If you’re not camping, one of the pleasures of the Path is the variety of hospitality you will receive along the course of your journey. I stayed in hotels and B&Bs of undulating levels of quality. Most very good, the odd howler. One of the best was Drewin Farm, situated as the Shropshire Hills give way to the Montgomery Plain. I loved this place. From the moment the owner’s dog seeks you out before you’re even on the driveway, you get the feeling that you are about to be spoilt to within an inch of your life.
When the owner, Ceinwen Richards, greeted me at the door and asked if I wanted anything to drink, I felt almost embarrassed to ask for a beer – but it had been a brutal day in the Switchbacks. She wasn’t sure if they had any in, but then her husband mentioned that their son, who lived in the farmhouse next door, had won a whole WHEELBARROW of the stuff at a local event. He returned a while later triumphantly clutching a bottle of ice cold lager and that was just about the best beer I tasted all week.
I’d stayed at a few B&B’s up to that point but none of them made a fuss over me the way Mrs Richards did. And as I ate my huge home cooked meal, it became apparent that Mrs Richards is something of a legend on the Offa’s Dyke Path. She had a small shelf of books in the lounge and as I flicked through one or two, she kept saying:
“I’m in that one.”
“Oh, and that one.”
It turns out walkers have been so captivated by the hospitality they received here that they have written fondly about the experience. The BBC stayed while filming for The Travel Show, and Mrs Richards has a fantastic photo of Carol Smillie giving her husband a kiss (not a Glasgow one either). Terry Waite has also stayed here!
You can often measure how good a B&B is by the quality of your sleep. It is a complicated algorithm, composed of elements such as the exertions of the day, the heat of the room, the fullness of your belly, the noise of your location, your general position up or down the ‘is everything well in the world’ ladder. I have to say, I never slept better than at Drewin Farm.
The start of my Offa’s journey was not just Chepstow. It was this straight to video 2001 British comedy. Swedish nymphettes, country and western nights, steamy goings-on in B&B’s and punch-ups with the locals. All set against the backdrop of the borderlands. Who wouldn’t want some of that?!
Walk on the Wiles side 