A Quick Look at Chepstow

 

In Chepstow, our priority was to get a decent meal at Wetherspoons on the way to Tintern Abbey.

As it happened, Chepstow Wetherspoons was small but very homely and served up a great roasted vegetable pizza.

Overall, I liked Chepstow town centre, it had narrow streets full of character and some interesting-looking buildings.

 The building that most caught my eye was the Priory Church of St. Mary, a Grade I listed building:

Have just read that parts of the building, including the ornate doorway in the picture above, date back to the 11th century, like Chepstow Castle.

More specifically, St. Mary's church was founded around 1072 as a Benedictine priory by William FitzOsbern and his son Roger de Breteuil, as a kind of fruit of the 1066 Norman Conquest.

Chepstow Castle, itself, looked spectacular in the August sunshine:

 

In a week or so, Hawkwind would be playing Chepstow Castle and a very kind landowner had agreed to let those attending the concert do wild camping next to the Castle (have seen Hawkwind 10-11 times over the years, especially in the 1980s).

Have just read that in the 12th century, Chepstow Castle was used in the conquest of Gwent, the first independent Welsh kingdom to be conquered by the Normans.

Near Chepstow Castle, lay a small tourist information office where a very nice lady told us how to get to Tintern Abbey by bus, and ominously warned against doing wild camping there.

Our trip to Tintern Abbey and wild camping adventure there will be covered in upcoming blogs, of course.