|
Wilton, Bridstow,
Sunday 5th February
On the afternoon of 5th
February over thirty members of the group, led by
Heather Hurley, walked around Wilton near Ross-on-Wye.
The walk, of approximately 3.5 miles, started from
Wilton Road car park, examined the hollow-way leading to
the old ford at Wilton, then crossed Wilton Bridge to
the site of the 18th century barge quays there.
Since
time immemorial the Wye has been navigable, but not
until 1662 was a serious attempt made to establish the
Wye as a commercial waterway. In the 1720s Defoe noted
that Ross had ‘a good trade on the river Wye’ and
in the 1820s Charles Heath wrote that Wilton ‘might
properly be called the quay or wharf to Ross, by
furnishing a convenient accommodation for the shipping
and landing of goods sent up and down the river.’
Barges carried a variety of goods from coal to cases of
wine, bricks to barrels of cider and hoops to hat boxes.
Under the terms of the 1809 Act a horse towing path was
established, and the following is recorded ‘Barges
first Hauled by Horses on the River Wye Tuesday the
fifteenth of January 1811. The first through
Wilton Bridge was Jonathan Cromptons Barge the
Henry, William Hoskyns Master with Coal. Second J
Cromptons Fanny, Thomas Jones Master with Two Horses
each’. A 147 ton barge ‘Lively’ and the 65 ton
‘Wilton were owned by William Porter a Wilton corn
factor, and the 17 ton ‘Rival’ was built at Wilton
in 1804. The river trade began to decline after the
completion of the Hereford to Gloucester Canal in 1845,
and ceased after the opening of the Railway in 1855. The
former site of the quay and wharves belonged to the
Manor of Wilton, and were purchased by the Council in
1977 to provide a Village Green. Heather Hurley
|
|
 |
The walk began at the base
of the rocky outcrop below the church and the Prospect at
Ross-on-Wye where an ancient trackway leads down to the
old ford at Bridstow which was the only crossing of the
Wye before the bridge at Wilton was built in the 16th
century. The lane leads almost directly
from the Iron Age fort on Chase Hill to the crossing over
the Wye. It was in use long before Ross or Wilton were
established as settlements and survives partly as Cleeve
Lane and a public footpath. |
|
|
|
|
 |
After
crossing Wilton Bridge the group gathered at the site of
some of the wharves which served the area when the Wye
carried many barges. |
|
|
|
|
 |
This hollow-way running north from
Wilton was once the main road from Hereford to Ross.
Abandoned since the realignment of the turnpike road in
1794 to avoid the awkward bends around Wilton it once led
from the present Whitecross Farm on the present A49 to the
old ford. |
|
|
|
|
 |
From Wilton the group followed the ancient hollow-way
(still a road) which led from the ford to the parish
church of Bridstow. |
|
|
|
|
 |
St Bridget's Church, Bridstow was Lann San Freit
(sometimes Lann San Bregit) before the arrival of
the English in whose language the name means 'Holy
place of St Bride'. In 1066 Herewald, bishop of
Llandaff, appointed Guollguinn as priest here and
after him his son Ioann (It was not uncommon for
priests to be married and sons sometimes succeeded fathers
in an incumbency).
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Heather Hurley at the tomb of
a previous occupier of her current home at Hoarwithy. |
|
|
|
|
 |
Walking back to Wilton via a footpath by the Wells Brook
and to Wilton Castle.
The path here runs besides a lynchet - a bank forming an
ancient field boundary. |
|
|
|
|
 |
The group visited Wilton
Castle by kind permission of the owner |
|
|
|
|
 |
The southern wall of Wilton
Castle with Ross church, on the other side of the Wye, in
the background. |
|
|
|
|
Click image
to view Wilton Castle page |
 |
|
|
|
|
Coming events
- click image |
 |
|
|
|
|
