Further afield
The Wagon Above The World sits on the south side of Saddlebow Ridge in the parish of Orcop in Herefordshire with a panoramic view across an unbroken horizon: from May Hill in the east, across the Forest of Dean to the south, and over to the Hatterall Hill ridge of the Black Mountains to the west.
Along the back of the field is an old Green Lane, from which the house gets its name. This leads up to the Trig point at the top of the hill and from which you can see seven counties! The wagon looks out across to the Black Mountains of Wales to the west and the nearest wooded hill less than a mile in that direction is the subject of nature writer John Lewis-Stempel’s latest book titled ‘The Wood’, of which we have a copy in the wagon. Another iconic view from the wagon is the twin curve of the mountains Skirrid and Sugarloaf and the owner thinks it was partly this view that made our veg box suppliers label our location as ‘M.E’ (short for Middle Earth, the Hobbit land). Tolkien lived in Herefordshire and was inspired by this countryside when writing his books.
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Places to visit
The Wagon lives about 10-12 miles from the market towns of Monmouth, Ross on Wye and the city of Hereford, 16 miles from Abergavenny and just over 20 miles from the book town of Hay on Wye. Monmouth is a smaller town just inside Wales, which amongst other things has a lovely old fashioned theatre and cinema. Ross on Wye is a small market town by the river with a 16th-century market house in the centre. Nearby there is Baileys, an interesting ‘artsy’ homeware shop with cafe at the weekend.
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Hereford offers the broadest scope for shopping in the main chains, restaurants of a variety of cuisines and has a variety of outdoor markets on in the town centre and of course has the Cathedral, with the famous Mappa Mundi. It has a swimming pool and leisure centre and Odeon cinema. It also has The Courtyard, an arts space providing theatre, cinema that often shows independent films and a cafe bar. Every February/March there is the Borderlines film festival.
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Abergavenny has daily markets inside their large market hall, including a fabulous flea market every Wednesday and monthly craft, farmers market and antique and collectors fairs. The Art Shop has regular art exhibitions and The Chapel, has a lovely cafe with outside walled garden and events of workshops, talks and live music.
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Every September Abergavenny hosts the Abergavenny Food Festival with lots of big names in the world of food giving talks and demonstrations and of course selling produce.
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Hay on Wye, is famous for it’s Literary festival which happens every May, but is well worth a day trip for it’s many bookshops, art galleries, vintage shops and generally independent feel. Recommended is the fabulous Booth books which mixes old and new books on the shelves and has a good cafe, as well as a cinema! The Old Electric shop has interesting homewares and a cafe serving vegetarian food and the place to go for old fashioned ice cream is www.shepherdsicecream.co.uk
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Vist the river Wye! Lots and lots of places to hire canoes and get on the river for a day
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Hill climbing up Skirrid, Sugarloaf and Pen y Fan, amongst other mountains, with the Brecon Beacons not too far away
Llangorse Lake in the Brecons where you can hire a dinghy, windsurfer, canoe, kayak, stand-up paddleboard, pedalo or rowing boat and have a sailing lesson
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The Forest of Dean has good biking trails and Symonds Yat, a well-known tourist destination for walking, canoeing and boat tours. Also near Monmouth is a butterfly house full of tropical butterflies
