Hereford

We’re travelling down to Jonny & Sarah’s wedding in Gloucestershire and decided to stop off on the way at Hereford. Sattie directed us to a car park; when we arrived there was plenty of space but no machine. A sign informed us that the only way to pay is via the app, so I downloaded the app, and tried to use it. In this I was hindered by the fact that it was in Russian. Fortunately there was another car park round the corner, with a machine, so I deleted the app and we parked there instead.

A short walk into town and we spotted a sign which directed us towards the cathedral. Hereford cathedral has all the usual cathedral-ly things about it, and we looked at all of them. This included some old stained glass, and some newer stained glass. It also had the tomb of Sir Richard Pembridge, a three-legged knight. This is due to his effigy having lost a leg when it was moved from Hereford Friary to the cathedral. A replacement was made of wood, but later an alabaster one was made, and the wooden one banished to a shelf in the library. It is now displayed next to his tomb.

Modern stained glass window

I'm Sir Richard Pembroke "The Peg"

...with my extra leg

What Hereford also has is the Mappa Mundi, a medieval map of the world. It doesn’t actually resemble much of a modern-day map, although it is surprisingly accurate at least to the placement of some of the countries on it. This is the main draw, although they twin it with the chained library. This does exactly what it says on the tin, and was a 17^th century solution to the problem of books going missing, not being returned etc. The books are literally chained to the shelves. There is a desk underneath for you to study the book at, but the books never leave the library.

A modern, more legible version of the mappa mundi

 

The chained library

Afterwards we found a little café bar down an alleyway to have some lunch in, then drove on via the Wye Valley. We stopped at Tintern Abbey as we spotted it in time to turn off. The abbey is, of course, a ruin (that Henry VIII again), but the remains are spectacular. Part of the church is not accessible at the moment as they are carrying out restoration work, but there’s enough to see and plenty of explanatory plaques dotted around the place to explain what went where. 

A short drive further on and we arrived at our destination. Best Western hotels is possibly one of the most inaptly named chains…Average Western would be more accurate. But it’s only for one night.