AT the time of the English Civil War, Kilpeck and Much Dewchurch were solid Royalist outposts.

Kilpeck Castle, just to the west of the corbelled church was originally Welsh, then Saxon and later developed into an impressive fortress by the Normans.

Now it was at the behest of King Charles.

Less than two miles away, Sir Walter Pye the Younger, the knight residing at The Mynde (point five, below, on a fine ramble), was also a supporter of the King.

When the Earl of Stamford occupied Hereford for Parliament, Royalists seeking to threaten him from the Monmouth direction, had a convenient foot-hold at Pye’s Much Dewchurch bulwark . It was from here that a small boy delivered a note to Hereford for Sergeant-Major Ferrar of the Foot Regiment which offered him £500, a pardon, and a promotion in the King’s army if he would assist in a Royal takeover of the city. Such bribes to prompt desertion were not unusual but on this occasion it was declined.

Briefly imprisoned when William Waller took Hereford after the shortest of skirmishes like Stamford before him, Sir Walter became ever more determined to advance the King’s interests in his territory.

As “commissioner of array” in the county he was used to mobilising forces and in July 1643 he was one of nine nobles at the head of 600 men laying siege to Lady Brilliana Harley’s Roundhead enclave at Brampton Bryan Castle. The Mynde had become prosperous in the time of his father, Attorney General to King James, and was fortified during the Civil War. It is testimony to its strength that no attempt was made on it at the time by a Parliamentary army.

Sir Walter the Younger died in 1659 one year before the restoration of the monarchy and the return of the established Anglican Church. For his second son, Robert Pye, owner of the Mynde by 1674, it was to be his religious, rather than political, affiliation which determined his fate.

While walking from the Mynde towards Wormelow, Pye espied his neighbour John Bodenham of Bryngwyn trimming his hedge.

Bodenham, a zealous Roman Catholic, had refused to take the Oaths of Abjuration and Allegiance before the Hereford justices of the peace including Pye, a staunch Protestant. When Pye accosted him and pulled a summons out of his pocket, Bodenham swore and beat him so violently with a billhook that he died a few days later. But when Bodenham was put on trial, he pleaded “Benefit of Clergy” and was discharged.

A century later, Susannah Minton, a servant at Paul Gwatkin’s farm near Kilpeck church, was found guilty of stealing a large number of caps, linen sleeves and other articles, and setting fire to his barn. It seems that while the household was distracted by the fire that she had started, the girl purloined some finery which she’d seen her mistress modelling.

Though she was of weak intellect and of previous good character, the judge felt that she deserved the full punishment of the law. He ruled that Susannah should be shown no mercy and the seventeen- year-old was hanged at Hereford on September 16, 1786, in front of a large crowd.

Our quite energetic six-mile ramble in old Royalist territory sets off from the vicinity of the poor uneducated Kilpeck girl’s felony. It passes the estate of the justice of the peace who was murdered by a religious landowner. Whilst the information boards on the site of Kilpeck Castle and medieval village at the start give you a feel for the history of the area, perhaps the vagaries of justice deserve their own chapter in the story.

The vagaries of justice THE ROUTE 1 Kilpeck church, parking bay opposite barn. Walk away L of church into Kilpeck. In front of Kilpeck Inn, Turn right, bend left by Old School House, and keep ahead at junction past village hall.

Climb up lane (past drive to Dippersmoor and a R turn) to T junction. TR along scenic No Through Road to (what is) New House Farm, with pond (L).

2 New House Farm. Go straight ahead through farmyard and exit via gate/stile. Go ahead along fenced/hedged R edge. In R corner, go through wooden gate and TR. Follow R edge/hedge, bend L and, just beyond tree, go straight ahead through gap to put hedge on L. Bend R 75m, then TL through gap and follow L edge/hedge through unmarked metal gate up wide, tree-lined grassy avenue. Keep L on gravel by barn, bear L up byway over mini-grid, to junction at Primrose Cottage. Go ahead up minor road (with the Mynde appearing down L) and ahead at next junction to Butts Bungalow (L).

3 Butts Bungalow. TL along signed path through two gates or over stiles. (The clump of trees up to R is Cole’s Tump – Alfred Watkins’s noted sighting point). Bend R along fine high path, ahead at path junction below telegraph wires, L of stone cottage, ahead at gate/stile and marker post into Mynde Wood (with its fallow deer). After 300 m, just through clearing, TR up steps and over double stile to exit Mynde Wood.

Now be careful – it’s a huge field and you want the far side of it over the crest.

Go straight ahead on the same line that you took up over the steps and stiles. Maintain it, perhaps bearing a little right up over the top (with Cole’s Tump clump of trees over to R). On the far edge of the same field you will find a stile in the hedge.

4 “Green Lane”, Orcop Hill.

Cross stile, TL beyond a dwelling (below R), continue, dropping, to a surfaced road. TL at Springfield, over grid (L of Yew Tree Cottage), drop 200m to grid and cross stile (R) into pasture.

Maintain original line, skirting elbow of Bettws Court Farm, up over two stiles back into Mynde Wood. Now, keep descending, ignoring turns, straight ahead beyond steps and marker post on to broader path, still ahead at next post, then a little R at post on edge of wood and out via gate into paddock. Go ahead through buildings, R of stable block via two gates along drive to grid at The Mynde.

5 The Mynde (Royalist stronghold in The Civil War). TL at gate/grid, (with old mansion and clock tower R, and pond L), over 2nd grid, up broad gravel track, with fine views. At “Herefordshire Trail” marker, (with barn front R), keep to L of hedge, TR over stile by house and keep same line ahead over two more stiles on to road. Go straight across road through metal gate into field, to waymarked elbow (L). TL down across f/bridge, bear R up through metal gate in hedge, ahead through next field and gap in hedge. Go down next field, bearing slightly R to middle bottom and cross f/bridge. Climb to R of cottage.

6 Nash Hill Cottage. Cross stile, TL 20 m and TR through gate.

Bear L to elbow, then TR down field towards pylon over three planks/stile, straight across next field, stile and f/bridge. TL 35m, over stile, along L edge, through metal gate, bear R to cross stile in R corner by Kilpeck Inn. TR for church.