Ross-on-Wye
The lovely old market town of Ross-on-Wye presents a peaceful image of rural England. The graceful spire of the parish church strikes upward from among the cluster of timbered houses, trees and water meadows, to contemplate its dappled reflection in the lazy bend of the River Wye. Many of the houses, set high upon cliffs, employed the local red-sandstone for their construction with the result that the whole town is imbued with a rosy hue as the morning sunlight slants across the rooftops.
The heart of Ross-on-Wye is the 17 th century Market House, an impressive red-sandstone building taking pride of place in the Market Square. The ground floor of Market House is completely open and an air of cloistered calm reigns among the weathered pillars and arches that support the upper floor, now the town library. On display here are two mementoes of the town's allegiance to Charles II; on the east wall is a bust of the monarch shown on a white medallion, in the south-east corner of the building is the ambiguous monogram ‘FC' intertwined with a heart. It is generally believed to mean ‘Faithful to Charles in Heart', its author being the wealthy barrister John Kyrle (1637-1724), the town's greatest benefactor.
Few people have made as great a mark on a town as John Kyrle did on Ross. Settling there in 1660, he devoted the rest of his life to philanthropic works. Kyrle introduced a public water supply to the town and laid out the Prospect Gardens. He also reconstructed and added pinnacles to the unsafe 14th century spire of the Church of St Mary and gave it a magnificent tenor bell. He sponsored the causeway to the nearby Witton Bridge and set up funds for needy local children to attend school. The poet Alexander Pope praised him as the "Man of Ross", the name by which he is best known ever since. John Kyrle lived in a half-timbered Elizabethan house opposite the Market House, which still stands but is now divided into two shops. Behind one of them is an old garden laid out to Kyrle's original design incorporating a swan motif made of horses' teeth and a 12 inch high maze of box hedges. Visitors may view the garden on request.
On the other side of Market House stands a splendid black-and-white building with elaborate carved heads on its beams - this was formerly the Saracen's Head Inn, renowned during the coaching days but now home to an estate agents. A row of exquisite Tudor almshouses line-up opposite the church, and despite undergoing repair in 1575 the broad façade retains an ancient crumbling look about it.
In 1637 the plague known as the Black Death brought its pestilence to Ross with a vengeance, which resulted in over 300 victims being committed to the churchyard. Only a simple stone cross stands in sad contemplation of the poor souls who were hurriedly laid to rest in a mass grave at dead of night lest the other townsfolk be alerted to the severity of the situation.
Tucked behind the main street in Palma Court is a fascinating building called The Last Street Museum, incorporating a pub and shops dating from 1885 to 1935. All have been reassembled here with their original front and interior, as well as authentic enamelled signs to conjure up the lost era spanning 50years. The pub in question is the original Lillie Langtry transported from London's East End, and features a mahogany bar with wonderfully etched mirrors.
Another fascinating attraction in Ross is the Button Museum, the first museum to be solely devoted to the humble everyday button. It is an intriguing collection of over 8000 assorted buttons made of enamel, bone, wood, both civil and military and spanning the past 200 years.