In which Sid and Doris visit Castell Rhaglan and re-cross the Severn to Almondsbury, along the canal to Bradford-on-Avon and so home to Salisbury.
In Monmouth the hotel claim the duo are booked in for two nights but it is definitely time to leave (and it was half the price of other hotels on the trip, and chosen for …. Having a room).
The route to Raglan rolls and coming into town suddenly the castle is above us. Doris interrogates the map fiercely, but it is the only feasible route. Height lost, gone, sigh. Climb up to perfect castle.
Raglan was built after most of the fighting in the Welsh Marches had died down. Under the Earls of Worcester it was developed into a chateau style country house with a fashionable long gallery and a Renaissance garden. And we could still be enjoying that had the Worcesters not sided with the Royalists. After a long siege the Parliamentarian army took Raglan and aimed to destroy it. The picture below captures some of their work.
Here we are in Wales with cakes. They are called Welsh cakes. Essentially harmless.
The next stage offered the Brecon Viewpoint and certainly there was much climbing. At the alleged viewpoint – trees. Never mind, there is now lots of height in the bag and it is averagely downhill to the Severn, Almondsbury and the Bowl Inn, selected because it is very nice.
The next day is a short ride to Bath and on to Bradford, partly along the old Midland Railway line. At Bitton Doris takes this picture of what might be the very crane sent to Salisbury station on the night of the 1906 Plymouth boat train crash.
In Bath it is across the Pulteney Bridge (BVFBelow) and round Bath Abbey (best viewed when time for the whole Tower Tour) before taking to the tow path.
There is a running race. All sorts and conditions of men and women are jogging towards us. The path is a bit rough and quite narrow. Sid had forgotten how rough the path is in places having been this way just a few weeks before with friend Al.
Al is very fit. When Sid cycles with Al he pretends to fathomless reserves of stamina. One day he will be found out.
Doris takes this picture at the Avoncliff viaduct, where the Kennet and Avon Canal crosses the Avon River, recalling our time with Lydia the narrow boat that we saw again in Bradford. See A Narrow Escape.
In Bradford, our last over-night stop, we meet up with friend Juliet who leads us on a tour of all the sights. For the car-people among you, this was where Avon tyres were made. BOA (as it styles itself) was rich in the 19th century, they built beautifully in local limestone and then were never rich enough again to knock it down.
We pause by Barton Bridge where in 1940 the wily post-Dunkirk defenders had built a pillbox, one of 170 along the canal which would have been a useful line of defence. Thanks to BOA Museum for this picture of the Barton Bridge type 24.
About 28,000 were built and 6,500 survive. Juliet says she has never seen one. Sid unsuccessfully stifles his surprise.
That night we eat in Tuti’s Indian Restaurant on the Frome Road. (Say Froom.) The fresh-cooked food is great. There may be 16 covers. The owner is disposed to chat. You should go. It was Vaut le voyage, but we did only walk from the Barge Inn.
In the morning it is raining. We could get on the train to Salisbury. It will take 45 minutes. The rain subsides and the duo trundle on, pausing to enjoy the ceiling bosses at St James’ church in Tytherington – a small church built some time before 1083.
Just another church, in just another village.
And, in the Wylye valley, reverse the above procedure down to Wilton and the wily backroads of Quidhampton into Salisbury and so home.
So, there is the skirting around Bristol which while mostly on cycle paths is quite dull. One puncture for Sid and a broken spoke for Doris. But: cycling together, the advice of The Silk, railways, cranes, boats, ice cream, canals, beer, churches, cafes, beer, collieries, castles, special paving slabs, geology, sign boards, pill boxes, bridges and tunnels make for a splendid non-epic, ‘between journeys’ Sid and Doris outing.