In April we visited our good friends Sarah and Nick in Gloucestershire and took the opportunity during our 4 days to visit some of the highlights that the area has to offer.
On the way up to Gloucestershire we stopped near Cheltenham to look at the Long Barrow at Belas Knapp. Belas Knapp is a Neolithic site build some 4,500 years ago. Excavations over a long period of time have unearthed the remains of 36 individuals including five infants. I always find these Neolithic sites evocative and it is difficult not to try to imagine what life would have been like for the people buried there so long ago. In my experience most of these monuments are located on impressive high ground with a clear vista all around - they were generally been made to be seen. However Belas Knapp is enclosed by a wood on one side, which obscures what would otherwise be a splendid view over the wide valley. I can’t help thinking that the wood was a later addition.
One of the interesting things about Belas Knapp is that it has a false front entrance. There are, or were four chambers, which would have been covered up and invisible, but at the front two large standing stones and a lintel are clearly intended to indicate a doorway. It is not clear why the false entrance is there. It would be unlikely to deter tomb robbers and no special objects other than bones were found. One explanation is that the false door was a ‘spirit door’ leading into the afterlife. I rather like this explanation and doorways are certainly powerful expressions of transition and so it seems quite likely that our early ancestors saw the mound as an entrance into the other world.
Whatever the case, the monument still has a power over people for inside the tiny chambers we found daffodils and tea lights obviously carefully placed there in reverence.
The following day we all set off for the Forest of Dean Heritage site which turned out to be a very pleasant visit. There were wood sculptures to view (including a large wooden spider) and a visitor’s centre with interesting displays and the ubiquitous café, which we felt compelled to visit. The highlight was probably the restored foresters’ cottage, simply furnished, which spoke of a much simpler time. No doubt the life of a forester and his family was hard but it is difficult not to see the appeal of a simpler and more humble lifestyle. We pondered this as we drove back in our petrol driven car and returned to our friend’s centrally heated house!
The next day Nick and I set off to Clearwell Caves also known as Clearwell mines as it has the distinction of being both a set of natural caves and man-made mines. We managed to get ourselves ahead of a school party about to enter and so pretty much had the caves to ourselves. The caves themselves reminded me of the Mines of Moria from the Lord of The Rings Trilogy and I was expecting to see at any moment a set of dwarves working the rock faces – Nick had to do instead. However, the mines are still used apparently, mainly to mine ochre’s for paint pigments. Dotted about the caves were explanatory boards, which testified to the harsh life of the miners and the very young children that worked the mines. It is difficult to imagine working down the mines with just a pickaxe and a candle held in a ‘nellie’ for light. Mechanisation undoubtedly brought increased profitability for a while but the introduction of the mechanical hammer known as ‘widow makers’ just produced new horrors. All in all it was a fascinating and thought provoking trip and can be well recommended.
We moved on to Puzzlewood, an unusual woodland landscape just a few miles away from Clearwell Caves. The signs outside claimed that Tolkien visited these woods and based his notions of Middle-Earth on his visits. Whether that is true or not, it is easy to see why it could be as the woods are composed of a series of walkways and narrow shallow valleys through rocks and trees literally smothered in moss. The woods did have a magical feel about them and there were plenty of families enjoying a day out, children running through the pathways and enjoying the thrill of getting lost! To keep more restless children happy there were goats, pigs and other farm animals by the entrance.
On the last day of our visit I visited Lyndey Harbour with Nick. After driving through quite an expansive industrial estate we parked up outside what looked like a derelict factory. Walking a short way down the roadway we came to a bridge and traversing the bridge we were rewarded by sweeping views along the Bristol channel from the shore side.
A path was clearly laid out along the shore and as we walked we came across boulders and a set of modern monolith stones that had the letters of the compass direction carved into them cleverly so that they only revealed themselves when you were facing that direction. Down from the shoreline edged on the muddy flats we could see the skeletons of river barges called Trows abandoned to the elements to provide breakwaters, their timbers sticking out like bones.
A little further on we came to the massive locks which enclosed a tidal basin and calm marina fed by the river Lyd. Here were some yachts at their mooring, the tide being low. I can only imagine given the stupendous tidal range of the Bristol Channel (over 16m in places) that the harbour is accessible more than a hour or so on each tide. Strong tidal currents must surely make the channel a challenging place to sail! There were signs suggesting that the harbour area is part of a restoration project. I do hope that money is still forthcoming as I found Lydney Harbour a fascinating place to visit.
There are surely many other attractions to be found in Gloucestershire but our time had run out and after our four day stay we said goodbye to our friends and headed off for a weekend residential course at the Penny Brohn Centre – but that’s another story.
