The River Wye, Hereford

It was 10:15 on Thursday (6th July) when Enterprise Cars came to collect us and our bags from Abingdon taking us to Didcot to pick up our hire car for the next few days. The journey to meet with long standing friends was delightful through the lovely countryside of the Forest of Dean to Hereford.

We arrived about 1:30 so first things first ... lunch.

We walked the few minutes from the house into the town and ate at the Cafe of All Saints ...

followed by a walk along the river Wye

Taken from St Martin Street Bridge, the house we're staying at is centre picture above ... it's the stone building on the left.

The brick wall and the facade wall at right angles perplexed me and I hoped to find out more about this building

Hereford Cathedral

Castle Cliffe House is where we're staying (the two sets of windows to the right of the building). Castle Cliffe started life as the watergate of one of the largest English strongholds of the Welsh Marches, Hereford Castle.

Originally the medieval watergate of Hereford Castle, the main sandstone walls of Castle Cliffe East are five feet thick and formed an essential part of the fortifications. Externally you can still see the 13th century arch that visitors to the castle, arriving by boat, would have used to enter the castle grounds. This arch now forms the bathroom window. (Taken from the Castle Cliffe East website)

George, Jennifer and yours truly sitting by the River Wye opposite the house

Hereford Cathedral is just behind Castle Cliffe East

Andy, Jen and George

We crossed back over the Wye via the Victoria Footbridge built in 1898 as a memorial to Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee

Nelson's Column

Part of the original Moat of Hereford Castle which started as a motte-and-bailey fortification constructed some time in the late 1040's and the early 1050's. It was later rebuilt in stone in the late 12th century and was finally demolished in 1645 ending over one thousand years of fortification in Hereford. For more information about the castle please click here and here.

Castle House Hotel

This is the building with the strange 'frontage' mentioned in the photo above, you can see part of the the original frontage with the pediment ...

It would be nice if the funds could be raised to bring back it back to more like its original state ...

We continue our walk towards the Cathedral

Cathedral buildings

We went into the Cathedral but no photos were allowed unfortunately

... that's where we're staying!

They've been best buddies for over 50 years!

Walking into town ... that's All Saints where we had lunch earlier

Purported to be one of the finest half-timbered buildings in the whole country, The Old House dates back to 1621 and was built as a local butcher's shop and home. It was in constant use until 1929 when it was converted into a museum. Unfortunately time was short and a visit here will have to wait until next time.