England - Round The World Tour 2 2003 Day 149

Ross-on-Wye

Friday 8th August

On the way into the camp-site yesterday evening, we noticed another castle that we hadn’t previously planned on visiting so this morning we drove over to check it out. It turned out to be the ruins of the Hungerford Farleigh Castle. Lord Hungerford was the first recorded speaker of the House of Commons and apparently the founder of the civil service as well as the parliamentary treasury several hundred years ago. This castle was built to display his wealth and standing but little of it remains today. We strolled around the ground listening to the audio tour on the provided handsets. A number of elderly artists were dotted around the grounds drawing and painting pictures of various vantage points of the ruins.

After leaving Farleigh Castle, we set off for nearby Bath. Although not a major English city, it is still a very big place nevertheless and certainly a lot easier to find than Wardour Castle from yesterday. Bath is famous for the Roman baths that reside there and we ended up spending the best part of the afternoon visiting the ancient site. We also took in the Bath Abbey that lies just next-door. Bath is a very picturesque city but the £6 charge to park the brick in a coach parking lot for four hours took the edge of our enjoyment just a little.

We left Bath late in the afternoon and headed North towards the next English Heritage site on our list. Since we were heading in that general direction, I gave Aunt Violet and Cousin Joan each a call in Coventry to let them know we would be passing through. It will be nice to see them again after so many years.

We are now situated in another quaint little camp-site and have cleaned up after having had dinner. There is a nearby forest that we may explore in more detail tomorrow depending on how we feel. As usual, the decision will be made on the spot so it’s still anyone’s guess as to what we will be doing tomorrow.