Ross On Wye Wales


Ross-on-Wye   The Wye is at its most beautiful and gentle as it meanders past Ross-on-Wye. Ross is itself one of Britain's most attractive historic towns with its red sandstone market place, its river front and tall and graceful spire. Mostly built in the 17th century on a small rise above the Wye, Ross is also the site of the Roman camp Ariconium, and in Saxon times the place where Edmund Ironside died. Edmund had been impaled on a sharpened stake placed tactically in his latrine. The Norman King Stephen erected Wilton Castle beside the Saxon village at Ross in the 12th century; now tumbled down and covered with ivy, it makes a friendly ruin. Ross suffered dreadfully in the plague of the 17th century; over 300 people were buried in a communal grave by the church. John Price, the vicar, is remembered for his bravery. Remembered by the poets Pope and Coleridge is the famous philanthropist John Kyrle - 'the Man of Ross'.

The Queen Stone   Standing nearly 5m tall on flat and flood-prone land by a horseshoe bend of the Wye, near Ross, is one of Britain's most remarkable and extraordinary standing stones. Made of a beautiful red sandstone, what makes the Queen Stone so utterly unusual are the thick chiselled grooves that run down its four sides. Each groove is roughly 5cm wide and over 15cm deep. It is possible, but unlikely, that the grooves were made naturally by erosion before the stone was erected. More likely is that they were at least improved with human tools and that they served a ritual purpose - perhaps to let sacrificial blood flow from its fire-flattened top down through the grooves to the earth below. The great ley-finder Alfred Watkins believed that wooden rods may have been inserted into the grooves to mark the path of a ley line.

Goodrich Castle Goodrich is a magnificent castle. Still wonderfully preserved today, it stands as a great red mass of power and invincibility on its red sandstone platform high above the River Wye. Surrounded by a deep dramatic moat, its dungeon dark and dank, Goodrich appears a classic medieval castle; its stong red walls are protected by arrow-slits, 'death holes' and the still visible remains of a drawbridge and portcullis. With its stunning views of the Wye, the castle is an elegant and evocative example of the medieval castle-builders' art, its military technology developed over 400 years; but above all else it was built as a fearsome war machine to guard a major crossing of the Wye and the old Roman road from Monmouth to Gloucester. Goodrich Castle is so well preserved because its dominant position, tower butresses and great thick walls repelled attack, until the Civil War. What finally did for Goodrich was a massive cannon. Unable to storm the huge red walls, Parliament's army eventually called for Roaring Meg - a great 200-pounder cannon that had just been smelted in a vast furnace near by in the Forest of Dean. Roaring Meg's fearsome power destroyed Goodrich's Lady Tower and the walls were breached. Among the dead was Alice Birch, whose uncle led Parliament's army. Alice was in love with one of the Royalists holding out in the castle. Her uncle allowed them to escape before the bombardment. At night, they galloped off, but missed the ford across the Wye and both were drowned.

Edmund Ironside   Legend tells that Ross is the place where the Saxon king Edmund II died from traitors' wounds in 1016. Edmund is better known as Edmund 'Ironside', for his fierce defence of England against the huge invading army of the Danish king Canute. England was divided between the warring kings - Edmund held the west and Wessex while Canute ruled in the north and east. The story goes that one of Edmund's servants plotted to murder him for the reward that Canute might give. The servant secretly positioned a sharpened stake in the king's latrine at Minsterworth in Gloucestershire; as Edmund lowered himself to use his toilet, the servant withdrew the candle and Edmund was impaled. The king was rushed from Minsterworth but died at Ross, probably on his way to a monastery near by in search of a cure. The servant soon presented himself at canute's court and claimed the murder as his; Canute had him hanged, so legend tells, from the highest oak that he could find.

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