The Golden Valley is the name given to the valley of the River Dore in western

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthsh ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The valley is a picturesque area of gently rolling countryside. It lies in the lee of the

Black Mountains, Wales The Black Mountains ( cy, Y Mynydd Du or sometimes ) are a group of hills spread across parts of Powys and Monmouthshire in southeast Wales, and extending across the England–Wales border into Herefordshire. They are the easternmost of the f ...

. The main villages are

Dorstone Dorstone is a village within the Golden Valley, Herefordshire, England. There is a thriving community with a church and public house with restaurant. The Golden Valley area offers excellent hillwalking and horseback riding countryside and is no ...

Peterchurch Peterchurch is a village and civil parish in the Golden Valley, Herefordshire, England. The countryside around is spectacular, with views of the Black Mountains but the village itself is architecturally undistinguished, except for the award-winn ...

Abbey Dore Abbey Dore ( cy, Abaty Deur) is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England, known for Dore Abbey, a 12th-century Cistercian abbey, which was expanded in the 13th century. The name Abbey Dore came into being in the 18th century, combi ...

and

Ewyas Harold Ewyas Harold () is a village and civil parish in the Golden Valley in Herefordshire, England, near the Wales-England border about halfway between Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, and Hereford. The population of this civil parish at the 2011 cens ...

Origin of the name

The name ''Golden Valley'' probably derives from a confusion of the name of the River Dore with the French ''d'or'', meaning 'of gold'. The

Normans The Normans ( Norman: ''Normaunds''; french: Normands; la, Nortmanni/Normanni) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norse Viking settlers and indigenous West Franks and Gallo-Romans. ...

might have confused the Welsh word ''dŵr'', meaning 'water', with 'd'or'. A similar situation occurred with the

Douro The Douro (, , ; es, Duero ; la, Durius) is the highest-flow river of the Iberian Peninsula. It rises near Duruelo de la Sierra in Soria Province, central Spain, meanders south briefly then flows generally west through the north-west part o ...

river in

Iberia The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

(Spain and Portugal) where the

Romance language The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language f ...

s adopted the original Celtic name and changed the meaning to the similar-sounding precious metal.

Local points of interest

Arthur's Stone, Herefordshire Arthur's Stone is a Neolithic chambered tomb, or dolmen, in Herefordshire, England. It is situated on the ridge line of a hill overlooking both the Golden Valley, Herefordshire and the Wye Valley. The tomb dates from 3,700 BC – 2,700 BC. Lo ...

, located just outside the village of

, is a

chamber tomb A chamber tomb is a tomb for burial used in many different cultures. In the case of individual burials, the chamber is thought to signify a higher status for the interred than a simple grave. Built from rock or sometimes wood, the chambers could ...

from the

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...

Period, and dates from some time between 3700 and 2700 BC. Arthur's Stone is Herefordshire's oldest man-made structure.

Dore Abbey Dore Abbey is a former Cistercian abbey in the village of Abbey Dore in the Golden Valley, Herefordshire, England. A large part of the original medieval building has been used since the 16th century as the parish church, with remaining parts eith ...

is a former mediaeval Cistercian

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whi ...

that during the summer offers a programme of musical concerts. It was built between 1175 and 1220 and restored in the 1630s. Nearby is Bacton Church with the monument to Blanche Parry - she was close to

Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

for 56 years. This monument, securely dated before November 1578, is the earliest depiction anywhere of Queen Elizabeth I as an icon, as 'Gloriana'. It pre-dates the paintings showing this theme. Bacton Church also has rare 1914–1918, World War I, medal ribbons depicted in stone on several memorial wall plaques. The diaries of

Francis Kilvert Robert Francis Kilvert (3 December 184023 September 1879), known as Francis or Frank, was an English clergyman whose diaries reflected rural life in the 1870s, and were published over fifty years after his death. Life Kilvert was born on 3 ...

extol the beauty of the local landscape of English river valleys sheltered by the Black Mountains between

Hay on Wye Hay-on-Wye ( cy, Y Gelli Gandryll), simply known locally as "Hay" ( cy, Y Gelli), is a market town and community in Powys, Wales; it was historically in the county of Brecknockshire. With over twenty bookshops, it is often described as "the t ...

and Hereford and it is

Bredwardine Bredwardine is a village and civil parish in the west of Herefordshire, England. Significant parish landmarks include a brick bridge over the River Wye, the historic ''Red Lion'' late 17th-century coaching inn, St Andrew's Church, and the site ...

where he is buried. Kilvert was Rector at St Andrew's church, Bredwardine until his early death in 1879. Snodhill Castle is a very early Norman stone fortification. Ewyas Harold Castle is an early

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

motte and bailey castle and St Michael's church,

contains a 13th-century or 14th-century effigy of a lady holding a heart in the palm of her hand. The last remaining

toll bridge A toll bridge is a bridge where a monetary charge (or '' toll'') is required to pass over. Generally the private or public owner, builder and maintainer of the bridge uses the toll to recoup their investment, in much the same way as a toll road ...

in Herefordshire at

Whitney-on-Wye Whitney-on-Wye is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England, roughly a mile east of the border with Wales. The population of this civil parish at the 2011 census was 117. It is on the A438 road, and on the River Wye. The village i ...

leads to

Hay-on-Wye Hay-on-Wye ( cy, Y Gelli Gandryll), simply known locally as "Hay" ( cy, Y Gelli), is a market town and community in Powys, Wales; it was historically in the county of Brecknockshire. With over twenty bookshops, it is often described as "the to ...

. A plaque written in Welsh and dated 1574 was discovered during renovations in St Margaret's Church, near Newton, and is currently on display within the church. The church also contains a printed notice of the duties of churchwardens in both English and Welsh. Owain Glyndŵr is said to have spent his final years after his disappearance following the eventual failure of his rebellion against King Henry IV in hiding under an alternative identity with his daughter, Alys Scudamore, previously known as

Alys ferch Owain Glyndŵr Alys ferch Owain Glyndŵr was one of the daughters of Margaret Hanmer and Owain Glyndŵr, the disinherited prince of the old Welsh royal house of Powys Fadog, who led a major revolt in Wales between 1400 and ca. 1416 against King Henry IV of En ...

, and her husband, a

Scudamore, namely Sir John Scudamore in the Golden Valley. The Golden Valley featured in the 1993 film '' Shadowlands'' in both a painting and as an actual location.

C.S. Lewis CS, C-S, C.S., Cs, cs, or cs. may refer to: Job titles * Chief Secretary (Hong Kong) * Chief superintendent, a rank in the British and several other police forces * Company secretary, a senior position in a private sector company or public se ...

, the film's protagonist, owned a painting of a valley which to him, as a child, appeared to be heaven. The

Herefordshire Trail The Herefordshire Trail is a long distance footpath in Herefordshire, England. Route and distance The trail, running for as a circular tour of Herefordshire, links the five market towns of Leominster, Bromyard, Ledbury, Ross-on-Wye and Kin ...

long distance footpath passes through the valley.

Railway

The Golden Valley Railway Company opened a line from

Pontrilas Pontrilas ('' en, Bridge over Three Rivers'') is a village in south Herefordshire, England, half a mile from the border with Wales. It is in the parish of Kentchurch and lies midway between Hereford and Abergavenny. In 2011 the main village conta ...

in 1881 and an extension to

in 1889, but a plan to link to Monmouth was never realised. The line was sold to the Great Western Railway in 1899. Passenger operation on the line ceased in 1941 and it closed completely in 1957.

Pipeline

During 2008 the Golden Valley saw the construction of the National Grid's 196 km natural gas pipeline from

Felindre Felindre is a rural village in southern Wales. Felindre is located in the far north of Swansea, in the electoral ward of Mawr. The nearby Lower Lliw Reservoirs are a popular venue for walking and fishing. The water mill in the village was workin ...

in Swansea to Tirley in

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

. The pipeline increases the volume of gas which can be transported from the new

LNG Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volu ...

terminals at Milford Haven to the rest of the UK.

References

External links

Golden Valley - Visit Herefordshire
{{Coord , 52.016, -2.927, type:city_region:GB-HEF_dim:10000, display=title Valleys of Herefordshire