At the end of the eighteenth century, war in Europe made it impossible for the upper middle classes to go on the Grand Tour through France to classical Italy and so they were forced to take their holidays at home.
At the same time, there was a change from an appreciation of classical landscape and architecture to the more romantic approach of the picturesque, which meant literally, a scene which would look good in a picture. The Wye Valley provided the perfect setting, with the river in the foreground, the tree-lined banks as the side flaps and a ruined castle could act as a centre piece and if there wasn't a castle there, you could always paint one in anyway! William Gilpin writing the first tour guide to be published in Britain in 1782 wrote "If you have never navigated the Wye, you have seen nothing".
At the Kymin overlooking Monmouth, Richard meets Andrew Helme of the in Monmouth who describes how pleasure seekers on the Wye Tour would hire a boat at Ross-on-Wye and make their two day journey, floating down the river to Chepstow. They would a hire a large rowing boat, fitted with a canopy, padded seats and a table to sit at, so that they could paint, draw or write as they took in the scenery.
Five miles downstream at Redbrook, Mark Bristow of theΜύ describes how since Roman times the area has been used by industry because of the ready supply of timber, good quality ore and abundant charcoal from the Forest of Dean . The River Wye provided transport for the raw materials and finished products and with the introduction of the blast furnace in the1500s, its tributaries began to be used for water power. The village of Redbrook alone had over 40 foundries and was the headquarters of the British copper industry.
The River Wye is tidal as far as Brockweir and with the abundance of timber the village became a centre for ship building. Jim Simpson recounts how ships as large as 500 tons were built there and then towed to Chepstow or Bristol to be rigged. It was also here that deep water craft off loaded their goods on to the traditional shallow drafted trows to be taken further upstream to Monmouth and even as far as Hereford. Up to 1809 the boats were towed by men using harnesses attached to the mast. There was no road up the valley until the early nineteenth century and so the river was the only trade route.
Settlers arriving in the trows at the Hudnalls, an area close to Brockweir, who could get a chimney up and smoking between sunrise and sunset were allowed to claim the land on which they built. According to John Childs , his relations on his mother's side did just that. The Hudnalls is typified by farm holdings having very small fields, many just an acre. These have been difficult to maintain, but recently John and a few others have set up The Grasslands Project to buy an alpine tractor used to remove ferns and briars so that the 80 or so species of wildflowers in these unimproved meadows can be preserved.
Tintern Abbey was one of the high points on the picturesque tour and it is here that Andrew Helme shows Richard a modern day version of the Claude Glass. This is a convex mirror which was used by the original tourists of the Wye Tour to simplify what they saw, all detail being lost except that in the foreground.
Tintern was also an industrial centre and the first brass made in Britain was founded here in 1566 as Andrew Helme and Mark Bristow explain. Wire making quickly followed with mills on all the Wye's tributaries. Perhaps surprisingly the tourists felt that the blast furnaces added to the scenery and would include them in their pictures. Artists such as Turner and poets of the calibre of Wordsworth all came on the Wye tour. In fact it was here that they developed their skills. The practice of selling prints of paintings caught on here and so when the road and later railway came up the valley, places such as Symonds Yat and Tintern were so well known that people came in their thousands to visit.
Just above Brockweir, bat researcher, David Priddis shows Richard a treat for naturalists, a small barn and one of the smallest Sites of Special Scientific Interest, containing around 600 , along with nearly 300 babies, making it the largest known roost in England .
Finally Andrew Helme takes Richard to Wintours leap, just before Chepstow Castle , the end of the Wye tour and where the Piercefield Estate provided surprise attractions and one last chance of a picture for the tourist.
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