ARCHIVE PHOTOGRAPHS.

Thursday 14th February 2002.
Cheriton and Ryer's Down.

Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with kind
permission of Ordnance Survey and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland
Down in the hollow, behind the bare winter trees, the early morning sun catches the tower of the Church of St Cadoc. The church is in the tiny village of Cheriton and it is there that my walk begins..
This is the lower part of Cheriton, the churchyard wall is on the left of the picture and below the road the Burry Pill flows on past the edge of the churchyard, to the Loughor Estuary.
The 13th century Church of St Cadoc is said to be one of the most beautiful churches in Gower.
Just across the road from the church is the Bridge Pottery. I had plenty of time to complete my walk and since I had never visited the pottery, I went in. I met Micki Schloessingk, the potter and she showed me some of her work.

She is one of the pioneers of salt glaze in Britain. Micki trained at Harrow School of Art, where the famous experiments with salt technology in the nineteen seventies helped establish a new wave of interest in salt glaze.
Exhibiting widely, Micki has pots in various collections, including the V & A Museum and the Crafts Council Collection. A member of Contemporary Ceramics and Contemporary Applied Arts, examples of Micki's work can always be found in these London galleries.
.Another pot sits on the wheel awaiting the further processes to transform it into a work of art and beauty. For more information about Micki's salt glazed pottery and visiting times, see her interesting website www.mickisaltglaze.co.uk.
Before leaving, I walked to the bottom of the pottery garden to where the Burry Pill flows under the arched road bridge. I stood there for a moment or two watching the swift flowing water go by.
My route lies along a pathway at the side of the pottery. I climb over the stile.....
..... and enter a wooded area. The autumn leaves still cover the ground.
Soon the woods give way to open sunlit fields. In the sky, vapour trails linger long after the aircraft has passed.
I walk on, following along the bank of the pill. In front, I can see another stile which I will have to climb over and yet another field to cross, on the other side.
At the far end I go over the stile which leads to Packhorse Bridge. This triple arch bridge is quite unusual and is the only one in Gower. I cross over the bridge and follow the old time worn track.....
..... as it rises steeply through the trees between crumbling stone walls thick with bright green moss . In the silence and loneliness of this place it is not difficult to imagine ghostly voices and the clatter of hooves as loaded horses make their way up from the bridge.
Where the track reached the top of the hill, I decided to turn left along the foot of Ryer's Down towards Western Mill Farm, there I was greeted noisily by the farm dog.
I was interested in this old millstone which had been used to plug a gap in the farm wall. The farmer told me it was a stone from the old Western Mill, a water mill that used to be down in the valley, beyond the trees, on the Burry Pill.
I walked on along the broad path from the farm, on my right the slopes of Ryer's Down....
..... on my left the field dips down to where the Burry Pill flows.
After a while I spotted a narrow path heading towards the top of Ryer's, it was no more than an animal track, but it was good enough and was going in the right direction. Halfway up the slope I stopped to look back. The fields stretched away,one after the other, into the distance.
It is quite breezy up here at the very top and I was glad to shelter behind this Ordnance Survey Marker whilst I had a warm coffee and some sandwiches. The conifer woods this side of the Estuary are at Whiteford Point. On the other side is Burry Port.
Feeling refreshed I set off down the hill to find the road back to Cheriton.. .
There were a few more fields to go through before I climbed one final stile and found the roadway....'bye.




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All photographs Copyright © 2000 Alex Thomas. All rights reserved.