The roads around Monmouth are quiet but have their attractions; they cut through valleys and woods, past castles and churches. My host, soignee interior designer Neil McLachlan, explains that this part of the world is a well-kept secret, popular with minor gentry and Londoners in the know but protected from the crowds that flush in and out of the Cotswolds.
To some, Newland is known as the ‘Chelsea of the forest’ – but it lacks the hordes of red-trouser wearers
Keen to stretch our legs after the drive from Lydney station, we stopped at Tintern Abbey and met with the medieval reenactors camped on the lawns before heading on to Woofield House in Newland, a village in the Forest of Dean on the River Wye so pretty it could come out of an American advert for quaint English villages. To some, Newland is known as the ‘Chelsea of the forest’ – but it lacks the hordes of red-trouser wearers. Instead,
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