Brewery Tap & Beavers

Though the pub in Mitcheldean was rather down at heel there was the Brewery Tap a sort of micro pub attached to the Bespoke Brewery. Four beers on, of course I started completely with the wrong one! A stout called Money for Old Rope, I didn't realise it was a stout or I wouldn't have tried it however it went down! Next was much nicer called Over a Barrel, it was 5% and much more to my liking, a rich ruby colour. I have got a taste for the lighter coloured beers and Bespoke Brewery didn't let me down with Saved by the Bell, at 3.8% and Golden Rule at 4% classed as a session beer, a nice light gold colour to it. The beers were all really nice (with the exception of the Stout that tasted like cough mixture), the place itself was lively and friendly, it's only open Thurs/Fri & Saturdays so we only got to go once but there you are.

Stout!

The Brewery and Brewery Tap the site of an old Victorian brewery long gone

Beavers are being reintroduced into the Forest of Dean, at the moment there's a large fenced area with a deep gorge and stream for them near a place called The Pludds. It took Ida & I about an hour to walk round the perimeter of their enclosure so its pretty big, didn't see any Beavers, I expect they were well hidden away. I'm not too sure about reintroducing animals like Beavers, they are destructive in making their lodges. They became extinctic here 400 years ago so the eco-structure has developed without them, who knows what they'll do if they are ever released from this enclosure.
Saw these beetles as well, they are on old horse dung it looks like. I suppose they are probably Dung Beetles but I thought they were bigger than these.

A good view of the fencing around the Beaver enclosure

  Also found quite an interesting memorial on top of a beacon called Pan Tod dedicated to the Free Miners of the Forest of Dean who had been killed in accidents over the years. Not much of an area to walk though as there was quite afew houses near by and any public footpaths near were so overgrown they were impassable.

It's a strange area the Forest of Dean. There's not really all that much to see & we found ourselves going outside the forest during the week, Symonds Yat was pretty spectacular and my walks in the forest were good but I don't think it's an area we'll come back to again, that's not to say we didn't have a good week, the cottage we stayed in was really good, we had a very relaxing time.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Raglan Castle and Symonds Yat

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Raglan Castle and Symonds Yat: Had a very pleasant meal out last night at The Farmers Boy at Longhope only a mile or so from where we are staying. The choice for T should...

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Day out

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Day out: It was a really nice day weather wise today, the best of our week away in fact. We visited a village called Wickwar in Gloucestershire. As ...

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Pleasant walk

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Pleasant walk: Went off with Ida today to walk in the Forest of Dean. Quite a climb to start with but it eventually evened out by this time time we were i...

Raglan Castle and Symonds Yat

Had a very pleasant meal out last night at The Farmers Boy at Longhope only a mile or so from where we are staying. The choice for T should have been more extensive but as with so many places that say they offer gluten free options there was out of stocks! Nonetheless there was enough left on the menu for Tara to decide on a warm salad & I had belly pork followed by ice cream for Tara and a 'double' pie for me. Half rhubarb, half apple, also half was a crumble topping and half was a pastry topping. All very good.

  The weather was kind to us today so we set out for another castle ( you can never visit too many castles.... I think), this time it was Raglan, just into South Wales. I think there's an old Music Hall song about the castles that 'Enry knocked abart abit' meaning Henry VIII, though the two very different castles we've visited this week were knocked about abit by the Parliamentary army of the English Civil War ( one of my favorite historical periods) long after 'Enry! 
Raglan is another splendid castle that still has alot left so you can see the grandeur it would have once had. In fact this one was very well appointed historically, its owner chose the wrong side in the English Civil War only to have it fall about his ears!
Finished our day at Symonds Yat with spectacular views down on to the |River Wye in the valley below.

Day out

It was a really nice day weather wise today, the best of our week away in fact. We visited a village called Wickwar in Gloucestershire. As you know  I collect medals amongst other things, and I have in my collection a 1914/15 Star to a Lance Corporal of the 3rd Bn,Grenadier Guards. Sadly he was killed in action in October 1915. He was from Wickwar. The War Memorial outside the church was odd as it didn't have any names on at all, in the church porch was a memorial stone with all the names on including my man Nathaniel George Toms. He was killed in an attack on the Hohenzollern Redoubt, a very strongly held fortification during the Battle of Loos,he has no known grave. He was only 23 years old, got married in May of 1915 and went to France in July and killed on 6th October.
 Every Remembrance Sunday all the names of the fallen are read out in the church which I think is a nice touch. There's another memorial in the village hall that we didn't see and he's remembered on the Loos War Memorial in France.
Tried to find where he and his family lived in the High Street  but was unable unfortunately.  A few years ago Medal News magazine published research I'd done into L/Cpl Toms, I'll have to post it as a blog another time. Wickwar does have a very good tea rooms that we had lunch in, couldn't take Ida inside unfortunately so sat outside.

Memorial stone in the church porch

The village recently had a scarecrow competition, didn't realize these were at first!

  We drove on to a really interesting place in Wales called Caerwent known in Roman times as Venta Silurum. There's alot of Roman structure and walls left, the outer town wall  which was quite spectacular as well as alot of the footprints of buildings including shops and a farm house within the town. The church as two large pieces of inscribed stone, the bigger one a statue plinth of  Governor Tiberius Paulinus , the smaller an altar block dedicated to the god Mars still with an indent on top for a flame. It's well worth a visit, its all well signposted, I had a kick around in any molehills I saw  especially around the wall but found nothing. Time Team excavated in 2008 and discovered more buildings and a  penknife handle depicting two Gladiators. There is still much that hasn't been excavated  at all so there could be more goodies to find!

Plinth and altar stone in the church

Pleasant walk

Went off with Ida today to walk in the Forest of Dean. Quite a climb to start with but it eventually evened out by this time time we were in the forest proper. There's wild Boar round here and I passed a few signs that stated 'Feral Boar,' unfortunately didn't see any, I expect they are far too wiley for that,but did find what I think are boar tracks and could definitely hear them.
Plodded along with Ida, who was enjoying all the sniffs.  I wasn't absolutely sure what track I was on, just the general direction. Turns out I was pretty accurate as I was able to ask a dog walker once we'd joined civilization again. I was of course hoping to find a pub for a beer  mid walk, the dog walker only knew of one & that was off where I was going so it was a 'dry' walk. Only had one brief stop. I had a slice of cake (left for us by the cottage owner which was nice) and a couple of treats for Ida that we'd been given at Goodrich castle yesterday.
The forest paths were a mixture of close woodland with various types of tree to wider paths with fields with hedges Heard some raptors overhead, couldn't identify them though. Some of the paths were quite muddy, not surprising  as the rain has been torrential. Still very pleasant walking though.
All went well and we were near the final descent back into Mitcheldean when we came to a field  of cows. Mixture of cows and bulls to be exact. Now I'll happily walk across a field a of cows but there was what I think was a youngster who came galloping over and in fact kept with us very keenly as we walked round the edge, then the old bull looked up menacingly at us & I decided it probably wasn't such a good idea. Tried to go round the field but that proved impossible, looked at going across the field with the bulls and cows again and did climb over the style but got such a death stare off the bull thought better of it! Could have back tracked but seemed a shame to do that so tried to cut across with the intention of then finding a way down.  We were able to follow some styles so it was a path,there was some strange monoliths on the hilltop near us, couldn't quite get to them, one was like the stones on Easter Island. Many of the styles round here just aren't made for dogs, so four times I had to lift Ida over. She doesn't like being lifted and was no help when I had to do it, I was very conscious of getting all four legs over the style before I could put her down & she's no lightweight! She saw a deer and almost bolted but she's very good and didn't move when I told her to stay. Climbed one style that pretty well crumbled as we climbed over it only to find thicket, brambles and nettles everywhere and no clear path. Stumbled around there until I decided we were getting nowhere fast. When we climbed back over the style we'd climbed across I noticed a sign that stated it was private. Bugger! Pushed on anyway and eventually got out onto the road I thought we'd find. There was a really good view point on one of the bends that looked towards the Severn Estuary, a great view. The road walk down the hill was bit of a sod. Bloody great articulated lorries were belting up the hill passing what seemed like inches from us. I should probably  have braved the field with cows and bulls! Got back OK, we were out just under four hours & I think we'd only walked about 4 miles which is slow but alot of the beginning and middle were uphill. Enjoyed it, as did Ida, I think!

Strange monoliths on a hilltop

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Looking towards the Severn Estuary

Probable Boar tracks