Newent & The Vale of Leadon

Typically English landscaped countryside, market gardens and black and white timbered buildings

To the north of the Royal Forest of Dean, (approximately 30 minutes drive) is the market town of Newent (free car parking) and the Vale of Leadon.

[ Map of the Vale of Leadon ]

In complete contrast to the Forest and Wye Valley, there is a mixture of black and white timbered buildings, market gardens and vineyards. There is also a lake (recently been refurbished) in the town of Newent adjacent to the car park.

The town of Newent, whose name appears in the Domesday Book as "Noent" , is a centre from which to explore the Vale of Leadon. The black and white timbered market house in the centre of Newent dates back to the 17th century.

A town leaflet is available from Tourist Information Centres.

Dick Whittington - mayor of the City of London in the late 12th and early 13th century, was born in the small village of Pauntley, at Pauntley Court.

Dymock Woods on the outskirts of Newent is well known each spring for the carpets of wild daffodils.

Dymock was also the home of the Dymock Poets - Lascelles Abercrombe, Rupert Brook, John Drinkwater, Wilfred Gibson, Edward Thomas, and American Poet Robert Frost.. Robert Frost left America with his family in 1913 and rented a cottage near the home of the Dymock Poets. He eventually returned to America, and wrote a poem specifically for the inaugration of President Kennedy. There are two Poets Path Walks available in Dymock

The Soldier

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam
A Body of England's, breathing English air,
washed by rivers, blest by sons of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends' and gentleness
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

Rupert Brooke 1887 - 1915

Poets Path Walks

Three miles to the south-west of Newent lies May Hill (National Trust Land). The hill rises to over 900 feet. The conifers on top of the hill were planted to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. The magnificent view from the top of May Hill stretches over Gloucestershire and extends to Bristol, on a clear day. May Hill itself can be clearly seen from over 45 miles from the north, and from Dundry 50 miles to the south, easily identifiable by the clump of trees on it's summit.

There are a number of attractions to visit in Newent and the Vale of Leadon. Designated walks are avialable in and around the village of Dymock and Dymock Woods. Leaflets to accompany these walks can be purchased from Tourist Information Centres.

Map of the Vale of Leadon