Mike Riversdale

At the main Symonds Yat viewing place, walking towards the wall. Back in the day there was no wall, imagine that!

Smack bang on the border of England and Wales, look one way and it's the Forest of Dean , look the other it's the hills of Wales. The top of the Kymin is a classic place to take all your visitors to Monmouth, if you're from Wellington think Mt Vic lookout .

Who doesn't love a big pink pun!

'Ye olde worlde' of Wales, and many parts of the UK, holds a special place in the tourism industry. Of course it does, it's what people like you and me are after. It conjures up solidity, mystery, simpleness, history, and a certain book/movie feel that fits in with our internal images of what 'ye olde worlde' should look like - we really are in Diagon Alley, this really is Robin Hood land, this is actually where Holmes lived.  Wales does not let you down, it has tonnes of places like this just waiting for you to photograph. But if that's too difficult to make happen then be happy in the knowledge that I have done it for you ( inland and coastal ). For the next few months (I suspect) you're gonna see a lot of 'ye olde worlde' Wales. btw: I remember when Church Street had a tarmac covering and they dug it up to lay down the 'olde worlde' paving stones to give it more of the feeling we all crave.

"Back in the day", yada yada yada, yes we all know there were more pubs than people, there was a pub every two houses, the largest number of pubs per square mile than anywhere in the known universe, there was a pub named after each and every one of us, and yet, YET we only ever went to same one every time. Monmouth has changed, it now only has 10 pubs.  "Ten! Ten? It used to be ten pubs just in the top of town. There were ten pubs I'd walk past to get to my local." Yes, yes ... times change, we now have 10 pubs in Monmouth . Oh, and the Mayhill but that seems to be more a ghost pub, it can be seen but only in the dark and no-one will believe if you say you went in. Monmouth, a town in Wales (YES, it is in Wales ), a town that has a population of around 10,317 (as at 2021). A town who's 1980's population was, well, I don't know, despite a century of censuses being taken, it's impossible to find (1991: 8,206 | 2001: 8,877 | 2011: 10,508 | 2021: 1

The Old Tree of St Thomas House in Monmouth begs the Loyd Grossman question , "Who lives in a house like this?"

Can you imagine having to vacuum the whole castle , it would take bloody ages!

Easiest castle escape ever, sneak out the backdoor when no-one is looking, LOL.

Weird to think the invention of brass can be placed at an exact year and in an area. Weird, but true as this plaque on the outer walls of Tintern Abbey claims it to be. NEAR THIS PLACE, IN THE YEAR 1568 BRASS WAS FIRST MADE BY ALLOYING COPPER WITH ZINC. TO COMMEMORATE THE EVENT AND ON THE OCCASION OF THE DIAMOND JUBILEE OF THE NATIONAL BRASSFOUNDRY ASSOCIATION, THIS PLAQUE WAS ERECTED IN 1957 Now, the plaque says that but a quick visit to Wikipedia and it all falls apart, little did the 1957 National Brassfoundry fellas realise just how quickly we could find out the actual info ... except about themselves, a tantalising sniff of info but nothing concrete. Brass has been around since the BCs, but calamine brass does mention Tintern Abbey and the village is proud of how they kicked off the Industrial Revolution .

Who remembers Spot The Ball, that thing from the 1970, 80s, and 90s, that joined your Nan's Littlewood's football pool entry in her weekly ritual of newspapers, pen, and quiet time. If you're craving the fun of bygone times I am here for you: Download the photo, Place your cross on the spot where you think two people were*,  Upload your choice somewhere, Pop a link in the comments  WIN! Spot The Ball - The Story! is a grand short history of Spot The Ball with this shocker but if info: It’s not where the ball ‘really’ is! Many people aren’t aware that the ball they were trying to pinpoint was not the actual ball from the image. A group of experts decided where they judged the ball to be, and it was this location that players were trying to locate with their X’s. Using the ball from the original image made cheating possible as people could track down the photograph to find its correct position. Of course, all the Spot the Ball experts worked independently of each other and t

It's not often one comes across a blue plaque that sums up town life quite so aptly. I'm afraid you'll have to zoom in to get the full measure of the writing.

Nothing really funny about it, just a slight and silly bit of word play. Move on please, nothing else to see here.