Youngest Boy and I found ourselves yesterday on the River Wye below Monmouth. Not strictly in England, although the eastern bank must have been at one time. We inexplicably ended up at the Boat Inn at Penallt, staring at the cast-iron columned bridge in the top picture. A footbridge is attached to it that takes you over to the village of Redbrook, and after we'd done that we settled down to a Wye Valley Bitter straight out of the barrel and a bottle of ginger beer. Studying the map we thought we'd try and find some more Wye bridges, and so ended up just south of Monmouth. The centre picture that looks like the ruined end of a Roman aqueduct is in fact the ruined end of a viaduct that now doesn't carry the railway across the Wye on its way down to Penallt and Chepstow. The bottom photo is of the iron bridge right next door that once took another line from Monmouth down to Newport. Just look at that floodwater debris that's collected and built up against one of the columns. We had a picnic amongst the buttercups of big ham rolls, prawn sandwiches and orange juice that burst out all over us when we took the cap off. 
4 comments:
I can recommend the Old Station (former Wye Valley Railway) cafe in nearby Tintern for elevenses next time you're in the area.
Yes, I was just thinking of the Old Station as I read this post. A good follow-up to a browse in Stella Books.
The Wye is one of our most beautiful rivers, and it's interesting that so much of its beauty is offset by ruins – these bridges, Tintern Abbey, the church at Lancaut.
I know of stella's, but not of the teashop or lancaut. So thankyou both.
Shame this wasn't a "where's this then". Much time spent navigating the Wye by canoe thirty odd years ago has etched thos bridges on my brain. In those days it was possible to canoe the length of the river over a week or so without getting shouted at by fishermen.
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