A Bit of Heritage in Glamorgan

Upon leaving Warwick we headed for a campsite in Llantwit Major, on the Glamorgan coast. This was to be our home for a week.

Llantwit Major is steeped in Welsh history and was an ancient seat of learning for the Welsh saints. St Illtud founded a church and religious school around 500AD. Llantwit Major became the burial place of the Kings of Glywysing. Almost every period of history has left its mark in Llantwit Major – Iron Age hill forts, a Roman villa, Celtic crosses, a medieval grange and some fine Tudor buildings including the Town Hall, Old School, Great House and the pubs in the square.

We, needless to say, also sampled some of the local ales. Brains Best, Brains SA (known to aficiandos as "Skull Attack"), Flowers IPA & Oh Boy from Bryncelyn Brewery.

Historrick Worrick (aka Historic Warwick)

The event: Warwick Folk Festival - 30th anniversary

When: 24-26 July

Where: on the grounds of Warwick School

Over the last weekend of July we visited the 30th annual Warwick Folk Festival. Details of the event can be found at http://www.warwickfolkfestival.co.uk/

This was an ideal opportunity for us to make use of our camper.

The weather was a bit mixed but we managed to stay dry most of the time.

The Festival attracted thousands of people - many camped on site but many also stayed in and around Warwick for the weekend.

The key performers who we enjoyed the most were

Elbow Jane – 5-piece acoustic band from the Wirral (http://www.elbowjane.com/index.php )

The Great Bonzo and Doris – with their versions of escapology, morris dancing, boxing, budgies of prey, Shakespeare, a levitating toilet tent and a knife throwing act without knives!

Le Vent du Nord – French and Quebecois traditional music with hints of country and jazz (http://www.leventdunord.com/english/pages/accueil.php )

Kate Rusby – Barnsley singer who also had a 2006 hit with Ronan Keating (http://www.katerusby.com/ )

Spooky Men’s Chorale – from Australia, their “sing like a bloke” workshop was excellent, their main concert session was also good (http://www.spookymen.com.au/home.htm ) and also see this on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvCFIposH_g&feature=related

Wheeler Street – group of teenagers from Maidstone (http://www.wheelerstreet.org/ )

We also took the opportunity to look around "historic Warwick".

The impressive Castle ...

... and the street festival

Needless to say we also sampled some of the beers on offer - including Hooky, Pedigree, Theakston, Tribute, Dragonslayer (B&T), Sunshine (Church End) & Shefford.

A Deva weekend

Where better to try out our camper van for our first "stop-over" than near Chester?


We stayed on a small site at a farm in Guilden Sutton, just over 2 miles from Chester

On the Saturday morning we cycled to and from Chester along part of National Cycle Network Route 45 - for much of the way along the Shropshire Union Canal.

So why Chester?

The name Chester is derived from the Latin for a Camp 'Castra' and the Roman name for Chester was 'Deva' - named after the goddess of the River Dee.

Among Chester's claims to fame are:

- the oldest race course in the Country;
- the Largest Roman Amphitheatre in the Country;
- the only surviving rock cut Roman Shrine in the Country;
- the most complete set of Town Walls in the Country;

... and did you know that Henry Gee was mayor of Chester in 1540. He cancelled the Traditional Shrove Tuesday football game and replaced it with a horse race. His surname is where we get the informal name for race horses - 'Gee Gee's'.

Here are some of the sights we saw as we walked through the city centre and all the way around the City walls

The Cathedral

The Town Hall

We started our clockwise circuit of the Walls at Northgate

We visited the Roman Gardens and Hypocaust

... then set off back to Guilden Sutton

... a grand day out