Worcester to Cardiff: The Long Way Round
(All the Way Around Wales)
Part Two
27 September 2024
ABOVE: Stagecoach South Wales 21355 (BV19 LPJ), a 12m Volvo B8RLE MCV Evora, arrives at Brecon Interchange on a northbound journey on route T4 from Cardiff to Newtown. The destination display is showing the Welsh for Builth Wells, which is an intermediate stop en route. Underneath, in the bit that the camera did not capture, is "ar gyfer Y Drenewydd", which means "for Newtown". Photos in this article were taken on Tuesday 17 September 2024, until otherwise indicated below.
I'm in Brecon, Mid Wales, having travelled here by bus from Worcester, via Ledbury and Hereford (see Part One). I'm on my way to Cardiff, but I'm taking a bit of a detour first. It's just a short deviation - I'm going all the way around Wales by bus! There are a couple of nooks and crannies that I will be bypassing, but, essentially, I am going to spend the next three days or so circumnavigating the country.
There's time for a quick look at Brecon first. This market town in the county of Powys sits north of the Brecon Beacons mountain range, at the confluence of the River Honddu and the River Usk. It was archaically known as Brecknock.
There's a strong musical influence here, although I'm just a little too late for the annual Brecon Jazz Festival, which takes place in August, and a little too early for the Brecon Baroque Music Festival, which is organised by leading violinist Rachel Podger and takes place over a weekend each October. I will have to console myself to exploring the town instead.
ABOVE: High Street Brecon, on the left, continues ahead, whilst the curiously-named High Street Inferior, in which I am standing, ends here. The building with the clock is the Guildhall, Grade-II listed.
My next bus is due out of Brecon Interchange at 1200. It will be the Traws Cymru service T4 to Newtown. The information I have obtained online suggests that it will depart from stop 2, but I do like to verify, when I reach a place, that I have the correct information.
The stop flag confirms the departure point, but there's no timetable in the stop - only one for the T14 (which, incidentaly, isn't advertised on the stop flag). Mixed messages...
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Well perhaps I can verify the timings from the digital display in the bus station?
Unfortunately not - there's a fault that has blotted out the critical part of the display...
ABOVE: My T4 is probably the one at the very top of the list, but I still can't tell which Bay it is due to go from, or when...
Interesting to note that the Traws Cymru buses are not presented as such - Stagecoach is the operator name shown here, Also interesting to see that the display shows buses far into the future, in minutes; that last 40A on the list is due in 196 minutes - that's three hours and 16 minutes from now...
I can't get a decent phone signal either, so I have to revert to the old-fashioned approach - which is to cross my fingers and hope for the best.
The bus is due in at 1152, but doesn't appear until the scheduled departure time of 1200. To be fair, it's come all the way from Cardiff (departure time 1010), so that probably isn't bad going. The driver is leaving here, but allows all new passengers on board first.
The bus is another 12m Volvo B8RLE MCV Evora (see title picture), and is pretty much a carbon copy of the one that brought me here, with the same high-spec interior. And just to add to the sense of déjà vu, the 'new' driver is the one who brought me here from Hereford!
It's 1207 by the time we depart, and I retrace the incoming steps of the T14 for the first few miles, until we reach the Pontybat Crossroads and branch off in our own direction.
We come to the village of Boughrood, where we cross the River Wye:
ABOVE: Crossing the River Wye on the approaches to Boughrood village, looking broadly north
Looks like I'm also too late for the annual Llyswen & Boughrood Agricultural Show, which takes place each August.
We head north through a succession of small villages, clinging close to the Wye, until we reach Builth Wells. Builth is a anglicisation of the Old Welsh Buellt/Buallt, which combines bu, meaning "ox" and gellt, meaning "lea or leas" (pastures used for grazing). The modern translation of the Welsh version of the name, Llanfair-ym-Muallt, comes out as "Saint Mary in Ox Leas".
The economy of this area is likely to have been heavily dependent on cattle, and this may explain the presence of this animal next to the bus stop in The Strand:
Builth Wells has one of the very few post office buildings in the United Kingdom to bear the cypher of King Edward VIII, the uncrowned king who abdicated in 1936. The cypher can be found on what is now a fairly anonymous building in Strand Street, or via this image on Google Streetview. (See also the British Post Office Buildings and their Architects website.)
On departure from Builth Wells we cross the Wye again.
ABOVE: Crossing the Wye again, and looking back into the town of Builth Wells.
Soon after, we pass the Royal Welsh Showground, managed by the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society. And I'm a few weeks too late for the Royal Welsh Show, which is held here over four days each July. As well as livestock and equine competitions, the Show offers activities including forestry, horticulture, crafts, countryside sports and displays.
Next major stopping point for the T4 is the town of Llandrindod Wells. During the mid-18th century, the healing qualities of the local spring waters attracted visitors to the area resulting in an economic boom, and it developed as a spa town in the 19th Century.
Wikipedia tells us that Llandrindod was the place of the election of the first Archbishop of Wales in 1920; Elections for every Archbishop since have been held here (Andy John, the Bishop of Bangor, is the current incumbent).
Unlike many of the places I am passing through today, Llandrindod still has a presence on the National Rail Network, on the Central Wales line between Swansea and Shrewsbury. I believe that I rode this line as a small boy, and the family may even have wandered around Llandrindod as part of that, but both the railway line and the town are ripe for a return visit some day.
ABOVE: Llandrindod Wells station. Unfortunately the more attractive railway building is on the opposite side, behind this one!
The bus is due to stand at the station for five minutes but late running means that we pull away immediately - but doing so puts us back on schedule.
The countryside is stunning, of course, as Wales always is. This is the view looking west from near Llanddewi:
We arrive into Newtown at 1352, three minutes early. This has made a potentially-tight connection a little easier, especially as there are essential facilities right at the Bus Station!
One of the problems with the Traws Cymru network is that many of the services only run every two hours. So my itinerary has a number of tight connections that could become very long stays in particular areas if they don't work out. Ironically, this is probably the tight connection that would have mattered least if I had missed it.
I'm taking the T12 service next, to Wrexham. This is a real cross-Wales service from Machynlleth, only about 10 miles from the West Coast of Wales, all the way to Wrexham, about five miles from the English border. It's 62 miles as the crow flies (if the crow makes a detour to Newtown) and takes three hours and 34 minutes from end-to-end.
Well it would, but there aren't any through journeys. Virtually all journeys require a change at Newtown. And there are two separate operators as well - Lloyd's Coaches run the Machynlleth portion and Tanat Valley Coaches run the service to Wrexham. Why this is marketed as one service rather than two beats me.
And one has to be especially careful when the two portions are lined up next to each other in Newtown Bus Station! The buses are designed to connect, which means that they arrive together. I need to do a double-check to make sure I'm standing beside the right bus!
ABOVE: Three buses are in view here in Newtown Bus Station. On the left is Tanat Valley Coaches 236 (BV73 MHY), a Volvo B8RLE MCV Evora. Next to that is similar BV21 OOW of Lloyds Coaches. Both are working Traws Cymru service T12, in opposite directions. On the right is Owen's Coaches Optare Solo SR YJ68 FXW, on local circular 86C via Maesydail and Trehafren. Not quite in view, but the bus I have come in from Brecon on is in the furthest bay, behind all the other buses.
I'm soon boarding my service to Wrexham, which leaves on time at 1405. This is a Tanat Coaches Volvo B8RLE MCV Evora. Unlike the previous two, this one is 10.8 metres long, and one of the things that has been squeezed is the legroom, which is significantly tighter for what will be my longest journey today. Just my luck!
This bus does not have audio announcements, 'next stop' displays or additional luggage racks. There are still USB sockets, albeit one between two in a more traditional position at the sides. Notably, the livery is completely different, being a red frontage with two-tone grey from the middle and to the back. So much for a uniform style of presetation for Traws Cymru!
We soon come to the town of Montgomery, with its striking Town Hall at the end of Broad Street:
ABOVE: Montgomery
The driver of this bus is very good-humoured. Someone calls to him to check that the bus is going to Welshpool, as she is momentailry disorientated. "It is," says the driver, "although I could be tempted to go somewhere else..."? And, when we reach Welshpool, he complements another passenger who is used to holding her credit card on the ticket machine: "Tap in ... oh, you're a pro"!
Beyond Welshpool (the Welsh name, Y Trallwng, means "the marshy or sinking land"), there's a curious quarry near the village of Four Crosses, high up in the hills, in an area famous for its slate and granite deposits:
We're close to the English border now, and we cross back into England at the village of Llanymynech; the western half of which is in Wales and the eastern half of which is in England. There was a pub here called "The Lion" (now gone), which apparently had two bars in Shropshire, England and one in Montgomeryshire, Wales!
The English border town of Oswestry is the next major calling point. This Middle English name, according to Wikipedia again, seems once to have meant "tree of a man called Oswald", or possibly "Oswald's Cross", if looking at the traditional Welsh name for the town, Croesoswallt. Oswald is widely imagined to have been Oswald of Northumbria, who died at the Battle of Maserfield in 641/642. The location of the battle is debated among scholars, but for much of the 20th century was assumed to be at Oswestry.
ABOVE: This old mill, in Thomas Savin Road in Oswestry, is now being used as a medical centre.
The final leg of the journey brings us to Wrexham, where I am deposited outside the Bus Station at 1621, nine minutes early. This has been a quiet journey overall, with only a handful of passengers on board at any one point.
ABOVE: A proper view of Tanat Coaches 236 (BV73 MHY), a Volvo B8RLE MCV Evora, outside Wrexham Bus Station
And that's it for me for the day - my planning has been a little unambitious, perhaps, and I could easily have done the next leg of my journey today. But I had assumed that I would not make the connection in Newtown, and not doing so would have brought me into Wrexham at 1835.
Before I retire to my hotel, I have time to wander around the city, and to catch sight of the 500-year-old Church of St Giles. I'm afraid the church is the only thing about this city that really catches my attention. Sorry, Wrexham!
ABOVE: St Giles' Church, Wrexham
Human activity in the Wrexham area dates back to the Mesolithic period (8000 to 4300 BC), with flint tools having been found to the east of the city, and two Bronze Age burial mounds to the west. Being close to the English border, there have been numerous 'struggles' between the Welsh and the English for control of the territory around Wrexham, reportedly starting with the Battle of Chester around 615/616.
And Chester is my next battle! It's school run time the next morning as I reach the Bus Station at Wrexham to catch Arriva Wales route 1 back across the border to the city that was founded as a Roman Fortress in the First Century AD. There's a hint of drizzle in the air, but it soon clears.
I have been aiming for the 0750 departure, but there's also one at 0740 and that's the one I end up on, albeit we're five minutes late setting off.
ABOVE: A selection of Arriva Wales buses are parked in Wrexham Bus Station at 0740 on Wednesday 18 September. On the left is 1008 (CX17 BYK), an ADL Enviro400 City that will form the 0750 departure on route 1 to Chester (the 0740 departure will turn up shortly)! An Optare Solo can just be seen alongside it, after which we have 662 (CX57 CYS), another Optare Solo, awaiting the start on a local circular service. To the right, Optare Solo SR 701 (MX12 KVT) picks up at the start of a trip to Penycae, a small village just under five miles to the south-west of Wrexham.
This is an ADL Enviro400 City to Arriva's now defunct "Sapphire" specification. This is a high-spec vehicle, with next stop announcements and displays, USBs at every seat, seat bell pushes and skylights. Some seats are grouped into fours with tables, but my seat, opposite the stairs, is one of three single seats, each of which has a fold-down mini-table in the style you find on some trains.
This is a very busy service, with more and more schoolchildren joining at every stop. We get to the stage where several are standing on the top deck (unchallenged by the driver). No-one is left behind, though, although how that happens is a bit of a mystery. It shows the continuing challenges of school-time transport. The normal frequency of route 1 is 15 minutes, so this unique 10-minute gap between departures has clearly been designed with all these youngsters in mind.
It calms down as we go and we cross back into England on a very nondescript dual-carriageway section where the Pulford Brook and the "Welcome to England" signs are the only things to show that a boundary exists (actually, the sign just says "ENGLAND, Cheshire" - at least the one over the road gives Welcome - into two languages)!
It's slow on the approaches to Chester, by which time the 0750 departure is in front of us. I alight in the City Centre at 0843, where the service is around six minutes late.
I have half an hour to pass at Chester Interchange, but there are always plenty of buses around, and plenty else to see. A staff bus from Stagecoach drops off half a dozen drivers who all walk straight across the middle of the 'no pedestrian' bus parking and manoeuvring area as it's the quickest way across. They should set a better example.
ABOVE: Four buses, four operators! Parked up in the Chester Interchange are Stagecoach Merseyside and South Lancashire 27904 (SN63 NAU, left), an ADL/TransBus Enviro300; an Arriva ADL Enviro400; M&H Coaches Optare Solo SR YJ21 FBA (my next bus) in a Traws Cymru livery; and a D&G Bus ADL Enviro200.
I'm eschewing the coastal routes from here (which would comprise the 11 to Rhyl and the 12 to Llandudno), as I've done these routes before and I want to do something I haven't done. Also, as I'm looking closely at the Traws Cymru network I want to try the T8 to Corwen. It means I'm going to be a few miles inland, but I hope you will still consider that I am going "all the way around Wales", even if I cut a few miles out here and there!
The T8 is in the red and grey Traws Cymru livery, but this one is an Optare Solo SR with none of the mod cons of previous Traws Cymru buses. The service is operated by M&H Coaches, a company based in Trefnant in Denbighshire. The display shows "Mold" - there is no reference to the ultimate terminus of Corwen, or even of the second intermediate point, Ruthin, even though this is one of the shorter routes on the Traws Cymru network.
The good news is that this is an hourly service, and my early start in Wrexham pays off now as I'm on the 0925 service rather than the anticipated 1025 - this will give me some breathing space at Corwen at what would otherwise have been another potential 10-minute connection.
We start, with four passengers, on a fast stretch down the A55 dual-carriageway, from the outskirts of Chester to the Broughton Park Shopping Park, just across the border and back in Wales (I'm in Wales for the duration now).
It doesn't take long for me to find bus stops with information of the quality that I have come to expect in this part of Wales (ie, none):
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ABOVE: I haven't noted exactly where the bus stop illustrated above is, but it's somewhere east of Mold. One would have thought that the Welsh Government would want to ensure that details of its flagship Traws Cymru network would be publicised at what is, essentially, the point of sale...
We reach the town of Mold, where all but one other of the passengers leave; we do get five new ones, though.
About three miles beyond Mold is the "We Three Loggerheads" public house, a former Coaching Inn. We're close to the village of Loggerheads and the Loggersheads Country Park. According to North Wales Live, the pub was named when two locals met there to resolve a dispute. A local artist captured their argument in a painting and gave it to the pub to pay off his beer debts. The third ‘loggerhead’ refers to the man who witnessed the row.
ABOVE: The Three Loggerheads pub near Mold. Note that there is actually a timetable on display in the bus stop!
We lose most customers by the time we get to Loggerheads, and it's just me on the approaches to Ruthin.
ABOVE: More delightful scenery as the T8 works its way towards Denbigh.
We pick up two new customers in Denbigh and venture down some very tight roads that might explain the use of Optare Solos on this route. Eventually both of the others disappear, and it's just the driver and me for the last couple of miles into Corwen.
The descriptor for the terminus at Corwen is described on BusTimes.org as "Car Park (in)," so my expectations of the environment I am going to arrive in are not high.
The bus arrives on schedule at 1102, and it is indeed a Bus Stop within a Car Park. There are essential facilities there as well (for 40p)! But then there are also the views...
ABOVE: At the bus stop in Corwen, looking at the wonders beyond...
This is another of those bus interchanges that is going to get very lively a little later, as several arrivals and departures coincide to enable connections to be made. Amongst these will be buses both ways on the T3, another cross-Wales route, running all the way from Wrexham (I could have cut out Chester and come straight here on that) to Barmouth, on the west coast of Wales.
ABOVE: Lloyds Coaches ADL Enviro200 MMC YX68 UJO arrives into Corwen, working Traws Cymru route T3 to Wrexham. The plain white livery lacks any kind of identity. The display alternates between English and Welsh, but on this occasion, I think we can discern where this bus is going from the Welsh version of the destination!
But I'm not heading to the west coast (yet)... I have a bit more to see in North Wales first, and my next bus out is going to take me there.
And the scenery is going to change from merely delightful to absolutely breathtaking...
TO BE CONTINUED...
BELOW: An approximation of the journey described above, with key towns and cities in North and Mid Wales marked for context
