Caerwent - Motorways and Monarchs in Monmouthshire

It's been many months since I've written a Chester blog post - probably the biggest gap I've had since this project began and this is due to the fact that we were prevented from doing a Chester walk in March, because of an unexpected snowfall - although we rescheduled our Caerwent walk and did it in May instead, I've been quite busy since then and, in fact, I've resorted to writing this blog post after a busy day at the office, on a work trip to India - a million miles away from rural Monmouthshire and far removed from the possibility of being snowed in!

Getting to Caerwent was always going to be a challenge, from a logistical point of view, but we managed quite well in the end, catching the 17:30 National Express service from Victoria Coach station, all the way to Chepstow, then jumping in a pre-ordered taxi, to take us the remaining miles to Caerwent itself.

Lodgings and Victuals

We had a really lovely stay in Northgate House BnB which, as the name suggests, is located on the site where the northern gate of Venta Silurum, the Roman settlement which gives Caerwent it's Chester credentials.  Actually, one advantage of Caerwent's relatively obscure location is the fact that the Roman town is rather well-preserved and quite a few sites have been excavated and made for an interesting visit when we arrived, although it was already after 9pm.

The church at Caerwent (sunset)

The light is good in May, so we had enough time to visit the Roman ruins and we even walked along the southern wall of the Roman settlement, which led us, handily enough, to the Coach and Horses Inn, where we settled in for a couple of drinks and a chance to have a proper catch up.

Y Deml Celtaidd-Rufeinig

Caerwent to Caldicot Castle (2.4 miles/3.9 kilometres)

Starting out bright and early the next morning, we retraced our steps through the Roman town, as far as the Church of St Stephen and St Tathan, then back along the southern wall and south along the Dewstow Road, crossing a bridge at Nedern Brook.  In case you're wondering, St Tathan was a Celtic saint, supposedly the son of an Irish king, who moved to Caerwent and set up the church there.  One thing about walking in Wales is that we're learning the names of saints we'd never heard of before, as they were local figures who, perhaps, didn't make much of an impression on the ecclesiastical world stage.

The Roman Wall in the southern part of Caerwent

After Nedern Brook, we turned left down the rather busy Church Road, in the direction of Caldicot, Caerwent's more ambitious neighbour, opting for a quieter cycle path which follows Sandy Lane under the busy M48, Monmouthshire's prime motorway and into some quiet suburbs on the edge of the town.

The cycle path led us to St Mary's Church in Caldicot, where we passed around the churchyard, then took a small path through the country park to Caldicot castle.  The castle was celebrating some kind of anniversary so, luckily for us, it was free entrance and we went into the castle grounds, where we stopped for some refreshments.  It was one of the first really nice summer days, so it felt good to sit in the castle grounds and drink lemonade, before we set off again in the direction of the Severn.

Caldicot Castle

Caldicot Castle to Sudbrook (1.9 miles/3.1 kilometres)

It was a short walk from Caldicot castle to the Severn, passing under the M4, which is the main motorway between London and South Wales and reaches across the river Severn in an impressive structure called the Second Severn Crossing, or the Prince of Wales bridge.  Most times I've been to Wales, I've travelled by train, which passes through the Severn Tunnel, under the river - so it was interesting to see the other option, which is the huge road bridge linking England and Wales.  We also saw the (old) Severn bridge, later in the day, which links Chepstow to South Gloucestershire.

BAM walking on the Wales Coast path near the Second Severn Crossing

It was the day of the Royal Wedding, so more Duke of Sussex than Prince of Wales and BAM (Best Aussie Mate) was quite excited to get an update, via Australia, on the dress that Meghan Markle had chosen to wear.  We stopped briefly at Sudbrook, an interesting little workers' village that sprang up in the 1870's, in response to engineering work on the Severn Tunnel, which passes under the cliff at this point.

The Prince of Wales bridge over the Severn

One of the locals tried to interest us in a series of chalk arrows, a bit of a Da Vinci code moment, that was completely lost on me, but apparently has some esoteric significance to the villagers of Sudbrook!

Weird chalk arrows at Sudbrook

Sudbrook to Mathern (3.2 miles/5.1 kilometres)

It was a nice walk along the Wales Coast path from Sudbrook to St Tewdric's church in Mathern (queue another obscure Welsh saint!) - there were some interesting rocks on the seafront and great views across the Severn to the lighthouse on Charston Rock.  We had a short break in the shade beside St Tewdric's church, as BAM went online to book a ticket for a music festival called The Mighty Hoopla, which we went to a couple of weekends later.

Lighthouse on Charston Rock

Sitting in the shade at St Tewdric's church in Mathern

Mathern to Thornwell (1.3 miles/2.1 kilometres)

From Mathern we walked past an industrial estate to reach Thornwell, an outer suburb of Chepstow, where I managed to convince BAM to stop at Tesco Express for a much-needed ice-cream!  Thornwell had a strange kind of vibe - someone shouted something unintelligible at us, as they were driving past on Denbigh Drive, then we passed Thornwell Football club, where there was a Royal Wedding party - lots of people getting drunk and wearing plastic Union Jack hats!

It's the oldest part of Chepstow, but not the nicest and we were glad to find that the path led us into a lovely wood, above the railway line and with great views towards the Army barracks at Beachley.

Thornwell to Chepstow Castle (2.2 miles/3.5 kilometres)

It was still quite a walk from Thornwell, over the ridge to Chepstow, past the remains of the city walls, then down past the train station to the town centre and the beautiful Chepstow castle.  I found Chepstow to be a slightly higgledy-piggledy place - medieval in its layout, which made it quite interesting.

Chepstow castle

Strangely, it reminded me a bit of Lifford/Strabane, where I grew up, there's a certain 'border' feeling I got in Chepstow - the river, the Army base, the frontier feeling - it all reminded me of home!  Although we don't have a fantastic castle in Lifford, as they do in Chepstow and I couldn't help but wonder if the castle was built to keep the English out, or to keep the Welsh in!

Cas-Gwent railway station

There's an award-winning pizza restaurant called Stone Rock pizza and we can certainly recommend it, as it was quite lovely sitting in the garden at the back of the restaurant, stuffing ourselves in the early evening sunshine. 

Access for Wheelchair users

Inaccessible path between Sudbrook and Mathern

The first part of the walk from Caerwent to Sudbrook was accessible, although you would need to be careful on the stretch of road between Nedern Brook and Sandy Lane.  The path was inaccessible from Sudbrook to Mathern, but Mathern to Chepstow was mostly on a cycle path and seemed fairly accessible, so this walk could form two distinct stages that would be accessible to wheelchair users. 

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