The Golden Valley is the name given to the valley of the River Dore in western Herefordshire, England. The valley is a picturesque area of gently rolling countryside. It lies in the lee of the Black Mountains, Wales.
The main villages are Dorstone, Peterchurch, Abbey Dore and Ewyas Harold.
The name Golden Valley probably derives from a confusion of the name of the River Dore with the French d'or, meaning 'of gold'. The Normans might have confused the Welsh word dŵr, meaning 'water', with 'd'or'. [1] A similar situation occurred with the Douro river in Iberia (Spain and Portugal) where the Romance languages adopted the original Celtic name and changed the meaning to the similar-sounding precious metal.
Arthur's Stone, Herefordshire, [2] located just outside the village of Dorstone, is a chamber tomb from the Neolithic Period, and dates from some time between 3700 and 2700 BC. Arthur's Stone is Herefordshire's oldest man-made structure.
Dore Abbey [3] is a former mediaeval Cistercian monastery that during the summer offers a programme of musical concerts. It was built between 1175 and 1220 and restored in the 1630s.
Nearby is Bacton Church with the monument to Blanche Parry - she was close to Queen Elizabeth I for 56 years. This monument, securely dated before November 1578, is the earliest depiction anywhere of Queen Elizabeth I as an icon, as 'Gloriana'. It pre-dates the paintings showing this theme. Bacton Church also has rare 1914–1918, World War I, medal ribbons depicted in stone on several memorial wall plaques.
The diaries of Francis Kilvert extol the beauty of the local landscape of English river valleys sheltered by the Black Mountains between Hay on Wye and Hereford and it is Bredwardine where he is buried. Kilvert was Rector at St Andrew's church, Bredwardine until his early death in 1879.
Snodhill Castle is a very early Norman stone fortification. Ewyas Harold Castle is an early Norman motte and bailey castle and St Michael's church, Ewyas Harold contains a 13th-century or 14th-century effigy of a lady holding a heart in the palm of her hand.
The last remaining toll bridge in Herefordshire at Whitney-on-Wye leads to Hay-on-Wye.
A plaque written in Welsh and dated 1574 was discovered during renovations in St Margaret's Church, near Newton, and is currently on display within the church. The church also contains a printed notice of the duties of churchwardens in both English and Welsh.
Owain Glyndŵr is said to have spent his final years after his disappearance following the eventual failure of his rebellion against King Henry IV in hiding under an alternative identity with his daughter, Alys Scudamore, previously known as Alys ferch Owain Glyndŵr, and her husband, a Herefordshire Scudamore, namely Sir John Scudamore in the Golden Valley.
The Golden Valley featured in the 1993 film Shadowlands in both a painting and as an actual location. C.S. Lewis, the film's protagonist, owned a painting of a valley which to him, as a child, appeared to be heaven.
The 154 miles (248 km) Herefordshire Trail long distance footpath passes through the valley. [4]
The Golden Valley Railway Company opened a line from Pontrilas to Dorstone in 1881 and an extension to Hay-on-Wye in 1889, but a plan to link to Monmouth was never realised. The line was sold to the Great Western Railway in 1899. Passenger operation on the line ceased in 1941 and it closed completely in 1957. [5]
During 2008 the Golden Valley saw the construction of the National Grid's 196 km natural gas pipeline from Felindre in Swansea to Tirley in Gloucestershire. [6] The pipeline increases the volume of gas which can be transported from the new LNG terminals at Milford Haven to the rest of the UK. [7]
Owain ap Gruffydd, commonly known as Owain Glyndŵr or Glyn Dŵr, was a Welsh leader, soldier and military commander who led a 15 year long Welsh War of Independence with the aim of ending English rule in Wales during the Late Middle Ages. Owain was an educated lawyer, forming the first Welsh Parliament under his rule, and was the last native-born Welshman to hold the title Prince of Wales.
Dore Abbey is a former Cistercian abbey in the village of Abbey Dore in the Golden Valley, Herefordshire, England. A large part of the original medieval building has been used since the 16th century as the parish church, with remaining parts either now ruined or no longer extant.
The history of Herefordshire starts with a shire in the time of Athelstan (895–939), and Herefordshire is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in 1051. The first Anglo-Saxon settlers, the Magonsætan, were a sub-tribal unit of the Hwicce who occupied the Severn valley. The Magonsætan were said to be in the intervening lands between the Rivers Wye and Severn. The undulating hills of marl clay were surrounded by the Welsh mountains to the west; the Malvern Hills to the east; the Clent Hills of the Shropshire borders to the north, and the indeterminate extent of the Forest of Dean to the south. The shire name first recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was derived from "Here-ford", Old English for "Army crossing", the location for the city.
Abbey Dore is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England, known for Dore Abbey, a 12th-century Cistercian abbey, which was expanded in the 13th century.
Monnington on Wye is a village in western Herefordshire, England, located between Hereford and Hay-on-Wye.
Alys ferch Owain Glyndŵr was one of the daughters of Margaret Hanmer and Owain Glyndŵr, the disinherited prince of the old Welsh royal house of Powys Fadog, who led a major revolt in Wales between 1400 and ca. 1416 against King Henry IV of England.
Pontrilas railway station is a former station which served the Herefordshire villages of Pontrilas and Ewyas Harold, and was a little distance from Grosmont, in Monmouthshire, Wales. It was located on the Welsh Marches Line between Hereford and Abergavenny. The Golden Valley Railway ran from here through to the Midland Railway line at Hay on Wye. The station is now a private house with attached self-catering holiday cottage created from the former waiting room.
Dorstone Castle was in the village of Dorstone in Herefordshire, England, located 6 miles to the east of Hay-on-Wye.
Ewyas Harold Castle was a castle in the village of Ewyas Harold in Herefordshire, England.
Dorstone is a village within the Golden Valley, Herefordshire, England. There is a church and public house with restaurant. The Golden Valley area offers hillwalking and horseback riding countryside and is noted for its scenery. It is within the catchment area of Fairfield secondary school.
Sir John Scudamore was a 15th-century English landowner from Herefordshire who acted as constable and steward of a number of Royal castles in South Wales. Active in fighting with the Welsh in 1402, he was still living in 1432, when it was discovered that he had married a daughter of Owain Glyndŵr.
Ewyas Harold is a village and civil parish in the Golden Valley in Herefordshire, England, near the Wales-England border about halfway between Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, and Hereford. The population of this civil parish at the 2011 census was 883. It lies on the Dulas brook, and is contiguous with the neighbouring village of Pontrilas.
Arthur's Stone is a Neolithic chambered tomb, or dolmen, in Herefordshire, England. It is situated on the ridge line of a hill overlooking both the Golden Valley, Herefordshire and the Wye Valley. The tomb dates from 3,700 BC – 2,700 BC.
The Herefordshire Trail is a long distance footpath in Herefordshire, England.
Ewyas was a possible early Welsh kingdom which may have been formed around the time of the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century. The name was later used for a much smaller commote or administrative sub-division, which covered the area of the modern Vale of Ewyas and a larger area to the east including the villages of Ewyas Harold and Ewyas Lacy.
Fairfield High School is a coeducational secondary school located in Peterchurch, Herefordshire, England.
Bredwardine is a village and civil parish in the west of Herefordshire, England.
The River Dore is a tributary of the River Monnow in Herefordshire, England.
Llancillo is a civil parish in south-west Herefordshire, England, and is approximately 13 miles (20 km) south-west from the city and county town of Hereford. The parish borders Wales at the south in which is the nearest town, Abergavenny, 7 miles (11 km) to the south-southwest. In the parish is the isolated Grade II* listed 11th-century Church of St Peter.
There are multiple buildings and sites associated with Owain Glyndwr in Wales.
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