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Published: October 2nd 2007
Or something like that. Basically, I went to a couple falling-down places in Wales, and Welsh has lots of consonants, etc. And now I'm done trying to be clever. At least I didn't got to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch, which is an actual town in Wales that has the proud distinction of having the longest name of any town in Britain. Supposedly, it translates as: "Saint Mary's Church in the hollow of the white hazel near a rapid whirlpool and the Church of Saint Tysilio of the red cave." Anyway. Moving on to what I actually did and saw.
On the Sunday of the August Bank Holiday, two friends (Jen and Jaime) and I took the scenic drive to Chepstow along lots of curvy roads that lined the Severn River. As soon as we arrived at Chepstow Castle, though, we decided we needed a snack. So Jen and I introduced Jaime to the wonders of the cream tea (tea, scones, clotted cream, and jam), which she'd never tried before, despite having lived in England for over two years.
Refortified, we sacked the castle. I made sure to attire myself in an appropriate helmet to make it through the attack unscathed. (It was
River view from Chepstow Castle
I'm hoping this river has tides, or else that boat is in trouble!really, really heavy!) As a result of our plundering, here's what we learned:
Chepstow Castle is situated on an easily defensible cliff on the River Wye in Wales and is the oldest stone fortress in all of Britain, dating back to 1067. It is also rare in that it was built of stone right from the start, whereas most fortresses started out wooden and were replaced by stone versions. It expanded and changed over the years (which I saw on the handy dioramas in the small museum), then crumbled a lot. But before that, it incorporated many advances in defensive planning, which came in handy to defend its strategic location on the Welsh border. The museum exhibit was particularly descriptive about these defensive measures, including a good cliff location and multiple layers of fortress walls. It also told how to breach these defenses. My favorite one is where you stand way back and start digging a trench covered in protective wood and tunnel up under the walls. Even though there wasn't much left of these walls, it was a gorgeous day out, and we really enjoyed climbing around the ruins.
The central, and thus oldest, part of the
castle is the Norman-style Great Tower. Not only did the castle expand around the Great Tower, the Tower itself expanded, which you could see on the walls and in the architecture. The Norman part was originally two stories with three small windows. In the 1200s, they added decorative arched windows and raised the roof on one end to create private apartments. Later in the century, they raised the rest of the roof to add an entire floor. It was interesting to see all the different styles, since the individual floors had been stripped away by time. There's a picture of it below.
I also got in a couple town pictures - including an artsy one of power lines leading from a central pole to individual row houses and one of my favorite sign that I keep seeing in Britain (see below if you're curious).
Our next stop was Tintern Abbey, another gorgeous ruin that inspired monks and Wordsworth alike. I'm putting it in a separate entry due to the number of pictures.
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