Ashford

The cottages of this picturesque village on the Wye have settled into pretty tranquillity. Ashford is famed for a cottage industry which took the name of Ashford Black Marble around the world. A prize-winning marble table can be seen inside the church, which also has rare examples of maidens’ garlands, carried before the coffins of unmarried, all too often young, women. Ashford’s old Sheepwash Bridge incorporates a riverside pen to contain a number of sheep during their annual, and very public, bath in late spring.