MATHERN AND WYELANDS WALK

DISTANCE: 4.5KM/3 MILES

STARTING POINT:  Mathern Village, near the Miller’s Arms

DIRECTIONS

 

  • Cross the road, turn left and about 100 metres after passing under the bridge you will see St. Tewdric’s Well 1
  • Carry on along the road for about 300 metres to a sharp right hand bend, with Innage Farm on the corner.
  • Continue on around the bend to Mathern Church and, further along to the left of the church, a view of Mathern Palace.2
  • Leave the churchyard by the main gate, turn right and continue along the lane for

about 100 metres to view Mathern Palace.3

  • Retrace your steps back to the corner near Innage Farm and cross the stile immediately to the left of the farm entrance.
  • Keeping close to the right hand field boundary, cross two more stiles.
  • Turn left along a wide track, cross the bridge, turn immediately right, and then left over a stile after about 30 metres.
  • Follow the hedge on your right to the top of the field, climb up the small hump on your left.4
  • Carry on along the path through four metal kissing gates until you find yourself on Barn Lane.
  • Cross the lane, go through another kissing gate and turn right to yet another kissing gate.
  • Now go diagonally left across the field to a stile, across this field to another stile and then a third field to go through a pair of metal squeeze stiles.5
  • Carry straight on to another metal squeeze stile and across the next field.
  • When you come to a stile do not cross it, but turn left to follow the field boundary to a stile in the corner of the field and then on to a narrow track, known as Snakey Lane.6
  • This eventually widens to a narrow lane, Arnolds Lane.
  • Follow the lane as it winds past Mathern Athletic Club and then, back to the Millers Arms where your walk began.

 

POINTS OF INTEREST

 

  1. This spot was where Celtic King Tewdric died in about 470 AD. According to legend, he was wounded in a battle with the Saxons at Angiddy near Tintern. Two stags came out of the forest and were hitched to a cart which carried him to this spot where he died and was buried nearby. water in the Well is said never to freeze, providing a reliable source of drinking water for livestock, even in bitter winters.
  2. The church is dedicated to St. Tewdric, whose Well you have just visited. Dating mainly from the 12th Century, although there are some 7th Century remains, it is a Grade 1 listed building. The bell tower, added in the 1480’s, has a peal of six bells which were cast in Chepstow in 1765, at a cost of £28-6s. Each bell has an inscription around the barrel such as “Prosperity to the Parish” and “Peace and good neighbourhood”. They were restored in 1970 and are regularly rung.
  3. Mathern Palace, now a private property. Built in the early 14th Century, the house was partly demolished in the 1770s but restored in 1894 by Henry Avray Tipping, who later became architectural editor of Country Life magazine. Tipping was not only a leading authority on the history, architecture and furnishings of Welsh and English country houses but also one of the most famous garden designers of his era. He was a great friend of Gertrude Jekyll and is best-known for gardens designed in the Arts and Crafts style, such as this magnificent garden at Mathern Palace. He also designed a similar garden at nearby Mounton House(which at one time needed 12 gardeners to maintain it) besides others in Monmouthshire. His best known work is probably that of the walled garden at Chequers, the country residence of all British Prime Ministers.
  4. Turn around. You are now standing on the remains of a World War II lookout bunker, which commands good views of the Severn Estuary. The Severn is the longest river in the UK, with the second highest tidal range in the world. The First Severn Crossing (opened in 1966) is on your left whilst the Second Severn Crossing (opened in 1996) is on your right. You may also see a small island at the end of the Beachley peninsula, on the right of the First Severn Crossing. The remains of a chapel dedicated to a 6th century Welsh saint, St Twrog, are sited here but the treacherous Severn tides make it too dangerous to visit.
  5. Here, the path crosses the driveway to ‘Wyelands’. This Grade II listed Georgian mansion was built around 1820 and its parkland and gardens completed at around the same time.
  6. It is known as Snakey Lane because it’s walls once reputedly harboured snakes (but not now!!)