Tuesday, 29 June 1943
Log of a Cycle Tour to North Wales, by Roy Spurgeon, with Leslie Lee. 28 June 30 June
We left the hostel for Ross at 0945 hours (1991.6) by the main road, noticing en-route that Mitcheldean railway station on the G.W.R. was about three miles from the village, a state of affairs for which there did not seem to be any satisfactory explanation.
We passed through the villages of Lea and Weston-under-Lonyard, stopped at Ross for a brief look round and then crossed the Wye by the famous old bridge at Wilton, with its adjacent castle ruins. We turned left down the side of the river at Huntsham's Loop and ate our packed lunches at a small inn over a glass of cider, then went due South east down the road to Symonds Yat.
Having reached the end of the road, we left our cycles and boarded a rowing boat. The boatmen rowed us downstream to the side of Symonds Yat itself where we were afforded a magnificent view of the wooded hill, with the Needle and Seven Sisters rocks jutting out from the side, the former with a pear tree growing out of the top, though there was some difference of opinion subsequently as to which rock the tree was actually growing from and also as to how it got there. The story, obtained from the boatmen, that the seed had been carried there by a bird was received with mixed feelings.
The boat took us down as far as the rapids, where the salmon leap in season and where the river bottom drops 11 feet in 250 yards. At this point, too, the railway runs through a tunnel under the Yat from the side of the river on the one side of Huntsham's Loop to the other, a distance of only 250 yards through the tunnel but of 5 miles by water. It was extremely pleasant on the water but being very much cooler than on land but we pitied the boatman, who had to row 9 people single handed on such a hot day.
Symonds Yat gets its name from as far back as the 13th Century, when a man named Symonds owned the toll gate which separated Herefordshire from Gloucestershire and it consequently came to be known as Symonds Gate. It remained thus until the 16th Century when the gate was removed and, Welsh influence making itself felt, the spot was renamed Symonds Yat - Yat being Welsh for gate.
In normal times we might have had the chance to go over the rapids, but under the existing conditions, as there were not enough boatmen left, we were unable to do so.
We therefore landed once more on terra firma, the boatman being anxious to take us no further upstream than he could help, and sat down to a very good lunch in one of the hotels overlooking the river. Having refreshed ourselves, we crossed by ferry to the other side of the Wye and, after a steep climb (on foot) up a tiny footpath, we reached the rocky summit of Symonds Yat, 740 feet above sea level. A magnificent view is obtained of the surrounding countryside from this point; it is possible to see parts of the following seven counties - Monmouthshire, Shropshire, Radnor, Glamorgan, Brecon, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire.
We sat on the rocks at the top for some time in a very welcome cool breeze, the day being very hot indeed and then roamed through the woods, gradually descending until we came down to the river again at a point below the rapids. On the way down we looked in vain for the fine stalactite caves reputed to exist near the Needle and Seven Sisters Rocks. We paddled our feet, by now tired and aching, in the cold water of the river and then crossed the single track railway in front of one of the Diesel engined railcars used by the G.W.R. on this line. Crossing the river once more by the ferry, we had tea in yet another of the hotels overlooking the river. The ferry, incidentally, is the only method of crossing the Wye for several miles and provides the only access to Symonds Yat from the right bank of the river; it is sufficiently interesting to merit further description. It is worked by the simple method (at least it looked simple enough) of the ferryman working his way along a rope suspended across the river, while keeping his feet in the boat and thus bringing it over with him. It is quite obvious that long practice must have been necessary to accomplish this method, considering the comparatively strong current of the river.
After tea, we returned to our cycles, with the exception of Pat, Ernst and Les, who decided they would like a swim, and went back to the hostel by the same way as we had come in the morning. (2019.5). The others returned shortly afterwards and, after supper, we were treated to an unexpected entertainment. The Gaumont British Picture Corporation which runs a mobile film unit for the benefit of outlying villages was putting on a show in the hostel. The films were very old but quite good. There was an old cowboy film and also the "Rome Express" starring Gordon Harker, with Conrad Veidt.
Total cycling distance for the day 27.9 miles.
Next day: 30 June