
This is an ancient British town lying in an amphitheatre of high ground, but no reliable history relating to the place is extant until after the Conquest, when Roger de Montgomery founded the Castle, which for a considerable time was the residence of Royalty, more particularly of Edward IV. and his children. Ludlow was also the seat of the Grand Council entrusted with the jurisdiction of the Marches. The keep of the castle was erected between 1086 and 1096. In the Civil War the castle surrendered to the Parliamentary forces in 1646, at the same time as Bridgnorth. The appearance of the dismantled fortress on an eminence above the River Teme is imposing and impressive, as the Norman towers and bastions, together with a considerable portion of the curtain walls, are still standing.
The Church stands upon elevated ground near the castle, and is of Decorated Gothic, dating from the time of Edward III., although originally built in the twelfth century. It is dedicated to St. Lawrence, and is a cruciform building with a lofty tower, and one of the finest churches in England. There is also a guildhall, a town-hall, and the museum, chiefly confined to natural history, has a grand collection of Silurian fossils. A very fine timbered house, the Lane Asylum, dates from 1672.
From the district round Bromfield a fine view is obtained of Clee Hill lying to the right, with Titterstone Camp, 1,749 feet above the sea, on it. Farther to the north is Brown Clee Hill, 1,792 feet high, with Corne Dale to the left. Near Onibury the route is well wooded, and the valley becomes contracted as the road leads through a break in Wenlock Edge. Upon the right Norton Camp, a horseshoe-shaped entrenchment, occupies the summit of a knoll.
STOKESAY CASTLE
is reached just before coming to Craven Arms Station. It is, without exaggeration, one of the most picturesque and also one of the earliest fortified houses in the kingdom. From almost any point of view it thrills the artist, the architect, the archæologist, and the ordinary visitor who has any capacity to read sermons in stones. The very name 'Stokesay' tells the story of Norman owner superseding Saxon, the Says or Sayes being descendants of Picot de Sai, who came over with the Conqueror, a similar instance being found in Stoke d'Abernon in Surrey, where the Saxon 'Stoke' is again tacked on to the name of the new Norman owner. The gatehouse of the castle, although a highly picturesque timber-framed building of Elizabethan times, with a carving of Adam and Eve and the Serpent over the door, is not the most interesting feature, for the rest of the building belongs to the thirteenth century, and is quite one of the best examples of a fortified house of the Early English period. The moat is now dry, but otherwise one can see in Stokesay the type of house close to the Welsh Marches which was occupied by a lesser feudal lord in the days when Wales was still the home of unconquered tribesmen, who might at any time make a sudden descent into English territory. Facing the gateway is the hall, 51 feet by 31 feet (internal measurements), lighted with four tall lancet windows looking on to the moat on the west side. The open timber roof is blackened with smoke, for there was no fireplace, and the smoke from the central brazier escaped through an outlet in the roof. The builder of this hall is given by the late Mr. Augustus Hare as John de Verdun, who died in 1279, while the curious and picturesque polygonal tower at the south corner was no doubt built by Verdun's successor, that Lawrence de Ludlow who received permission from Edward I. to fortify his house of Stokesay. It would be a pleasant task to describe every room and every architectural detail of this fascinating castle, but space unfortunately does not permit.
The Church at Stokesay was rebuilt after the Civil War. Beautiful views of the Long Mynd, of Wenlock Edge, and the ridge lying between them, now open up. The church at the little village of Wistanstow has been restored, and during the alterations a carved oak roof of the Perpendicular period came to light.
CHURCH STRETTON
is a village in an exceedingly pleasant situation, with the Long Mynd ridge of hills to the west, and with Hope Bowdler, Caer Caradoc, and the Lawley nearly opposite. The name Stretton, like Streatham, indicates the presence of a Roman road—one of those leading southwards from the great Roman city of Uriconium.
The interesting cruciform church has a Norman nave with Transitional central tower and transepts. Several Perpendicular windows have been inserted. Mr. Hare mentions a stone in the churchyard, near the sundial, bearing this inscription to Ann Cook, who died in 1814:
'On a Thursday she was born,
On a Thursday made a bride,
On a Thursday broke her leg,
And on a Thursday died.'
'Hesba Stretton,' the novelist, took her pen-name from this village, where she lived for many years.
Near Church Stretton the site of Brockhurst Castle is passed over. Bodbury Ring, to the left beyond Church Stretton, is said to have been occupied by Ostorius Scapula previous to his great battle with Caractacus. The site of the engagement is on the right, and a mile farther on the road leads under Caer Caradoc Hill, 1,506 feet high, with a perfect camp, vallum, and ditches upon the summit, wherein Caradoc entrenched himself previous to the fight. The district under the Long Mynd is extremely picturesque, with deep gullies and cross valleys running into the great ridge, whose elevation in places reaches to 1,600 feet. It is a paradise for geologists, deposits emerging from underneath the Silurian which are of more than ordinary interest. The Caradoc Range is an old volcanic outburst. The line of the Roman road traversing the valley already mentioned may be noted running parallel with the railway.
(For description and plan of Shrewsbury, see [pp. 76-79].)