![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/footsteps.jpg?w=860\")
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\u00a0Redbrook \/Offa\u2019s Dyke<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n In the 17th century Britain was dependent on copper imports. John Coster experimented with new ways of smelting copper using coal rather than charcoal. In 1690 he established a coal fired smelter and by the late 1690s was producing 80 tons of high-quality copper which sold for \u00a3100 a ton and was used in wire and battery-ware.<\/p>\n The English Copper Company established works in Redbrook and secured contracts from the Government Mint to become the main supplier of blanks for the copper penny. The copper ores were roasted to drive off sulphur and arsenic and visitors commented that \u2018a thick yellow smoke hangs over the works which is unwholesome and detrimental to vegetation\u2019.<\/p>\n Centuries of metal making at Redbrook produced huge amounts of waste. Most waste products were recycled; furnace slag was crushed and sent to Bristol glass makers and molten waste from copper smelting was cast into black slag blocks, copings and quoin stones which were used in many of the local buildings and exported down the Wye. (In the19th century Swansea smelted most of the Britain\u2019s copper and was known as Copperopolis.<\/p>\n In the 19th century Redbrook tin was the thinnest tin you could buy. The Redbrook tinplate company became world famous with demand coming from the United States for packing tobacco. The village ran to the works hooter and Redbrook\u2019s residents lived cheek by jowl with the noise, smoke, and smell from the works until 1961 when they closed, unable to compete with the Welsh strip mills.<\/p>\n As we set off along the river Wye, a group of children were doing artwork in the open air. Colourful examples of their past work were displayed on a noticeboard. It was wonderful to walk through a woodland in bud and to see the water in the river sparkle in the Spring sunshine. Soon we found ourselves climbing steep slopes and scrambling over\/around fallen trees. A huge number of tree trunks were piled up where a logging company had felled trees from the hillside. Our route took us through a large field; the first wildlife of the day was spotted, a small group of deer.<\/p>\n The spires of the impressive All Saints church at Newland could be seen in the distance and we walked across fields of ewes with lambs, and past a building with coloured pencils as fence posts before reaching the village. The church was open and contains many memorials and stones. There is a medieval chapel dedicated by King Edward 1st in 1305 which was appropriated by the wealthy Probyn family. The local pub derives its name from the Probyn family crest; it was thought that Ostriches could eat iron, so the bird is shown with a key in its beak, alluding to the Probyn family wealth which came from metal industries.<\/p>\n The fields were strewn with lady\u2019s smock (or milk maids and various other names). It is an important food plant for the orange-tip and green-veined white butterfly.<\/p>\n We arranged ourselves over a group of tree trunks and stumps to relax in the sunshine for lunch with views of the valley below us. As we finished, the temperature dropped as a breeze started. We descended the hill to a road where a stream ran alongside. Following the road, we passed fishing lakes and a small holding with two turkeys in the garden. Then we tackled a steep hill finding goats at the farm at the top. On a narrow footpath next to a house, we spotted a sign \u20185mph Please drive slowly children playing and animals\u2019.<\/p>\n From here there was a brilliant view of the surrounding hills, especially Sugarloaf and then it was mostly downhill back to the cars at Redbrook. Now we crossed the pedestrian bridge, beside a crumbling old railway bridge, over the Wye into Wales, to enjoy a well-earned drink at the Boat Inn. Here we could see all sorts of energetic people \u2013 canoeists who appeared to be a hen party, cyclists, and walkers. [Walk 7miles 1300ft – Map OL14]<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0Redbrook \/Offa\u2019s Dyke A walk near the Wales\/England border, beginning in Redbrook, Gloucestershire, a typical English riverside village with church, village hall, local shop, post office and playing field. Quite pretty, with clean air, different from how Redbrook was in the past. It is now hard to believe that \u2018it was once the most bustling little place imaginable\u2019, but, since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6cWjO-11608","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1413,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=1413","url_meta":{"origin":11608,"position":0},"title":"Offa’s Dyke","author":"Alan Williams","date":"1st November 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"WHO WAS KING OFFA AND WHAT WAS HIS DYKE FOR? You have probably heard about Offa\u2019s Dyke \u2013 but do you know who King Offa was and why he had a dyke built? Well - Offa was the King of the Mercians, a warrior tribe from central England, from 747\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe History Group"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe History Group","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=40"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3762,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=3762","url_meta":{"origin":11608,"position":1},"title":"September Walks","author":"Alan Williams","date":"27th September 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Black Hill Ridge - It was a long drive to the beginning of the walk, the final stretch following winding lanes until we reached the car park at the foot of Black Hill. In the north east of the Black mountains we were in Herefordshire north east of Llanveynoe\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Footsteps"","block_context":{"text":"Footsteps","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1100,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=1100","url_meta":{"origin":11608,"position":2},"title":"Wye Valley \u2013 Tintern, Brockweir & Tidenham Chase.","author":"Alan Williams","date":"9th October 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"We parked at Tintern Abbey and started by walking across the bridge at Abbey Mill over a full river Wye. The Abbey Mill\u2019s old water wheel was made around 1870 and ran until 1951 when electricity replaced water power. The mill paid an important role in the industrial history of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Footsteps"","block_context":{"text":"Footsteps","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8549,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=8549","url_meta":{"origin":11608,"position":3},"title":"Offa\u2019s Dyke To Cardigan Bay","author":"Alan Williams","date":"31st October 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Offa\u2019s Dyke To Cardigan Bay In the 1960s, the war correspondent and journalist Wynford Vaughan Thomas was persuaded by the BBC to climb on a horse and ride from Pembrokeshire to North Wales, with no previous experience. He described the journey in \u201cMadly in all Directions\u201d in 1967, with an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Interest Articles"","block_context":{"text":"General Interest Articles","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=334"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/route.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/route.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/route.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/route.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12326,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=12326","url_meta":{"origin":11608,"position":4},"title":"Tidenham","author":"Alan Williams","date":"11th October 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0Tidenham We started at Tidenham Chase car park on A4228; the pedestrian wireworks bridge across the river Wye at Tintern is closed for repair for about 9 months from August 2022. So, the plan was to include the Tidenham tunnel in our walk, a clockwise route taking us south to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Footsteps"","block_context":{"text":"Footsteps","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Picture5.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15578,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=15578","url_meta":{"origin":11608,"position":5},"title":"Brecon & Llanthony Priory","author":"Alan Williams","date":"28th May 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Brecon\u00a0 This was a delightful walk, we parked north of Brecon and took a footpath through the cathedral grounds. The mixed woodland (oak, beech, hazel and alder trees) of Priory Groves borders the river Honddu, and is about a mile long. Birds sang, the river tinkled, the scent of bluebells\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Footsteps"","block_context":{"text":"Footsteps","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Footsteps1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11608"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11608"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11627,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11608\/revisions\/11627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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A walk near the Wales\/England border, beginning in Redbrook, Gloucestershire, a typical English riverside village with church, village hall, local shop, post office and playing field. Quite pretty, with clean air, different from how Redbrook was in the past. It is now hard to believe that \u2018it was once the most bustling little place imaginable\u2019, but, since Roman times it has been a hive of industrial activity. First iron (smelting was first mentioned in1300), then copper and later tinplate were made here.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Picture8.jpg?resize=600%2C391\")
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The graveyard attached to the church has several benches and there are alms houses on the boundary, but we didn\u2019t stop as we had hills to climb before lunch. As we left through the lych-gate, we could see that most village houses are stone and full of character.<\/p>\n
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