One Day Tour of South Wales
This evening, I am reprising a report on a one day tour of South Wales which encompassed an ancient abbey, the longest and fifth longest rivers in Britain, scenic landscapes and a large suspension bridge. We departed our Cheltenham lodgings and drove west to Tintern in Wales.Here, we spent time visiting the romantic ruin of Tintern Abbey on banks of the River Wye.Tintern was a Cistercian Abbey founded in 1131 by Walter fitz Richard of Clare. The Cistercian community relied on farming, an activity which prospered and facilitated growth in the religious complex at Tintern from an inital collection of wooden buildings to modest stone structures to a significant expansion in the early 13th century with the magnificent Gothic church as the centrepiece. Despite ravages of war and the Black Death Tintern Abbey continued to prosper with further expansions implemented through to the early 16th century. Tintern’s demise came in 1536 when the monastery and its w...