Sedbury to Redbrook
Tuesday 4th July 2006
Walked 15 miles including 13.5 miles of Offa's Dyke Path
Click here for all our photos from this walk.
We admired the photos and medals on the stairs at Upper Sedbury House, commemorating the efforts of one Commander Frank Potts (Mike's father?). The house itself is around 250 years old and the beams may have an even older history, given that many sailing ships were made using wood from the Forest of Dean. After breakfast we headed back to Chepstow; we bought provisions for lunch in Tesco then crossed the old bridge again and climbed back up the hill to rejoin Offa's Dyke Path. We climbed past Tutshill Tower then by some nice houses, high above the river. On this section we saw the only other serious walker of the day, who gave the appearance of walking the Offa's Dyke Path complete with his luggage; however we soon overtook him and we didn't see him again on the path.
We went through the arch onto 'Moyle Old School Lane' (marked on the back as 'Medieval Times: Donkey Lane') and followed this to Wintour's Leap. This was very disappointing; it was obvious that we were high above the river but, aside of a view into a quarry, we really couldn't see anthing at all. A diversion away from the B4228 above Woodcroft was very overgrown, which made us wonder how many people walk the path. A second diversion gave us lovely views back to the Severn Estuary and bridges, and when we rejoined the B4228 for a longer stretch we again admired the houses, including one where they had very thoughtfully left water out for Offa's Dyke Path walkers.
At Dennel Hill we climbed up through woodland to rejoin the Dyke on the 'Tidenhall' stretch which is considered so good that it has English Heritage guardianship. Although this section (and later ones during the day) was heavily wooded, it was easy to see the line of both the ditch and the bank, with the ditch on the left (Welsh) side and the bank on the right (English) side, to enable Offa's men to keep an eye on what was going on. We followed the path through the woods at Shorn Cliff and we could make out Tintern Abbey below and in front of us, but the trees made the view impossible to photograph. We had lunch on a very convenient wall, then on to Devil's Pulpit (a limestone feature); fortunately the schoolchildren who were eating their lunch moved on, enabling us to photograph Tintern Abbey at last. We made our way down to Brockweir village, past a horse and donkey rescue centre to a very welcome pint of orange juice and lemonade at the Brockweir Inn.
There is a choice of routes here and we opted for the low level (though longer) one, along the River Wye. It was extremely hot, but beautiful, with several pairs of swans including one pair with cygnets. The guidebook makes a big deal of the fact the there are 'no facilities except for a bus stop' at Bigsweir, the point at which the low and high level routes converge again. We didn't even see a bus stop and the landowner of the final stretch by the river had erected a somewhat grumpy 'no fishing, no cycling, no picnics' sign. However the views were good and we climbed up the path towards towards St Briavels, entered attractive woodland - and found a picnic table! We stopped for a peach and a rest.
We climbed steeply, repeatedly crossing the Dyke. There was thunder for the whole of this section (not surprising given the heat) and it started to rain slightly as we crossed open land near Coxbury Farm. We entered Highbury Wood so were protected from most of the rain. We skirted round a new nature reserve and in a particularly gloomy place there was a construction that could well have been Eeyore's house.
We had to put on coats briefly as we descended steeply to Redbrook via the 'unavoidable flight of 67 steps'. We were staying at the Bell Inn, described as being on the right but the way we approached it, it was on the left. We were shown to our rooms by Andrew, the 'accommodation manager'. Richard and I had a rather dark room at the rear of the Inn, but this meant that it was as far as possible from the noise of the bar - and the shower was lovely! There was a football match being screened in the bar, so we were grateful for the opportunity to eat outside, with a pint of cider. The locals at the Inn were certainly characters - everyone knew everyone else, and they were all making plans for the village hog roast, in a couple of weeks time. After dinner we enjoyed a stroll in the cool of the evening. We went through the Millenium Park, where land that was industrial has been returned to its former purpose as 'Wye's Green', and across the river by the old railway bridge.
