Advertisement
Published: June 10th 2014
Edit Blog Post
Having fallen in love with pictures of stunning countryside, we decided to spend our week’s holiday in Hereford between 10
th and 16
th May 2014. As we would go to the Cotswolds or Cornwall, we took the train from London Paddington. The Paddington –Hereford line ran past beautiful countryside and honey-coloured villages via Oxford, Moreton-in-Marsh, Evarsham, and Worcester.
Mark had booked the B/B hotel and printed out the map. Our hotel is at the edge of Widemarsh Street; it was very convenient to access to the city centre and bus/train station.
Widemarsh Street led us to the High Town, the city centre. We strolled through High Street and Broad Street, and reached the Tourist Information Centre near the Cathedral. Mark picked up the information leaflets and bought maps. There were a wide range of local products, accessories, cards and paintings of beautiful scenery. We popped in the Oxfam bookshop. There were some interesting books. I found
the Life of Charlotte Brontë by Elizabeth Gaskell, which I had been looking for a long time.
Though it was rather cloudy, windy and cold, we did a bit of a walk along the River Wye, Castle
Green, and Castle Close in the afternoon.
Mark remembered seeing the striking sign of Chinese Restaurant near the station. (In fact, the country bus station was behind the restaurant.) We had the buffet meal for the dinner on 10 May. There were a wide range of dishes from starter to dessert, beef, chicken, pork, lamb, fried rice, curry dishes, soups, offered including English meals such as chips or baked beans. There were even selections of wines – most of them were expensive and the prices of most of the bottles were higher than the buffet meal.
We got up at 8 o’clock on 11 May. There were loads of people having breakfast at the same time as us, and we weren’t able to have orange juice on Sunday morning.
It was pretty cloudy in the morning. Firstly, we popped in the grounds of St John Medieval Museum of Coningsby Hospital. (It is one of the featured museums in Hereford, but was never opened when we were in Hereford.) We found the ruined building of Blackflair Priory and 14
th century preaching cross. Roses were not out in the mid May.
We then walked to High Town and found the historic buildings such as the Old House, Town Hall, and Shire Hall, which was under the renovation work in May 2014. Quite a few shops were open on Sunday.
The Museum of the Waterworks After the lunch, we decided to visit the Museum of the Waterworks on the east of Hereford. We followed on the Wye riverside walk towards the destination. As we approached, we could see the brick building with chimneys with steam coming up and hear the sound of the engines, which was becoming louder.
The admission fee was £6 each. We were shown various types of water pumps, engines, turbines, diesel engines, all of which were used for fire-fighting, water feed pumps, farming and railway industries in the past and have been painstakingly repaired and maintained in working order by the former skilled engineers. With the noise of the engines, it was very realistic and showed us the scenes of the industrial revolution.
There was a series of model exhibitions in regard to the process of safe water. The exhibitions reminded us that the only 1%!o(MISSING)f water is
available to drink on Earth and it is vital to remove the impurities, dirt and bacteria of the seawater and filter through before delivering it to the reservoir and it becoming the drinkable water. Having lived in the developed countries, I have taken it for granted that the water is safe all the time.
We also walked round the grounds with the wind and water turbines, both of which were in operation on 11 May, and had a good look at Tangye House and Rotherwas Engine House.
We were very lucky to be able to visit the museum when all of the engines and pumps were in operation.
The weather turned out better in the afternoon on 11 May. It was very sunny and warm; we enjoyed the walk surrounded by colourful wildflowers, with the view of beautiful countryside and historic buildings along the river on the way back to Hereford city.
We had dinner at Pizza Express near the Cathedral.
Hereford Cathedral with Mappa Mundi Exhibition
We decided to have a good look at Hereford Cathedral and the Mappa Mundi and Chained Library Exhibition on 13
th May.
Hereford Cathedral was dedicated to the martyred King Ethelbert and has been standing on the site since the Saxon times, and is home to a community which has worshipped and worked together for over 1300 years. We were shown the 12
th- 14
th century nave including the Norman pillars, 14
th century choir stalls and bishop’s throne, 13
th century tomb of St Thomas Hereford.
Next, we went through the cloister and entered the Mappa Mundi Exhibitions. We saw the model displays of the chained library. The exhibitions reminded us that all of the letters (in the bibles) were printed and bound manually in the medieval time and hence all of the printed books were extremely valuable. It was a little surprising that all of the churches’ bibles were chained (so that nobody would take them away) and some of the thick documents were securely kept in the large sturdy wooden containers, all of which were on display at the exhibition.
We then went to the exhibition room for Mappa Mundi. The usher pointed at the largest surviving medieval map: Jerusalem on the centre, England, Wales, Hereford, Scotland and European countries were located on the bottom left corner;
China and India were on the top left corner; Japan, USA, and Australia were not existed. We also saw rare manuscripts, its related documents and artefacts in that room.
We had lunch at All SAINTS C of E Church. There were delicious looking dishes shown on the counter. We had soup and bread. We were offered very generous portion of soup with plenty of vegetables and freshly baked bread.
We decided to do the riverside walk in the afternoon. We crossed over Wye Bridge, walked on the avenue in the park and followed the Wye Valley Walk’s footpath on the direction of Ross-on-Wye. There was a trio kayaking on the river, and we saw a herd of ginger and white cows walking and eating. It was very picturesque scene with the backgrounds of brick-houses with chimneys and sunroofs.
Mark was interested in the Thai restaurant on the Broad Street. We had a lovely curry dish, vegetable fry, plain rice, and fried noodles, all of which were beautifully presented and thoroughly cooked. We also enjoyed the ice cream after the main meals.
On 16
th May, we were going
to take the 13:15 train for London. Thus, we decided to do a bit of sightseeing in Hereford in the morning.
The hotel staff kindly let us leave our luggage in their premises. I found it interesting to look round the Art Gallery. As it was open from 11 o’clock, we decided to do the riverside walk. We strolled through the Cathedral Close, Castle Green, and reached the Victoria Bridge. As its name suggests, the Victoria Bridge was built on the commemoration of the visit of the Queen Victoria.
The Art Gallery had varied collections relating to Herefordshire and possessed a wealth of collections of archaeology, nature and social history artefacts including a hive of live bees. We also found it interesting to see the exhibitions of local artists/celebrities with their voices and collections of the local famous painter who died during the World War I.
Afterwards, we picked up our luggage at the hotel and walked to the station. We really enjoyed staying and travelling in and around Hereford in May 2014.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.102s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 15; qc: 32; dbt: 0.0282s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb