From Chepstow to Hill

On Saturday I joined Simon, and Elli and Toby for their trip to Chepstow castle which was a lovely trip. Toby was woken up to see the Severn Bridge - we were both wearing the same colour hoodie too! We drove through to the car park and then Elli and Toby ran into the castle and explored all the rooms and galleries in the castle. After a stop in the shop where Elli bought a princess and Toby a dragon we had our pasties in the car before heading back home to Thornbury. I have some new books I purchased in the shop by Kate Roberts and Rhy Davies , The Awakening and Print of a Hare's Foot ' which look interesting and are set in Wales.

In the afternoon I travelled 4 miles to visit the small village of Hill where some very distant ancestors came from. It was a bit weird seeing some 18th cent gravestones in the churchyard to the Hobby's with some rather gloomy verses on them to cheer the reader. However one was particularly interesting as it mentioned a Elizabeth Hobby who had been a maid in the vicarage from the 1760's for 29 years. This was to prove interesting later in my walk. I peeped into the ancient church with its massive raised family pew opposite the pulpit for the Fust's. Also on the wall was a tablet to one Thomas Hobby 1700 and something.

Out from the church there were many rooks cawing in the trees which made for a creepy atmosphere. Anyway there was a very pleasant walk over the gate into some common hill top land and where there proved to be a stile heading towards some woods and a tunnel. On the way back I asked a lady where the walk went to and explained I had seen some 'hobby' tablets in the church and the one about the maid in the vicarage. She then told me that she lived in the old vicarage at Hill and had a old sepia photo of the servants who had worked there.

All in all an interesting day out.