On the Templar Trail

Today, it rained, and it rained, and it rained.
And then it rained some more.
It's still raining.

Yesterday, though, I had the front door open while I was hoovering, so Islay could escape from the noise (she doesn't like the hoover) and sit out at the front. While I was in the middle of that, Old Dave from the Hourglass Gallery came across. "Do you know where Garway is?" he asked. "I've got a couple in my shop who are looking for it."
I grabbed my OS map, and went over.
They were an American couple, so I warned them that the roads round Garway are very narrow, and we found a route down the Golden Valley for them. They said they were looking for all the Templar sites they could find - they'd been to Rosslyn Chapel up in Scotland, of course. The night before, they had been to a concert at Hereford Cathedral, which they thought was a very fine cathedral.
While they were in the area, I suggested they should look at Grosmont Castle, too - it's a charming little place, very little known, and once it was the medieval equivalent of the King's holiday cottage in the country. Which was nice and convenient for the Templars, as when the King was in residence they were just up the road and could approach him more or less privately. There's also a rather nice pub in the village.
They also asked me about mystery books written about the area. The chap said that you can often get a good feeling for an area by reading the fiction set there. I suggested Phil Rickman, who writes the Merrily Watkins series, set in Herefordshire - and one of his recent books, The Fabric of Sin, was set in Garway.