Vowchurch Common

One of my New Year's Resolutions this year is to get out and do more walking.
I've never been up to Vowchurch Common, though I've been past on the bus very often, so I looked it up in a little book called 100 Walks in Hereford & Worcester. This gives a round walk which includes Monnington Court, which I thought was very interesting until I realised that this wasn't the medieval Monnington Court which was reputed to be the hideaway of Owain Glyndwr in his last years after he disappeared (that's at Monnington-on-Wye,), despite what the book says. This was a much later house, though it does seem to have a medieval motte right next to the house.
The walking book didn't even mention the hill fort which is clearly marked on the OS map by Poston Lodge (I'm beginning to think it is of dubious usefulness), and this looked far more interesting, especially since both the Lodge and the hillfort are described in Pevsner. Poston Lodge was built as a hunting box in 1780.
So I designed my own walk.

I took the twenty to ten bus from Hay, and got off just beyond Peterchurch at Poston Mill, where the caravan park is. A little way along the main road, I turned off up a driveway which was also a public footpath, which led up to Poston Lodge. The views of the Golden Valley are fantastic, and this morning there was sunshine with a slight haze in the air.
It was impossible to miss the hillfort - it's just in front of the house, with a high mound and two banks behind it, all within the private grounds of the Lodge, so I couldn't get a good photo. The public footpath is well-marked, and has been diverted around the Lodge through the forestry plantation. In one direction it heads for Stockley Hill and Peterchurch, and the other is Vowchurch Common.
The bridleway was well signposted until I got into the middle of the forestry plantation, where the path petered out somewhat. I knew I should be heading in roughly a straight line by then, and was able to follow recent hoof prints in the mud, so I knew I was on the right track.
This brought me out at the top of the long steep road that leads back to the main road. There's a scatter of houses down the hill, wherever it gets flat enough to build, and a lot of them seem to be old cottages that have been extended. About half way down the hill there's a track off to the side which leads to houses with the wonderful names of Quercwm, Little Reeve and Frogs Hollow. There's a derelict cottage at that turning, and across the lane from it land has been levelled and a retaining wall built - it looks as if a new house is about to be built there, and there was a family sitting round a campfire with their dog when I passed.
At the bottom of the hill I crossed the main road to go down to Vowchurch, which is only a little way. I sat in the churchyard on a bench facing the river to eat my lunch. It's a very charming spot, with the church, a big timber framed house beside the churchyard, and a little stone bridge across the river:

After lunch (one of the wonderful sausage rolls from the Wholefood shop, and coffee from a flask) I had a look round the church. It's lovely inside, with an early font and some beautifully carved 17th century benches among the treasures. It was also the parish church of Lewis Carroll's brother, Skeffington Hume Dodgson, from 1895 to 1910. There's no record of Lewis Carroll having visited, but they did write letters to each other, some of which have been collected. There's a leaflet and a small display of pictures at the back of the church, including one of Rev. Dodgson fly fishing in the churchyard, not far from where I had my lunch! It was a lot more open along the river bank then!

Since I was so close, I went across the bridge to Turnastone, where there's another little church. This one was locked when I visited, but I did see my first snowdrops of the year in the churchyard:

I also found this house/garage/shop/post office (though I don't think it's in use any more):

I still had plenty of time before the bus back to Hay was due, so I took the public footpath along a stream that runs parallel to the River Dore, back to Peterchurch. Along the way, I found this sign, about Rowland Vaughan's Waterworks at Vowchurch, and the 2015 dig that uncovered some of the evidence for the system he'd built to flood the meadows at certain times of the year to improve the pasture (I think it's just about legible if it's enlarged):

I got back to Peterchurch with plenty of time to spare, and peered into the windows of the police station, which is now for sale - the police are operating out of the fire station now. The bus home was about ten minutes late, but I had a very sweet ginger cat keeping me company while I waited.