A visit with panoramic views: the Iron Age hillfort Moel y Gaer in Rhosesmor

2 Replies

View from the inner rampart over the outer rampart and beyond to the distant landscape in the east

Introduction

Rhosesmor is a small village not far from Mold, which boasts an Iron Age hillfort a short walk from the village hall car park, with stunning 360° views over the surrounding hills and across the Dee estuary and beyond.

Moel y Gaer Rhosesmor by Chris Musson / CPAT.

Aerial view of Moel y Gaer Rhosesmor by Chris Musson / CPAT. Source: Internet Archaeology

It was an iffy day when I visited, weather-wise, with a lot of cloud overhead and the threat of rain, but it was possible to see for many miles all around, and is very easy to understand why this could have been a strategically valuable location.  The footpath around the top of the first, inner rampart is well worn and unimpeded, and a really lovely walk. The interior and the outer of the two banks, and both ditches, are covered with gorse, which was in flower.  There are paths through the gorse on the plateau, but it makes it difficult to see the line of the second, outer rampart, which in the Iron Age was never a complete circuit.

When I was an undergraduate in the 1980s my parents moved from Hertfordshire to a village not far from Chester.  Whenever I returned home my favourite pastime was taking the family dog and exploring the hills in northeast Wales.  That led me to the Clwydian range and Moel y Gaer Llanbedr.  As a newbie to Wales, with no understanding of Welsh placenames, I had no idea that there were actually three Moel y Gaer hillforts in the area and more further afield so when I returned to university (and bearing in mind that there was no Internet in those days) I spent some time assembling data about Moel y Gaer Rhosesmor, thinking it was Moel y Gaer Llanbedr before the penny dropped.  Decades later I have at last got around to visiting the the Rhosesmor hillfort, and what a super site it is, with a complete panorama of diverse views. See Visiting information at the end of the post for parking details and the route from the car park to the hillfort.

The Archaeology 

The best online source of information about the hillfort is Graeme Guilbert’s page about the site on the Internet Archaeology website, part of a bigger article about the excavation of Welsh hillforts.  I recommend this, because as well as details about the site, many of which I have included below, the page has some really excellent photographs of the excavations during the 1970s and reconstructions of the two different types of roundhouse.

LiDAR view of Moel y Gaer. Source: Lock, Gary and Ralston, Ian. 2024. Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland. Available at https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk

Moel y Gaer translates roughly as “the bare fort,” presumably referring to the somewhat barren moorland conditions characterizing the top of many hillforts, which accounts for why there are three of them with the same name in the area.  It is perched on the southern end of Halkyn mountain, c.300m (984ft) above the Dee floodplain.  The visible remains include two banks, both of which follow the contours of the hill.  The higher, inner bank provides a complete circuit of the hillfort, whilst the second, lower bank, divided from the inner bank by a deep ditch, never provided a complete circuit, as the LiDAR image to the left makes clear.  The most interesting and informative aspects of Moel y Gaer are, however, the structures and features that were excavated in the 1970s and are no longer visible, described briefly below.

The reservoir

The reservoir

Ironically the most clearly identifiable feature today is a rectangular reservoir, completely enclosed and covered in grass and a good perch for admiring the views.  If you sit by one of the metal inspection batches, you can hear something whirring gently below, but otherwise it is just a grassy platform with some metal-topped lids.

It is because of the reservoir that the site was excavated by Graeme Guilbert and his team in the 1970s, with the bulk of the work carried out between 1972 and 1974.  Although the development of a modern structure slapped on a prehistoric site was undoubtedly controversial, it did at least give the opportunity for archaeologists to investigate 0.6 hectares (1.4 acres) of the 2.7 hectares (6.6 acres), and the results were excellent.  It is rare that it is possible to cut a 15ft trench through a rampart, due to time and cost constraints, but this was done at Moel y Gaer, and the information about the interior, enabled by the excavation of such a large area, is now referenced in all discussions of hillfort interiors.

Sketch of the possible Neolithic structure

Sketch of the possible Neolithic structure and well as the worked flint scatter, both in red, shown in relation to the later Iron Age structures. Source: Britnell 1991, p.58

The archaeology of the hilltop begins in the earlier prehistoric period.  The earliest of these is the Neolithic, represented by worked flint and chert, including scrapers, blades and arrowheads and associated waste products.  Pottery fragments were found in shallow pits.  Most importantly, a possible rectangular structure, a very rare find, consisting of a short length of fence and a series of postholes, suggests a Neolithic settlement.

Two Early Bronze Age round barrows have been identified within the later ramparts.  One is on the highest part of the hill near the reservoir; the other was apparently levelled during the Iron Age occupation of the hill, and when excavated was found to include a burial chamber but no skeleton (probably due to the acidic conditions), and no accompanying artefacts.  Early Bronze Age barrows are common in the area, but most were left in tact.  It is a puzzle why one was retained and the other levelled.

The first phase of the hillfort itself predates the banks and ditches and may date back to the Late Bronze Age, in the 8th or 7th century BC.  A set of roundhouse structures and a palisade trench carved into the stone were found, although it is not clear if the roundhouses and the palisade (an elaborate fence) were contemporary or if the settlement was initially unenclosed.  It had a gap of 11m, indicating an entrance, although it remains unknown if this was the only entrance into the enclosure.  As Guilbert says, the size of the gap “may seem inappropriate to a purely aggressive, or even largely defensive purpose” and he suggests that the site may have been positioned as much for its visual impact as for security purposes.  In 1977 some trial trenches were opened that suggest that the palisade extended around most of the hillfort perimeter. The pre-rampart palisade is not a unique feature, and there is at least one other in the region, at Eddisbury hillfort on the mid-Cheshire Sandstone Ridge.

Phase 1 of the hillfort showing the palisade slot at left and the roundhouses, many with porches.

Phase 1 of the hillfort showing the palisade slot at left and the roundhouses, many with porches. Source: Guilbert 2018, Internet Archaeology.

Also in Phase 1 there were 26 roundhouses, between c.6.5m and 11.5m in diameter.  All were made of an inner and an outer ring of postholes, the inner and larger ones thought to hold roof supports and the outer one to hold much lighter wall supports.  All had entrances, most of which were facing east or southeast, and some of which were provided with a square porch by the addition of two posts at their entrances.  Eleven had hearths at or near the centre, suggesting that those with and without hearths were used differently.  Some of the structures overlapped, suggesting that they were rebuilds.  A cache of pebbles, thought to be for slingshots, were found in one of the roundhouses on the edge of the rampart.  Other structures were also found, consisting of twelve small oval pits as well as a series of postholes in pairs, but these may or may not belong to Phase 1.

Inner rampart

The footpath along inner rampart, following the line of the contour around the top of the hill, marked by the line of gorse

It is not known how long a period separated Phase 1 from Phase 2.  Phase 2 of the hillfort consisted of the construction of the inner rampart and ditch.  The surviving bank, which made up the rampart, was up to 6m wide and nearly 2m high.  At the back it sloped towards the interior but its front was provided with a “showy” revetted stonework facing that alternated with wooden posts 0.6 – 0.9m apart.  A generic image of a box rampart is shown below for reference.  The rampart posts were tied into a wooden framework within the bank, and the interior was divided into compartments or cells that were filled with rubble, perhaps to provide additional structural integrity and to enable easy repairs when any one part of the rampart failed.  This is referred to by Barry Cunliffe as “the Moel y Gaer style” of rampart building.

Forde-Johnston's illustration of box ramparts

J. Forde-Johnston’s illustration of box ramparts, with my annotations showing key features. Source: Forde-Johnston 1976 p.180

Another section of the inner rampart

Another section of the inner rampart

Phase 2 of the hillfort showing the earliest rampart at left, the roundhouses, and the 4-posters. Source: Guilbert 2018, Internet Archaeology.

The enclosed space in Phase 2 was occupied by a mixture of twelve roundhouses, different from the Phase 1 structures, and around thirty four-posted structures that were largely set apart from the roundhouses, indicating a level of deliberate planning.  The roundhouses in this phase, between 5.7 and 8.1m in diameter, only had a single circuit of stakeholes and no separate roof supports, indicating more lightweight structures, with or without roofs.  As in the previous phase, entrances were mainly aligned to the east.  The four-posters are known from other hillfort and lowland sites, but there are no indications at Moel y Gaer about how they were used.  Interestingly, when the site was abandoned the timbers from many of the 4-posters were removed, presumably for re-use elsewhere.  The roundhouses and the ramparts on the bank were simply abandoned, leading to the decay of both.  The period of Phase 2 occupation dates to the 4th century BC.

A gorse-covered section of the outer rampart

A gorse-covered section of the outer rampart seen from the inner rampart

Phase 3 involved the repair of the inner rampart, which was widened and heightened and topped with rubble, with new breastwork added along the top.  This work was radiocarbon dated to the 4th -1st century BC.  Work began on the second, outer rampart, of which intermittent sections and accompanying ditch survive.  Only two stretches of the bank at the east end were built to a clearly visible height, all covered in gorse, but there are places on the walk along the upper rampart where you can clearly see the height of the second rampart, which must have been impressive in places on the other side of the inner rampart’s ditch. A palisade was built on top of it, which may have been intended to look like a more substantial wood-faced revetment from the outside.  Possibly during this phase, although the relationship between the components is not clear, a set of rectangular buildings were added.  These had no foundations of any type, but instead sat on sill-beams that were laid on the surface of the plateau.  They were provided with stone floors and were accompanied by metalled areas interpreted as yards.

The east entrance

The east entrance

There were thought to be at least two entrances, one at the east end that remains in use,with an inturned entrance, and one at the west end that was later blocked in, a phenomenon noted at other hillforts in the region.

Moel y Gaer is interesting in relation to other hillforts on the Clwydian Range.  Although the Egyptian temple on top of Moel Famau is just visible from the interior, there was no hillfort on Moel Famau.  Moel Fenlli is just visible, but most of the hillforts on the Clwydian Range were focused on the Vale of Clwyd on the other side of the range.  Moel y Gaer is, by contrast, focused on opposite side of the range, with exceptional views up and down the Dee and across the Wirral towards Merseyside, as well as east towards the mid-Cheshire sandstone ridge where there are other hillforts.  There would have been a direct line of sight between Moel y Gaer and Burton Point, if the latter is confirmed as a promontory fort (see my post on the subject of the latter here).

Some of the unanswered questions

View over hills from Moel y Gaer RhosesmorEven with an excavation on the scale of the rescue work carried out at Moel y Gaer in the face of the planned reservoir there are many questions that remain unanswered.

For example, the possibility of a Neolithic settlement is of considerable importance, but it is not known if the hilltop contains any more clues about this period of occupation.

In Phase 1 the 11m (36ft) gap in the palisade is something of a puzzle if the site was intended to be defensive.  Speculating, it might have been intended to give easy and hurried access for livestock, perhaps in the event of a raid or for herd management purposes, but without the vital information from animal bone it cannot be determined if animals were ever present at the site.

Orientation IA roundhouses Oswald 1997

The orientation of Iron Age roundhouses, showing that the majority are orientated between the east and southeast. Source: Oswald 1997

Similarly, in phase 2 it is suggested that roundhouses with and without hearths may have had different purposes, but these purposes cannot be assessed due to the lack of artefacts, and plant and animal remains.  In both phases 1 and 2 the roundhouse entrances faced mainly east and southeast.  There has been a lot of discussion about whether this sort of orientation, which was common, represented practical considerations such as allowing light and heat into the building from the early morning and excluding westerly winds; or whether more spiritual and cosmological motivations were concerned with aligning buildings to solar events.

In phase 2 it is not known what the four-poster buildings may have been used for unless data can be obtained from unexcavated parts of the hillfort.  Although it has been traditionally suggested that such postholes represent buildings raised off the ground surface on posts, and that these may have been granaries, from most sites there is very little, if any evidence in the form of plant or animal remains, or artefacts, to indicate what function they may have had.

View from the inner rampart over the outer rampart

View from the inner rampart over the outer gorse-covered rampart towards the Dee estuary

In Phase 3 it is not known why the second, outer rampart was only built in incomplete sections, although Ian Brown suggests that such sites may reflect a building strategy employing separate working gangs or family units who simply failed to complete the work by joining up the sections by the time the hillfort was abandoned.  The rectangular buildings that may or may not have been contemporary with the second rampart, and both their date and function remain ambiguous.

Perhaps the biggest unanswered question, common to all of the phases, is what sort of economic practices were adopted by those who occupied the hillfort.  Today there is extensive livestock herding in the area, both sheep and cattle, and this may have formed the basis of subsistence in the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age, but there may also have been other types of agricultural and horticultural activity, or trade links may have supplied the cereal and vegetable components of diet.  Nor is it known to what degree the builders of the Moel y Gaer Rhosesmor hillfort were related or in communication with the hillforts on the Clwydian Range, and if they may have shared or exchanged resources, or whether they were in conflict.  In theory this was the territory in the Late Iron Age of a “tribe” known by Roman writers as the Deceangli, but whether this indicates solidarity between all communities in that territory, and over what sortof period of time, is unknown.  Similarly, it is not known if there were affiliated lowland settlements in the valley below.  Without evidence these, and other livelihood questions remain open.

 

View from the ramparts out to Liverpool Bay

View from the ramparts out to Liverpool Bay

View to the east

View to the east

Post-hillfort history

Of the post-hillfort history the earliest is the unconfirmed tradition that one of Owain Glyndŵr’s supporters, Hywel Gwynedd, set up a camp here, but was captured and beheaded in 1406.  Excavations produced no signs of them.  It is, however, a matter of history that in 1814 a fire-beacon was set up here during the Napoleonic Wars to take advantage of the superb views over the estuary and river.

On your way back to the car, the Victorian church of St Paul with its fantastic roof is well worth a visit.

See the National Church Trust website for information about the history of the church, but here are the first two paragraphs:

St Paul’s was built in local limestone between 1874-6 by the architect John Hill for the villagers working in the lead mining industry, which dates back to pre-Roman times. Rhosesmor grew as a distinct lead mining village in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. St Paul’s benefited from local landowners who contributed to the formation of the church. The site was given by Hugh Lupus, first Duke of Westminster (1825-1899) with foundation stone laid by Mrs J Strutt Bankes of Soughton Hall in 1874.

By 1890 necessary repairs, including the present roof beams, were undertaken by architect John Douglas of Chester. The west end Annunciation windows, by Jones and Willis were presented by the Revd W E Torr of Eastham, on the Wirral. The availability of funds grew over the next 25 years and Mr Scott Bankes, replaced the dilapidated chairs in the nave and supplied new fittings for the chancel.

Final Comments

Visiting hillforts is all about enjoying what you can see, but it is also about using excavation reports to imagine what was once there.  The quiet serenity of a hilltop site with wide views, its former ramparts smoothed by centuries of erosion, is probably completely at odds with the busy lives represented by the roundhouses and four-posters, and the ongoing maintenance after the substantial ramparts were first built.

Moel y Gaer Rhosesmor is one of the most thoroughly investigated hillforts in north Wales, and it hints at many more possibilities, via geophysical survey and excavation, for understanding both this and other hillfort sites in the region, from the Late Bronze Age to the end of the Iron Age.

With its panoramic views over the hills and the Dee, Moel y Gaer Rhosesmor is an absolutely marvellous place to visit.

 

 

Visiting

Route to the hillfort

The hillfort is at top left. The parking is in the Rhosesmor community hall immediately off the B5123 (red arrow). The yellow arrows show the route to the hillfort.  Source:  Google Maps

The hillfort is at top left of the image.  Parking is at the Rhosesmor community hall, marked on the map with a red arrow (What3Words ///litigate.messy.hems).  There is a blue parking sign, but it is a bit hidden.  From the car park the yellow arrows show the route.

It is a short walk along the lane towards the route up to the hillfort, with the churchyard of St Paul’s on your left.

At the junction head uphill along a private road. A very faded Public Footpath signpost points you in the right direction, but it is perfectly obvious.  This is quite a short stretch, all uphill.  It ends at the entrance to a house on the left and a metal gate on the right.  Access to the hillfort is via the gate, which leads you onto the open hillside and its top.  It is perhaps a 15 minute walk from the car park to the ramparts.

As you can see in many of the above photographs, the inner bank is fully accessible along a well worn footpath that goes around the full circuit of the hillfort, and their are walks through the gorse on the plateau itself.  The lower bank and ditch are completely covered with gorse, and are not accessible unless you like to wrestle with very dense spiky gorse.  The fully enclosed reservoir is covered in grass, and provides unobstructed views over the entire area.

St Paul’s Church has toilets and a small shop selling essentials as well as hot drinks.  The church is very welcoming and well worth a visit for the beautifully crafted wooden ceiling over the apsidal chancel.

 

Sources

Books, papers and leaflets

Britnell, William J. 1991. The Neolithic. In John Manley, Stephen Grenter and Fiona Gale. The Archaeology of Clwyd. Clwyd County Council, p.55-64

Brown, Ian 2009. Beacons in the Landscape. The Hillforts of England and Wales. Windgather Press

Bruck, Joana. The Architecture of Routine Life. In Joshua Pollard (ed.), Prehistoric Britain. Blackwell

Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust (leaflet – no date).  Moel y Gaer.

Cunliffe, Barry 2005 (4th edition). Iron Age Communities in  Britain. Routledge

Garner Dan (and contributors) 2016. Hillforts of the Cheshire Ridge. Investigations undertaken by The Habitats and Hillforts Landscape Partnership Scheme 2009–2012. Archaeopress

Guilbert, Graeme 1975. Moel y Gaer: an area excavation on the defences. Antiquity 49, 109-117

Guilbert, G., 1977. The Northern Welsh Marches: some recent developments.  In J. Collis (ed), The Iron Age in Britain — A review.  University of Sheffield, p.41–50.

Guilbert, Graeme 2018. Historical Excavation and Survey of Hillforts in Wales: some critical issues. Internet Archaeology 48
https://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue48/3/toc.html

Davies, Jeffrey L. and Frances Lynch 2000.  The Late Bronze Age and Iron Age. Frances Lynch, Stephen Aldhouse-Green and Jerrrey L Davies (eds.) Prehistoric Wales. Sutton Publishing, p.79-138

Oswald, A 1997. A doorway on the past: practical and mystic concerns in the orientation of roundhouse doorways. In (eds.) A. Gwilt and Colin Haselgrove. Reconstructing Iron Age Societies. Oxbow Monograph 71, p.87-95

Websites

Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland
By Gary Lock and Ian Ralston 2024
https://hillforts.arch.ox.ac.uk

Butser Ancient Farm Archive
The Moel y Gaer House
https://www.butser.org.uk/page43.html

Heneb Historic Environment Record
Moel y Gaer Rhosesmor hillfort, Iron Age phase
https://archwilio.org.uk/her/chi3/report/page.php?watprn=CPAT100296

 

 

Walking at the magnificent Iron Age ‘Old Oswestry’ hillfort

Leave a reply

This post looks at the walk around the hillfort and its ramparts, with its section of Wat’s Dyke at its foot, and lovely views across the landscape.  Parking details are at the end.

Old Oswestry from the southwest, via the footpath across the field from Gatacre car park

Old Oswestry from the southwest, via the footpath across the field from Gatacre car park

This makes a great day trip with a visit to the Whittington Castle (see Wikipedia), only 2.5km away to the east, or the market town of Oswestry just to the south (see the official Visit Oswestry site here).  It is free of charge to visit at any time, with one main parking area and a small lay-by.  See Visiting details at the end.

Signage from Old Oswestry

Signage from Old Oswestry. Click to expand.

Old Oswestry hillfort is a magnificent archaeological site and local landmark dating to the 4th to 7th centuries BC during the Iron Age with terrific views over the surrounding lowland landscape.  Seen from above the pentagonal shape is particularly distinctive, and you notice this whilst walking, as it is one of the few hillforts at which you reach corners.  It is also undulating – as you walk around the top you will notice that they path goes up and down, never at all steeply but just enough to draw attention to the varying levels.  If you keep looking across the plateau you will see that this too is undulating; sometimes you can see across it but at other times you can’t.  It is one of the most impressive and least-understood hillforts in the country, excavated only twice with sample trenches, with much more knowledge remaining to be discovered.

In April there are bluebells, celandines and wood anemones, and to keep the scrub down there are small herds of black sheep (Soay and Hebridean crosses) roaming the banks and ditches.  On my visit this August, just a few days ago, the long-term drought had left everything incredibly parched, and the plateau grass had died off.  Some of the young trees and shrubs were in fruit with red hawthorn berries, blackberries and dark purple alder berries. There had obviously been rosebay willowherb recently in flower, with its fluffy seeds catching the sun, and some gigantic thistles had recently gone over.  Otherwise, it was the bracken that was winning the fight against the drought, in spite of a fine herd of attractive black sheep.

Banks and ditches at the western entrance

Banks and ditches at the western entrance looking north

The site of Old Oswestry is built on a hill of clay, sands, gravels and mixed boulders left behind after the retreat of the last glacier, the whole thing lying on a bed of glacial clay.  You can see boulders underfoot as you walk around the perimeter of the plateau.  Old Oswestry is the largest of three similar hillocks, one of which is immediately visible to the south.  The hillfort was excavated in 1939 and 1940 with seven trenches cut mainly across the ramparts, followed 80 years by a small excavation of three trenches in 2021 and 2022, again across the ramparts.  The interior has never been subject to excavation.

Hillfort phases. Source: English Heritage

The earliest known occupants used the hillfort during the Neolithic, and left behind two polished stone axes and a set of worked stone tools.  The story of the archaeology of the Iron Age hillfort is complicated, but in essence it began with two banks that supported ramparts (defences built of stone), separated from each other by a ditch.  The first pair of banks and ditches followed the natural line of the hill, only interrupted by two entrances, on the east and west sides.  Over the 300 years that the hillfort remained in use, additional banks and ditches were added, in a less straight forward arrangement, causing the entrances to become corridors with banks along their sides.  In total, there are two banks on the eastern side, five on the southern side, four on the south and seven on the west where a complex of hollowed out depressions were added either side of the western entrance.  To date it is not known what the hollows were used for and they remain unique in Britain.  There are photos of them below.

Map showing Wat's Dyke and Offa's Dyke

Map showing Wat’s Dyke (brown line) and Offa’s Dyke (green line). Source: Keith Ray and authors on ResearchGate

The hillfort was incorporated by Wat’s Dyke, which arrives at the hillfort’s southern corner, and departs at its northern end, using the hillfort’s presence as a component of the linear boundary that extends over a 60 km (37 mile) stretch of the Welsh border built in the 8th or 9th century AD. It begins in Maesbury, just south of Oswestry and extends all the way to Basingwerk, near Holywell, on the north Wales coast, roughly parallel to Offa’s Dyke, but much shorter.  Although its purpose is currently a matter of speculation, it is thought to mark the border of Mercia in the west, and to be both a defensive and a symbolic structure, marking differences is political allegiance and administrative systems.  There is only one small part of it visible at Old Oswestry, at the southwest corner, but the line of the Dyke is marked by a line of hedgerow and trees that heads north from the hillfort.

Old Oswestry annotated

LiDAR view of Old Oswestry, with Wat’s Dyke (red arrows) and the craters and trenches (pink arrows) clearly visible. Click to enlarge. Source: Lock, Gary and Ralston, Ian. 2024. Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland: https://tinyurl.com/mputmk3d

In the LiDAR image of Old Oswestry to the right, Wat’s Dyke can be seen at the bottom left, where it meets the corner on a perpendicular on the southern side and extends from northeast corner of the hillfort, both visible as a shaded bank leading into and out of the hillfort.  The builders were obviously great pragmatists, making good use of a natural barrier in the landscape!

During the First World War, the interior of the hillfort enclosure was used for military training purposes, including the digging of practice trenches and setting off mortars and other explosive devices that left small craters in the top.  Marks of both the trenches and the craters are visible in some aerial photographs, and are visible in the LiDAR image right (click to expand).

The photographs are a mixture from April 2025 and August 2026, showing the difference between the well-watered spring and the long-term drought of 2026.

View from the foot of the west entrance

View from the foot of the west entrance to the west

View across the fields at the entrance to the hillfort

View across the fields at the entrance to the hillfort

The west entrance towards the plateau

The west entrance towards the plateau

 

From the bottom of the west entrance there is a shallow slope, with wide wood-framed stone steps to avoid mud slippage, leading up to the plateau.  Here, there is a walk that follows the circumference of the hillfort.

East side of the top of the hillfort

East side of the top of the hillfort. Note that this photograph was taken in April 2025; in August 2026 the plateau was completely parched, and a light yellow colour as in some of the photographs below.

The middle of the interior is fenced off for pasture most of the way round, although you can enter it at the eastern entrance, where you also get a good sense of how undulating the plateau actually is, even though it looks completely flat in aerial photographs.  At this point, as with many others, you cannot see from one side of the enclosed space to the other. Walking to the highest point of the plateau from the eastern entrance, up a slight slope, gives you panoramic views.

View across the eastern entrance towards the north

View across the eastern entrance towards the north in August 2026

The ramparts and ditches can all be explored freely, and these give an excellent idea, even after centuries of erosion, of the scale of the construction work that made up the site.  All of the rampart banks are so magnificently high that if you stand in the ditches, all you can see is the walls of the banks either side of you. It is in the ditches and on the side of banks, rather than along the plateau itself, that most of the wild flowers are to be found.

 

Across the top two banks and ditches to the view beyond

Optional stairways that lead across the banks and ditches from the circumference walk

Optional stairways that lead across the banks and ditches from the circumference walk, showing the surviving depth of one of the ditches

 

The line of Wat's Dyke

The line of Wat’s Dyke marked by the hedgerow and trees, heading north from the northern edge of the hillfort

 

April 2025

April 2025

Rosebay willowherb

Rosebay willowherb, August 2026

 

 

 

 

 

View east from the plateau

View east from the plateau

Perimeter walk around the plateau

Perimeter walk around the plateau

Upper and second ramparts

Upper and second ramparts looking west

Walking along the top of the second rampart

Walking along the top of the second rampart to the east

Walking to the west along the third rampart

The hollows at the west end are reached most easily from a black metal kissing gate on the north side (left, going up) on the slope from the western entrance.  This lets onto a single track footpath that passes at the bottom of the hollows and lets you get a sense of the scale of them, which is impressive.  The hollows on the other side of the footpath can also been seen, but are much smaller.  A footpath actually goes across the middle of them, but they are best seen from the second (looking down) or third ramparts (looking back).

One of the ponds or cells that you can see in the aerial photograph at the top of the page

One of the ponds or cells that you can see in the illustration at the top of the page, to the left of the west entrance as you go uphill, in April 2025. This was dry in the drought conditions of August 2026, but some of the hollows still had marsh plants at their edges.

Soft-stem bulrush growing around the base of the hollows even after a drought

 

 

Returning to the car via the west entrance

Returning to the car via the west entrance

 

The great bank at the base of the hillfort and the lesser bank below it

The great bank at the base of the hillfort and the lesser bank below it

The Tudor “Park Hall,” which burned down in 1918.  Source: Lost Heritage website

The hillfort itself is dramatic and breathtaking, but the surrounding landscape also bears unmistakeable signs of Oswestry’s heritage, whilst beneath the fields there may well be more of the area’s prehistory to uncover.  The hillfort used to part of the Park Hall estate, which once had one of England’s most impressive Tudor houses at its core before it tragically burned down in 1918.  The Oldport Farm immediately below the hillfort on its southeastern side dates at least to the 17th century, and perhaps earlier, and the fields retain the imprint of much earlier agricultural heritage.  During the First World War both the centre of the hillfort and other places in the vicinity, was used for digging practice trenches, both a chilling and touching reminder of the realities of the war.  A Prisoner of War Camp and cemetery were both established nearby.  There are even glimpses of the impact of the Industrial Revolution from the top of the hillfort, with the 19th century railway and Thomas Telford’s A5.

If you are looking for a great place for a short walk that focuses on a splendidly impressive and nationally important site, this should not be missed.  The walk can be extended via other footpaths, or can be combined with a visit to Oswestry itself, which is a very attractive market town.  You can download the Visit Oswestry’s Heritage Trail here.

The site was owned by Lord Harlech until 1946 when he handed it over to the state, and it is now the responsibility of English Heritage.

 

Sketchfab 3-D interactive model of Old Oswestry Hillfort.

Sketchfab 3-D interactive model of Old Oswestry Hillfort. Click here to go to the Sketchfab page.

Visiting 

The route to Old Oswestry Hillfort, showing the main parking area at Gatacre car park, as well as the lay-by at the foot of the west entrance.  Source: Old Oswestry Hillfort website – visiting page

The site is managed by English Heritage and it is free of charge to visit at any time, with one main parking area a five minute walk away from the hillfort, and a small lay-by.  There is brown heritage signage from the A5, which takes you through a residential area to the Gatacre Playing Field car park where there is plenty of parking (What3Words ///spray.funky.tasters).  There is also a layby with room for four or five cars.  Both parking areas are shown on the map produced by the Old Oswestry Hillfort website.

From Gatacre Playing Field car park showing the field route and the lane route to the western entrance to the hillfort.

From Gatacre Playing Field car park showing the field route and the lane route to the western entrance to the hillfort. Source: What3Words

I always park at the Gatacre car park because there is always plenty of room and it is only a five minute walk from the hillfort’s west entrance (the main access route to the hillfort).  The route to the hillfort is all on the flat, along a metalled path and a small, very quiet lane.

If it hasn’t  been raining, there is an even shorter route if you use the footpath (Oswald’s Way) from just beyond the car park to cut across the field – this was a gorgeous vista of sunflowers in August 2026, and would probably be even more sunflower-intensive in years that have had a bit of rainfall.

There are no facilities at the hillfort of any description, but there are plenty within Oswestry itself, only a short drive (less than two miles / 3.5km) from the site, or at Whittington Castle to the east.

The west entrance is a long, shallow slope now provided with long wood-framed steps lined with stone to protect visitors from muddy conditions, that leads up to the top.  At the top, there is a footpath all around the plateau.  The western and eastern entrances also offer access via gates and footpaths to the lower banks and ditches as well as the puzzling hollows that flank the west entrance.  Note that sheep roam the banks and ditches, so gates must be closed and dogs must be kept on leads.

Bracken on the banks and ditches at the northwestern corner of the hillfort

Bracken on the banks and ditches at the northwestern corner of the hillfort

Although the entire plateau walk is a nice easy stroll all the way around, well-worn by dog walkers, some of the lower ramparts are more challenging.  Most of the hillfort walks along banks and ditches are very easy to access on the south and west sides, but bracken can be a perpetual problem on some of the ramparts and ditches beneath the plateau on the north and east sides of the hillfort, particularly in the summer.  It seriously impedes passage, as well as potentially doing significant damage to archaeological deposits, whilst its density eliminates other species, significantly reducing biodiversity. Love it or hate it, one has to admire the tenacity of bracken under such extreme conditions. Both volunteer work and sheep are combining to reduce the impact of such invasive species, managing the site for the benefit of biodiversity, the archaeology and visitors.  If you find one of the rampart or ditch walks a bit of a struggle, there are plenty of others to try.

There are plenty of well thought out information signs along the course of the west entrance as well as on the footpath around the top, providing details about the archaeology and history of the site.

The walk can be extended via other footpaths.  For example the diagonal route across the field from the car park to the hillfort’s west entrance is part of Oswald’s Trail, a 12 mile / 13 km circular walk about which you can read more on the Shropshire’s Great Outdoors website. Or it can be combined with a visit to Oswestry itself, which is a very attractive market town.  You can download the Visit Oswestry’s Heritage Trail here.

View from the hillfort to Oswestry

View from the hillfort towards Oswestry

Sunflowers on the path across the field from Gatacre Playing Fields to the western entrance of the hillfort

Sunflowers on the path across the field from Gatacre Playing Fields to the western entrance of the hillfort

 

Artist's reconstruction of Old Oswestry Hillfort, based on the discovery of two roundhouses. By Ivan Lapper.

Artist’s reconstruction of Old Oswestry Hillfort based on the surviving earthworks and entrances and the discovery during excavations of the ephemeral remains of two roundhouses. There are no ramparts shown on top of the banks, but the illustration gives a sense of how the interior might have looked, and how the east entrance may have been configured. By Ivan Lapper. Source: English Heritage

 

World Elephant Day: Elephants of Chester from the 14th Century to the Present Day

Leave a reply
The Chester Cathedral Elephant

The superb Chester Cathedral Elephant

To celebrate World Elephant Day, Chester boasts splendid elephants in Upton at the zoo, as well as a medieval wooden carving in Chester Cathedral, a bronze sculpture opposite the Northgate visitor centre, and fluffy, cuddly elephant toys in the Northgate market hall.

The earliest and most venerable of our pachyderm residents is the 14th century elephant in the Chester Cathedral choir (or quire), incorporated into a bench-end in the choir.  It was part of the development in around 1380 of a new choir for St Werburgh’s Abbey, when it was still a Benedictine monastery.   Many of Chester Cathedral’s misericords (carved hinged choir perches) were based on those at Lincoln Cathedral, but whatever the Lincoln carvers brought with the my way of the weird and the wonderful (and there is plenty of both in the Chester and Lincoln misericords), elephants were not among the imported designs, as there are no elephants in Lincoln’s choir. Several of the bench-ends are Victorian, but this is original.  The choir is generally open to the public to visit, unless it is use for a musical event, and all of the carvings are magnificent.  Even the Victorian replacements are very well done.

Elephant and wyvern. early 13th century, nature and myth entangles. Royal MS12 C XIX.

Elephant and wyvern. early 13th century, nature and myth entangles. Royal MS12 C XIX. Source: Wikipedia

The St Werburgh’s elephant is a magnificent, if slightly peculiar creature with delicate hooves, a strangely shaped head, ears that resemble curtains and enormous eyes that give it a rather surprised expression , as though it wonders what on earth it is doing in a medieval abbey.  The answer to that hypothetical question lies in the zoological and mythological company in which the elephant finds itself.  The monks clearly had a good eye for the unusual, as a quick inspection of the misericords will demonstrate.  The carver may have seen a picture of an elephant in a bestiary, a book of real and mythical animals that could be used as a source material for subjects like these.  It is probable that there was no clear dividing line between the imaginary creatures like wyverns, unicorns and dragons, and the more exotic animals that only a handful of people in the west had seen, like our elephant.  There’s an excellent description from a bestiary manuscript Brit. Lib. Harley MS. 3244, fol.39), a short excerpt from which is as follows:

British Library Harley MS 2344, fol.39. Source: Picryl

British Library Harley MS 2344, fol.39. Source: Picryl

They travel  in herds, fear the mouse . . . they are pregnant for two years, neither do they reproduce more than once nor have several offspring but only one.  They live, however, three hundred years.  Moreover, if they want to produce young they go to the eat, near Paradise, and a tree there that is called the mandrake, and the elephant goes there with his wife, who first takes from the tree and gives some to her husband.  And when he eats she seduces him and at once she conceives . . . Now the elephant is terrifying to bulls, yet it fears the mouse.  This is its nature, that  if it should fall, it cannot rise.  Moreover, it falls when it leans against a tree in order to sleep, for it has no knee joints.

Carrying a howdah on its back, the Cathedral elephant is a great favourite with visitors.

In 1898 the Barnum and Bailey Circus organized a vast parade through the town, and this too featured elephants, as well as other circus animals and performers. Chester was one of the stops for the Circus’s European tour of 1898-1902.  These are the “herd elephants” but apparently they were preceded by elephants carrying howdahs.

The 1898 Barnum and Baileys circus parade through the streets of Chester. Source: Chester History Hub at the Grosvenor Museum, via a post on their X.com account

Just outside the cathedral and opposite the Visitor Centre is Janya, a small bronze elephant, just the right size for engaging eye-to-eye with a child or being patted by the many adults who do so.  Northgate is a particularly eclectic part of the city, both in terms of its architecture and its various retail and leisure offerings.  The original market square in front of the cathedral was home to the medieval market and the once housed the lovely 18th century Exchange building, which burned down in 1862.  The addition of Janya to the edge of this space gave it a welcome lift, particularly as she was designed to be stroked and enjoyed (but not climbed).  The plaque set into the pavement in front of the elephant explains that Janya means “life” in Hindi, and that “it symbolises the Zoo’s global role in wildlife conservation.”   She was made in 2010 by Annette Yarrow, a gift from Chester Zoo to the city to celebrate the the “strong friendship between the Zoo and the city.”   A reference is made to the Cathedral elephant, both in the text and in the small arrow pointing in the direction of the cathedral’s visitor entrance, implying an affinity between the zoo and the city’s older heritage.  By showing a year-old elephant, it references the several success stories for the Zoo’s elephant conservation programme, described on the Chester Zoo website as follows:

Pioneering new practices to further improve the welfare for elephants in zoos, sanctuaries and in the wild. This includes becoming the first UK zoo to have a multi-generational family herd, successfully utilising protective contact between elephants and keepers, and spearheading vital new research on behalf of the global conservation community to find a viable vaccine for a deadly virus that affects elephants in zoos and the wild, known as EEHV.

It’s a neat way of linking the city with the zoo, reminding visitors and residents alike that the zoo is not merely a tourist attraction but a centre of conservation excellence and a terrific local resource.

The Chester Zoo’s first two elephants arrived in 1941.  Chester Zoo was established in 1931 when George Mottershead bought the house (Grade 2 listed and sympathetically converted to a pub in 2018) and seven acres of land.  His aim was to build the first zoo without bars. According to the Chester Zoo website, it was a family run-enterprise, and very slow to take off, but eventually became a Chester fixture and great tourist attraction.  In 1934 it became a charity, shifting its emphasis from the display of animals to wildlife conservation.

Molly and Manniken with handler Khanadas. Source:  Chester Zoo

Molly and Manniken with handler Khanadas. Although this page has now been taken off the Chester Zoo website, or moved to somewhere where I cannot find it, the original source of this photograph was Chester Zoo

xxx

Elephant keeper Les Hill, September, 1977

Charming photograph of Elephant Keeper Les Hill, September, 1977. Source: Absolut Elephant database

The elephants were Manniken and Molly.  They were given a home when their owner, the proprietor of Doorley’s Tropical Revue, a travelling menagerie, was called up by the RAF for the war.  Without anyone to care for them, their situation looked dire as without anyone to take them they would have had to be put down.   The story came to the attention of zoo owner George Mottershead, and the pair arrived on 28 August 1941 with their young handler Khanadas, who had cared for them and remained with them at Chester Zoo.  Very sadly, although they settled in well, Manniken suddenly died in November of the same year, but Molly lived on until 1955, a zoo favourite, providing rides for children. After the war, a new elephant house was built, made entirely of recycled materials from the surrounding area, including anti-tank blocks, pill-boxes and concrete slabs.  A children’s radio presenter came along to open the new house, riding in on Molly, attracting 4000 visitors.

Chester Zoo elephants

Chester Zoo elephants

xxx

Fluffy toys (and elephants) in the Chester Zoo Shop in Northgate market

Fluffy toys (including elephants) in the Chester Zoo Shop in Northgate market

Much to my amusement, having just taken photographs of Janya before heading into the market to buy some seafood, I found myself looking at a shelf of fluffy little grey elephants.  Chester Zoo has  a shop in the new market.

If you have ever wondered when the first elephant arrived in Britain, there’s a nice piece by David Meadows on the Rogue Classicism blog about the purported first elephant to arrive in England, with Claudius in AD43: “First Elephant in Britain?”

Finally, there is a splendid set of collectible elephant toys shown on the Planet Diecast site.

Chester Zoo, 18th March 2025

Chester Zoo, 18th March 2025

 

Sources:

Barber, Richard. 1992. Bestiary. MS Bodley 64. The Boydell Press

Baxter, Ron. 1998. Bestiaries and their Users in the Middle Ages. Sutton Publishing
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340870845_Bestiaries_and_their_Users_in_the_Middle_Ages_Sutton_Publishing_1998_ISBN_0_7509_1853_5

Beal, Timothy K. 2002. Religion and Monsters. Routledge

Burne, R.V.H. 1962. The Monks of Chester. The History of St Werburgh’s Abbey. SPCK

Druce, George C. 1919. The Elephant in Medieval Legend and Art. Journal of the Royal Archaeological Institute, Vol. 76
https://bestiary.ca/etexts/druce-elephant-in-medieval-legend-and-art.pdf

Morrison, Elizabeth (ed). 2019. Book of Beasts. The Bestiary in the Medieval World.  The J. Paul Getty Museum.

———

Absolut Elephant database
Chester Zoo
https://www.elephant.se/location2.php?location_id=42

Atlas Obscura
Why Did Medieval Artists Give Elephants Trunks That Look Like Trumpets?
Maybe not just because they didn’t know what elephants looked like. By Sarah Laskow February 10, 2017
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/medieval-art-elephants 

Bodleian Library
MS Bodley 964 (Bestiary)
https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/e6ad6426-6ff5-4c33-a078-ca518b36ca49/

Chester Zoo
https://www.chesterzoo.org/

medievalists.net
Matthew Paris and Henry III’s elephant. By Richard Cassidy and Michael Clasby
www.medievalists.net/2013/09/matthew-paris-and-henry-iiis-elephant/

 

The Chapel of St Nicholas in Cholmondeley Castle’s gardens and park

Leave a reply

The Chapel of St Nicholas on the Cholmondeley Castle estate

If you visit Cholmondeley Castle Gardens be sure not to miss the chapel dedicated to St Nicholas.  I was at the Castle Gardens with a friend for the Summer Plant Fair during the week, and we took in the lovely gardens and the chapel at the same time.  I have posted about the gardens, with a map, on a previous post here, but at that time I was unaware of the chapel, so it was lovely to see the signs pointing visitors towards it, and to stroll along the lane for a visit.

Cholmondeley Castle

Cholmondeley Castle, built 1801-c.1830, replacing the 1571 half-timbered Tudor building

Following the signs you will pass through the former gatehouse, and over a delicious little stone bridge before you eventually reach the chapel, around 15 minutes from the main gardens along a traffic-free lane.

The Lodge

The gatehouse

Looking back at the elegant bridge towards the Lodge

Looking back at the elegant bridge towards the Lodge

One of the views from the bridge

One of the views from the bridge

Across the parched fields on the way to the chapel

Looking across the sun-parched Capability Brown style estate on the way to the chapel, actually executed by one of the famous park designer’s followers, William Emes, who was successful in his own right

One of the ornamental gates into the chapel precinct

One of the ornamental gates into the chapel precinct, and the equally ornate banisters of the chapel, gently echoing the elaborate front gates leading into the castle.

The red-brick chapel with its slate roof looks typically Georgian, but according to Historic England it was originally late 15th century, was altered internally in 1655 and the exterior was rebuilt in brick in 1717.  The transepts were added in 1829.  Pevsner and Hubbard say that the 17th century furnishings are “the most complete of their date in Cheshire,” with the chancel screen dating to 1655, and elaborate Elizabethan-Jacobean style of wood panelling in the chancel with plenty of ornamental strapwork.  The small stained glass roundels in the windows are from the Netherlands, again probably dating to the 17th century.  The Cholmondeley family pew, a remarkable feature with a staircase leading up to it and surrounded on three sides by highly coloured hatchments, is at the west end of the chapel, facing to the chancel in the east, looking down over both congregation and high altar.  Humility was obviously not perceived as a fundamental requirement.  Box pews and ordinary pews sit mainly at floor level, with one paired set of box pews being a little above the rest but far below the level of the Cholmondeley family pew in front of which it sits.  The whole thing is truly extraordinary.
xxx

Chapel interior

Chapel interior showing the raised family pew

Chancel roof

Chancel roof

 

Chancel

Chancel

Box pews

If you want to know more about the history of the house, the chapel and the family there are interpretation boards hanging on the wall to one side of the door.  A shame that it hasn’t been turned into a leaflet, because a lot of people wanted to see them and it was impossible to fit everyone in behind the pews where they are hanging on hinges on the wall.

 

Dovecote spotted on the way back to the gardens from the chapel

The parkland was looking very dry, but although a few of the plants in the gardens were suffering from the drought, overall the garden team have done a marvellous job of maintaining the flowering borders, the rock garden and the rose gardens.  The levels of water in the ornamental ponds were surprisingly high, and the water lilies and surrounding water-loving species were very fine and lush.

I was amazed that neither of us came away with any of the tempting and very reasonably priced plants for sale in the Plant Fair area along the long edge of the field acting as a car park, with a great selection including some very unusual specimens, many of which would have been very suitable for the drought conditions currently being experienced.  Most visitors there were draped in every possible type of foliage, which they were taking back to their cars before visiting the gardens.  It reminded me of the witches’ prophecy that “Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him.” There was also a small selection of decorative garden features for sale, and of course there were several food, drink and ice cream outlets. Keep an eye out next year if you missed it this year.

 

 

Sources:

Pevsner, Nikolaus and Edward Hubbard 1971. The Buildings of Cheshire.  Penguin.

Historic England
Cholmondeley Castle
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1000638
The Chapel of St Nicholas
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1138593

Historic Houses
Cholmondeley Castle Gardens
https://www.historichouses.org/house/cholmondeley-castle-gardens/visit/

St Nicholas Centre
St Nicholas Chapel
https://www.stnicholascenter.org/gazetteer/1181

Georgia O’Keefe, Small Wonders and three other temporary exhibitions at the Williamson Art Gallery and Museum, Birkenhead

Leave a reply

I’ll start with a time alert.  Very sorry for the ridiculously short notice, but if you want to see the Georgia O’Keefe exhibition, a touring exhibition from the Hayward Gallery in London’s South Bank complex you will need to take a trip to Birkenhead before the exhibition closes next Saturday, the 25th July.  Make haste!  The O’Keefe exhibition is part of the Small Wonders. Reimagining British Art exhibition, also curated by the Hayward Gallery, and also on until Saturday 25th.  The three in-house exhibitions are The Garden As A Muse also on until the 25th, Beyond the Brotherhood: The Legacies of the Pre-Raphaelites, on until 7th November, and Echoes of the Floating World on until 6th February 2027.  All the exhibitions are free of charge and all are very well worth visiting.

If a Georgia O’Keefe exhibition comes to a local gallery it is a matter for celebration, and the Memories of Drawing exhibition offers 21 small pieces drawn by O’Keefe between 1915 and 1963 and prepared for publication with her agent and friend Doris Bry.  Photogravures are images created by a sophisticated and highly accurate printing process.  They are a complete delight, like fabulous little sound-bites, and it is wonderful to see them all together in one room.  O’Keefe is best known for large, delicately rendered paintings and drawings of flowers, seashells, animal skulls and desert landscapes, which are so inherently vital and dramatic that they often appear to be in the process of metamorphosing into something much less easy to define.  The photogravures display the concentrated essence of O’Keefe’s work, containing all the gorgeous draughtsmanship, the organic, the semi-abstract and sometimes wholly abstract, and each one is all the more fascinating for being so small and minimalist.  All but two are in graded shades and textures of black and grey, and all share the sense that at any second they might shape-shift in tiny, imperceptible ways.

Georgia O'Keefe's Drawing No.9 (1915)

Georgia O’Keefe’s Drawing No.9 (1915)

O’Keefe’s work is always dynamic and frequently seems to be alive; the photogravures capture that beautifully.  The depth of O’Keefe’s dedication to the development of her artwork is demonstrated by “Blue Lines” (1916) of which she commented “It was in the fall of 1915 that I decided not to use any colour until I couldn’t get along without it and I believe it was June before I needed blue.”   Her humour comes across vividly in “Drawing No.9” (1915 – shown right) about which she said “Well, I had the headache, why not do something with it?”  From the barely-present representation of a seashell, “Drawing No.40” (1934) to the spiky, stark lines of a New York skyline “The City – New York Rooftops” (1930s), she is able, with real elegance and understated drama, to convey the complexity of both natural and unnatural worlds.  My photos do absolutely no justice to the detail and texture in each image.  You just need to see them for yourself.  The exhibition is a treat – don’t miss it!

 

 

As if Georgia O’Keefe on her own was not enough, there is another visiting exhibition and three temporary mini-exhibitions drawn from the Williamson’s own collections.

The Echoes of the Floating World exhibition, in one room focused on Ukiyo-e was a particularly lovely surprise.  As the Williamson website says, “[t]heir motifs of flat perspectives, high vantage points, and bold colour distinctions, were a radical influence across European art” and the premise of the exhibition is to show the 19th century woodblock works juxtaposed against artworks that were influenced by the Japanese art.  It was interesting to see the more modern artworks, with the surprising range of ways in which composition, colour and subject-matter were adopted and transformed.

Of course the real stars were the Japanese works, with some very contrasting pieces chosen for the display.  From almost monochrome examples, to highly coloured pieces, the exhibition managed, in a confined space, to give a very good sense of range of the style and expression produced by the woodblock artists.  The oldest example of Ukiyo-e in the Williamson’s collections is a lovely depiction of a man and woman coloured only in mid-blue and black, dating to before the wider palette of colours became available.  Images in full colour included rich and vibrant pigments, which complemented scenes that were full of motion and narrative intensity, as well as those that captured intimate moments of everyday life in subtle and delicate shades.  A lot of people, right now in all this California-type weather, will relate to the splendid row of ladies with their parasols standing on a bridge over a river to help them cool down.

 

The Garden As a Muse exhibition “traces how artists across time have interpreted gardens not merely as physical spaces, but as symbols of creativity and solace. From delicate, nostalgic studies to immersive and grand paintings, these pieces reveal how gardens can function both as sanctuaries and laboratories of artistic experimentation.”  As a thoroughly committed gardener I very much enjoyed this insight into different perceptions of what gardens can or should be.  Sentiment was unsurprisingly present, but there was a thorough mix of styles and there were some very unexpected pieces too.   I was particularly amused to find myself staring at Tolstoy who seemed improbably relaxed, although very dour.  The two Arthur Lee textile designs, produced at their Birkenhead factory and mapped out with precision on graph paper were fascinating to see, ready to be converted into tapestry, embroidery and even printed fabrics.  Sian Martin’s fabric-based abstract representations of such contrasting horticultural arrangements as seed beds and vegetable patches were incredibly effective.  The entire ensemble of images was both witty and engaging, and nicely drew attention to the British fascination with garden places.

 

The Beyond the Brotherhood: The Legacies of the Pre-Raphaelites exhibition presents some of the original works produced by the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood but also introduces some of their followers, who built on their legacy to create works of their own in the same broad style.  This included examples from the so-called Liverpool School of landscape painters as well as elaborate pieces by the sculptors of Birkenhead’s Della Robbia Pottery Company, some locally produced stained glass, and it was delightful to find some William de Morgan tiles on display.

 

The Small Wonders exhibition was the most difficult to describe, mainly because I found so little about it relatable, which is unusual for me.  It is a travelling exhibition curated by London’s Hayward Gallery, and brings together work by fifty artists, to provide a snapshot of British art over the last 45 years.  I have been visiting and enjoying modern and contemporary art for decades, but although there are always some pieces that leave me cold, I found this was more frustrating than usual.  Before I go on, I should say that I may be alone in my response to what is clearly a popular exhibtion.

One piece, which for me was engaging thought-provoking, was a video with a voice-over, but the rest were all static, framed artworks, although most of the artists, according to their biographical data, work in various forms of media including including 3-D installations and cinematic work.  Perhaps the artists are better understood in other media but for me most of the artworks failed to engage me either emotionally or intellectually.  I could see that there is technical skill and creativity, and found some of it visually attractive, but a lot of it was very derivative of previous styles and although the multicultural mix was a positive element, I found none of it deeply gripping.  Apart from Saskia Olde Wolber’s video artwork “Centrifuge,” which was compelling for both its narrative and its constantly evolving  organic semi-abstract imagery, there was nothing with sufficient depth for me to sink my teeth into, and I came away longing to have had a teachable moment, something from which I could have learned, or which had at the very least moved me to empathy, laughter, annoyance or simple admiration.  But of course, to each their own.  Having said all of that, I am sincerely grateful for being given the chance to see a London exhibition without having to travel to London to do it.

 

 

The Williamson is a splendid resource to have for the Wirral and so near to Chester.  I very much admire their policy of retaining part of the museum for their permanent collection and the other, larger part for temporary exhibitions.  It means that local people can always expect to come in and find something new to see, whilst those of us driving from elsewhere find that the trip is more worthwhile when there are new artworks to see from the Williamson’s own stores. You can find out more about the Williamson’s events on their web pages.  I signed up for their newsletter after my first visit and that is an excellent prompt not to miss anything.  You can sign up for it at the end of every page.

On my previous post about the Williamson’s permanent and temporary collections I mentioned the café.  It is comfortable and spacious, with excellent coffee and some good-looking lunches being produced in large numbers, and as you imbibe you can enjoy more art because the walls of the café are used as additional hanging space for art works, and these too had changed since our last visit.  And don’t forget to visit the model ships, which are stunning.  Who wouldn’t want to cross the Mersey on a ridiculously curvaceous Art Deco ferry like this one?  Bliss.

 

Because of that big yellow sun and the vast acres of blue sky, we opted for The Harp Inn at Ness, parking at Denhall Quay, both of which I posted about last week, and here too there was much loveliness to be enjoyed across the acres of green marshes reaching towards the Welsh foothills and Moel Fammau, with a fabulous breeze coming off the estuary.  We were both ravenous, so ordered one haddock and chips with garden peas and one cheese and ham ploughman’s (the latter, mine, was absolutely huge and truly heavenly).  It was a really super way to round off a superbly satisfying morning.

The lovely Harp Inn and the chunky remains of Ness Colliery’s Denhall Quay, south Wirral

Leave a reply
The Harp Inn, Little Neston

The Harp Inn, Little Neston

One of the most mellow, blue-skied and sunny afternoons that I have enjoyed in a long time was a sublimely relaxed and chatty visit to The Harp Inn on the Dee estuary, just outside Little Neston.  It is a super little pub dating to the 1700s with lovely views over the marshes towards the impressively long line of the Welsh foothills.  The pub’s official opening time is 12 noon, but we arrived to find it open at 1145 because due to queues outside their doors at 12 they are currently opening at 11. Very gratifying!  The beers and ciders change from time to time (just check their website), there are plenty of soft drinks on offer and the lunches that were being paraded past us as the afternoon advanced looked gorgeous.  The staff are lovely, and the atmosphere is great.  There are lots of tables perched on the grassland at the edge of the lush green estuary, and on a stiflingly hot day, a wonderfully warm but cooling breeze came off the Dee to make the peaceful, endless vistas a delectable place to linger, interrupted only by birdsong.  The breeze was so perfect.  I do love the heat, but it is lovely to be able to sit in the sunshine without dripping like a tap.  Update:  We went back the following week to have lunch after a visit to the Williamson Art Gallery and Museum in Birkenhead, and the food (haddock, chunky chips, tartare sauce and garden peas for one of us and an enormous ham and cheese ploughman’s with all the trimmings and more for the other) was just as good as it had looked as it was passing us on trays the previous week.

Most of the photos taken on my aged iPhone. Enlarge at your own risk!

View from The Harp

View from The Harp

 

 

Denhall Quay

Denhall Quay

According to the pub’s website, the building has stood there since the 1750s, when it was originally built as three coal-miners’ cottages, before being converted to an inn in 1780 to serve the expanding coal-mining community at Ness.  This segues nicely into the second major benefit of the pub, which is its location a stone’s throw from Denhall Quay, an intriguing and picturesque line of wall, made of massive red sandstone blocks, that stretches out into the marshland, and is clearly the remaining echo of a substantial structure.  In fact, the wall is what remains of a long pier that served the Ness Colliery, built in 1839 to replace an earlier quay in the same location.  The wall was much deeper than it is now, its lower tiers lying beneath 200 years of silt accumulation, but it it sufficient to give an idea of how impressive the structure originally was.

This was not the most obvious location for a quay because the river did not run past the colliery, veering towards Wales just before Little Neston, meaning that a channel had to be created to link the quay to the main river, which became known as the Colliery Gutter.  It was not ideal, as vessels often had to wait for two tides to turn before being able to navigate all the way to the quay, forcing colliers to beach on the muds in the interval between tides.

Denhall Quay c.1839 Annakin-Smith p170

Denhall Quay c.1839 showing the quay, with its distinctive shape, surrounded by subterranean tunnels. Source: Annakin-Smith “The Neston Collieries, 1759-1855” 2019, p.170, fig.10.6

There were two collieries at Ness:  Ness Colliery, which opened in 1759, and Little Neston Colliery immediately to the north, which opened in 1820.  Most people, myself included, would not automatically associate coal mining with the Wirral, although it is a very familiar industry from North Wales.  Fortunately, Anthony Annakin-Smith wrote an excellent book on the subject in 2019, which I read shortly after its publication, and he gave a really enjoyable lecture about the collieries at the Festival of Ideas this year (July 2026).  The Wirral coal seams are an extension of the Welsh ones, but although a slither of the seams can be found on the Wirral landmass itself, most of them lie under the estuary, and it was here that most of the mining took place.  A whole network of tunnels was built below the estuary, and subterranean canals were added to help remove the coal in long narrow vessels called “starvationers.”  Both the tunnels and the canals lead back to shafts where the coal was hoisted to the surface.  It was a dangerous and sometimes tragic business.  Once extracted and processed the coal was transported to ports in Britain, Ireland, France, Spain and as far away as America and even Barbados.

Starvationer

A “starvationer” of the sort used in the canals beneath the Dee estuary, now in the National Waterways Museum at Ellesmere Port (my photo)

The two collieries were located either side of a border dividing land between two different family interests.  The original colliery, Ness, owned by the Stanley family, handled the arrival of the new colliery very badly, and its owner, Sir Thomas Stanley, who sounds like an absolute monster of a man, pursued a course of aggression that eventually, on several occasions, erupted into blatant sabotage, including destruction of machinery, flooding of their rival’s tunnels and, on one particularly violent occasion, an attempt to use explosives to completely obliterate the opposition.  The collieries were both closed between 1845 and 1855 due to silting of the estuary, but they were revived in 1875, and the last coal was worked in 1927.

It is difficult to assess just how the collieries initially impacted local people, because most of the coal miners were brought in from North Wales and Lancashire, with Wirral residents only working in minor and administrative roles.  But both the collieries and the miners became part of the community, and Denhall Quay is an important reminder of the unexpected industrial and social heritage of this small corner of the Wirral.

The Harp Inn, on Quayside in Little Neston, is at the end of a residential lane, Marshlands Road, turning left along the Quayside, before it eventually becomes a track and then a footpath.  There are three main parking areas, first just as you round the bend to turn left from Marshlands Road onto Quayside (What3Words ///regarding.solving.mirroring, about a two minute walk, heading in the same direction), then at the pub itself where there is parking for about 10 cars (What3Words ///when.grumbling.kicks), and finally at Denhall Quay (///bike.outcasts.tarred, about a two minute walk back to the pub).

If you are interested in finding out more about the Wirral collieries I sincerely recommend Anthony Annakin-Smith’s The Neston Collieries, 1759–1855: An Industrial Revolution in Rural Cheshire published by the University of Chester Press (a second edition was released in 2023), and also check out his website at https://www.nestoncollieries.org.

At the entrance to Denhall Quay there are two helpful information boards that are faded but still just about legible, covering the earlier and later colliery phases, and you can walk out into the marshland along well-worn paths (dry in a hot summer, but probably not as foot-friendly in the autumn and winter).

Both the pub and the quay are on the King Charles III England Coast Path, and would make a great destination if you are visiting either Ness Botanic Gardens or the RSPB reserve at Burton Mere. 

Other posts on this blog re the southwest Wirral area:

 

The verdant Hampston’s Well, Burton village, Wirral

1 Reply

I must have driven past Hampston’s Well several times without noticing it, although when I mentioned an earlier visit to the RSPB Burton Mere, a friend mentioned that there was a well somewhere in the Burton village area.  I was not quite sure what to expect when I remembered it on the way to Ness Gardens, and tapped it into the SatNav.  On a sunny day, the light filtered through the dense woodland leaves, creating an enchanting dappled effect.

The well is a natural spring now in a stone container with a wooden lid that is easily removed.  From here it trickles elegantly down a channel into a big pool, surrounded by radiating lines of block paving.  The well has been restored by the Friends of Hampston’s Well, who also maintain it. It is on the south side of Station Road, where there is parking for around two to three cars.  The What3Words location is: ///professes.outsmart.deflate.

A flight of steps leads down from the road level, at the top of which there is a bench, some very faded information posters in a noticeboard display, and two prone sandstone columns with plaques containing information about the well.

According to an entry on Facebook (but otherwise unverified) a dedication document for the well in 1975 stated that the sandstone columns are cores from the sinking of another well nearby.  Here are the plaques:

There is some more information on the OldWirral.net website, with some photos of how it looked before restoration.

 

 

Late June at Ness Botanic Garden on the Wirral

Leave a reply

On one of those days last week when I had a list of a hundred other things I ought to have been doing, and when the sun was blasting down from the heavens like an impending judgement, I jumped in the car and went to Ness Botanic Gardens on the Wirral.  Even on a seriously hot day, there was a breeze coming up off the Dee estuary, there were plenty of shaded and wooded areas to enjoy, and Ness is notable for the sheer quantity of seating and benches available throughout. I was there for three hours, so taking water was essential, but if you forget to bring any with you, the shop is well stocked with bottled water.

My previous visit, during rhododendron and azalea season, was only six weeks ago, but the change was absolute.  The brightly coloured floral effusions of shrubberies, woodland edges and wending pathways had gone over for the season, but in their place both sun- and shade-loving extravaganzas had emerged and were doing a fabulous job of ornamenting large areas of the gardens.  Water features are a significant aspect of Ness, and even though drought conditions were in play, the ponds and wending channels were looking good, supporting numerous water-adapted plant species, some of them with leaves as large as parasols, as well as dragonflies and damson flies.  The herbaceous borders in the big open expanse below the main building are being re-done and were not the extravaganza of colour I had been expecting, and the rose border had gone over, but what I learned on this visit is how much there is to see beyond the core areas.  The gardens extend into shaded wooded areas with winding trails and great views over the Dee and the north Wales coast, and there are extensive wildflower meadows.

There is plenty of parking.  Visitors are provided with a map of the site with the entrance ticket.  Ness has a nice, well attended café which does excellent coffee and a good range of sandwiches, hot food and cold drinks, with both indoors and outside tables available.  There is a small plant sales centre outside the shop, with excellent quality plants that are kept well-watered (mine are doing well in their new homes), and a shop indoors selling gifts.  The Ness Botanic Gardens website with full visitor details is here.

Available to download from the Ness Gardens website at https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/media/livacuk/nessbotanicgardens/Ness;,Map,3_2_26.pdf, but I have not found a way of rendering it easy to print. You are given a copy, however, with your ticket

For a very enjoyable day out, this could be combined very easily with the RSPB Burton Mere nature reserve, which is just 10 minutes away.

 

 

 

 

 

Brunel’s magnificent “Great Eastern” arriving this day in New York from Liverpool in 1860: The Illustrated London News

Leave a reply

On 17th June 1860 the fabulous S.S Great Eastern left Liverpool and set sail on her maiden voyage for New York. She arrived there this day, 28th June. Her designer and architect was Isambard Kingdom Brunel whose pet name for the ship during construction was “Great Babe.”

There is a nice nod to Great Eastern on the Chester City Walls, where the length of the ship (692ft) was carved quite deeply into one of the coping stones at Kaleyard, near the pigeon coop, preceded by an engraved anchor.  It is also the measurement between that point and the King Charles Tower, also known as the Phoenix Tower.   You can see a photograph of it at the end of this post.

I have written previously about the Great Eastern and her relationship with the Mersey, and above is a splendid engraving from the 21st July 1860 Supplement of the Illustrated London News showing her June arrival in New York.

Great Eastern shortly before launch 1858

Great Eastern shortly before launch in 1858 by Robert Howlett. Source: Wikimedia

With a capacity for 4000 passengers, she left Liverpool on her maiden voyage with only 35 passengers and 8 company overseers, both of which were far exceeded by a crew of 418.  She was equipped to run under sail or steam, via paddles or propeller, had four decks, and could carry 15,000 tons of coal.  Sadly she was never given the opportunity to meet the long-distance goals of India, China and Australia intended for her by Brunel and her builders and investors and was never competitive on the busy cross-Atlantic passenger service to which she was initially confined.

The fortunes of  Brunel’s astonishing S.S. Great Eastern swung between greatness and near-disaster like an enormous, record-breaking pendulum.  She was all too often something of a gigantic white elephant, but she became an invaluable resource for laying cables across the Atlantic, and was always a great public attraction.

Great Eastern at Hearts Content Cable Station

Painting by Charles James Lewis of the Atlantic Telegraph Expedition landing of the cable in Hearts Content Cable Station in Newfoundland, Canada, on July 27 1866, which he witnessed. Source: PK Porthcurno

After a traumatic roller-coaster of a career, the enormous ship was sold to be broken up in 1889, the work to take place on the Mersey.

Great Eastern, beached in advance of being broken up on the Mersey in late 1888, Wirral side.  Source: Liverpool Echo

Throughout her history, Great Eastern was the subject of curiosity and fascination, and people lined up to buy souvenir pieces of the ship before the breaking work began on 1st January 1889.  The photograph above shows her beached on the Mersey, ready to be broken up, and she continued to challenge even after the breaking work began.  Not only was it a very sad episode for posterity but also, as it turned out, for the ship breaker.  The company directors had estimated that it would take 200 men to break up the ship in a year, but she was so well built that it took nearly two years, requiring the costs of ongoing labour and additional machinery, including much more substantial wrecking balls, to finish the job.  Substantial profits had been anticipated from her scrap value, but she was broken up at a considerable loss.  Brunel had built her to last.

One of Robert Howlett’s famous photographs of Brunel with Great Eastern in 1857 prior to launch. Source: Wikimedia

Brunel had died in 1859 whilst the ship was still undergoing sea trials and had suffered an engineering accident during which five stokers died, and although the consensus is that the emotional stress of the ship’s construction and the difficulties of her launch undoubtedly contributed to his death, he was already suffering from a debilitating kidney disease.

It is perhaps thankful that he did not live to witness this drawn-out demise of his grandly imagined, fabulously realized and much-loved “Great Babe.”

Great Eastern was such a colossal, record-breaking chunk of maritime, industrial and national heritage that I find it more than slightly difficult to forgive the universe for allowing her to be broken up.

Infographic of Great Eastern

Infographic comparing ship sizes, in chronological order from left to right. Click to expand. Source: JF Ptak Science Books.

 

The length of Great Eastern carved into the City walls in the 19th century. Source: Geograph. By John Turner, CC BY-SA 2.0

The watercolour of Great Eastern, shows her beached on the Wirral side of the Mersey for repairs, although the painting is very sadly not on display.  It was painted three years after the illustration at the top of the post, in 1863, by  William Gawin Herdman (1805-1882).

 

Great Eastern watercolour showing the ship on the gridiron for repairs just off the Wirral on the Mersey in 1863. By W.G. Herdman (in the collection of the Williamson Art Gallery, not currently on display). Source: Williamson Art Gallery Collection at Birkenhead.

Cooling walks at RSPB Burton Mere on a seethingly hot day

3 Replies

My third visit to the RSPB nature reserve at Burton Mere on the southwest Wirral was made particularly remarkable by the unprecedented and indeed record-breaking levels of heat in late June.  Thankfully, Burton Mere offers an excellent balance of sunny board walks and leafy pathways and tracks, as well as cool hides, and there was a slight breeze from the Dee even where other areas locally were perfectly still.  The reed beds and woodland walks were delightful on such a hot day, and there were two different types of wild orchid in flower, which were something of a treat.  There were plenty of birds to see cooling down in the water, with the furthest hide,  Border Hide, as busy with a wide range of wading birds as it had been on both my earlier visits.  Apologies for the wildfowl photographs, which are at the absolute limit of the range of my camera lens.  A full daily list of what has been spotted is always posted on the RSPB Burton Mere’s Facebook page to give an idea of what to look out for.   I was particularly glad to see the avocets with their upward-curving beaks and distinctive black and white plumage.  Avocets had become extinct as residential breeding birds in Britain prior to their reintroduction in 1947.  According to the RSPB website, over half of those breeding in the UK today are still on managed wetland reserves.  There were plenty of them at Burton Mere this week.

There were only a few other human visitors, and when I paused at the welcoming café on my way out, for a delicious latte and an ice cream at an outside table in the shade, I was in splendid isolation, accompanied only by a small jackdaw, which eyed my ice cream with all the optimism of one who is regularly fed by visitors.  The heat has clearly deterred many visitors, but it was easy enough to avoid extensive periods of exposure to the sun.  Because of the heat, taking water is a strongly recommended precaution, but if you forget to take your own the café sells bottled water as well as other cold drinks.

Visiting details can be found on the RSPB Burton Mere website here.  If combined with the Ness Botanic Gardens, only 10 minutes away, this could make a good day out.  Both have cafés for lunches and other refreshments, and both have plenty of parking.

My previous post about RSPB Burton Mere, with much better photographs of the bird life, is on the blog here.

 

Bee orchid

Bee orchid

 

 

 

 

Southern marsh orchid

Southern marsh orchid

 

View across the marshes to Burton Point, where the purported hillfort is located on the RSPB land (look out for the sign posts)

My somewhat shaky video of the view from the Border Hide at Burton Mere, taken on my camera balanced on one of the Border Hide window sills.  I love the cacophony of bird calls (just under 2 minutes long).