The Herefordshire-Gloucestershire border is renowned for its spring flower displays, and a recently established community-run bus service offers an ideal means to discover the area
When Clare Stone’s local bus service was abruptly canceled in 2022, she became quite upset and co-founded the protest group Buses4Us. In the early 20th century, day-trippers would arrive by train to witness the displays of wild daffodils that blanketed the forests and meadows of the area known as the “golden triangle” on the Gloucestershire–Herefordshire border. The railway, which no longer exists, was nicknamed the Daffodil Line. Clare’s group embodied the spirit of the early Victorian investors who had raised funds to construct the railway: “They wanted the railway so they decided to get on and do it themselves,” she explains. Buses4Us raised funds from councils, businesses, and individuals, and in April 2023, they launched a bus named the Daffodil Line (also known as bus 232 or simply “the Daff”).
The original railway also transported harvested wild daffodils to cities such as Birmingham. Now, visitors can use the bus to see the flowers still growing along its rural route, which winds between the Herefordshire towns of Ledbury and Ross-on-Wye. Each spring, local villages organize walks, teas, and celebratory daffodil weekends.
Besides reconnecting communities, the Daff, which runs seven days a week with later buses on Fridays and Saturdays, makes an excellent tourist route. The bus passes flowering woods, markets, cider farms, ancient churches, and village pubs and will stop by request anywhere safe. I’m here for a weekend at the start of daffodil season to try it out.
Arriving late on Friday afternoon, I catch the Daff to Ross-on-Wye, where I’m staying. I’m one of only two passengers on the single-decker bus with its elegant daffodil logo. On the hour-long £2 journey from Ledbury station, we roll past black-and-white timber-framed cottages and old orchards baubled with mistletoe, as the sun sinks behind sloping vineyards. Cheerful bursts of yellow brighten the verges of villages with names like Upton Bishop and Dymock. This is a landscape linked to a group of writers, including Robert Frost and Rupert Brooke, who gathered here before the First World War and became known as the Dymock Poets.
We pass by black-and-white timber-framed cottages and old orchards adorned with mistletoe, while the sun sets behind vineyards
In the recently renovated riverside Hope and Anchor (rooms starting from £80 room only) in Ross, I wake up to the sight of snow gently falling and the bare willows outside outlined in white. The first Daffodil Line bus of the day arrives at the village of Much Marcle in just 40 minutes, perfect timing for the monthly produce market at Hellens Manor. Here, you can find jars of local honey and large freshly baked cheese scones with wild garlic, all in a charming old barn and cowshed setting. Organic purple sprouting broccoli is displayed alongside bunches of hazel leaves, hellebores, pussy willow, and scented narcissi from the nearby Ledbury Flower Farmer. The art-filled Tudor manor house fully reopens for tours (£9.50) on 1 April, with free entry to the gardens and a delightful tearoom.
I walk along an avenue lined with fruit trees to St. Bartholomew’s church, seeking refuge from the snow under a 1,500-year-old yew tree that is so large it has three benches inside its hollow trunk. Inside the church, the wooden 14th-century effigy of Walter de Helyon, dressed in a scarlet jerkin and armed with a sword, appears poised for action. In the chapel, a finely carved alabaster sculpture depicts Sir John Kyrle and his wife Sybil: she is portrayed with fashionably slashed sleeves, while he casually rests his feet on a hedgehog, a symbol of their family.
Our next destination is the market town of Newent, just a 15-minute bus ride away. I’ve arranged to meet Clare Stone at the popular Cobblers micropub. In our conversation, Clare discusses not only cafes and festivals but also regulatory frameworks and the importance of decarbonizing transport. She emphasizes that buses suffer from an image problem, noting, “People who would curl up and die before they admitted to not recycling will happily tell you they haven’t been on a bus for years.” Clare is gradually changing this perception. Passenger surveys indicate that 42% of those on board the Daff have access to a car but choose to leave it behind.
Clare Stone highlights the paradox where individuals who are adamant about recycling may readily admit to not having taken a bus in years
The Secret Gallery, located across the road in the cobbled Shambles courtyard, exhibits artworks by local artists. Among these are stylized flowers, crafted in gold leaf and vibrant acrylics, by gallery owner Hannah Ferguson. Hannah also designed the logo on the side of the bus and creates Down the Line, the Daff’s quarterly newsletter. The Museum of Board Games, situated just opposite and free to enter, is filled with numerous original prototypes and features a linen board dating back to 1803, where players navigate through English History. Taking advantage of the Daff’s Saturday evening services, I disembark a few stops down the road for a Nepalese vegetable curry and peshwari naan at the inviting wood-paneled Roadmaker Inn.
Sunday arrives with clear skies and a frosty chill. Yesterday’s winter scene has transformed into a landscape filled with blossoms, birdsong, and mist swirling above the river. The Market House in Ross is bathed in light as I stroll to the bus stop, purchase a day rider ticket (£3 on Sundays), and embark on the 20-minute journey back to Newent. Today, my goal is to explore the network of paths advocated by the Windcross Paths Group, which was established to preserve and promote local walks. My itinerary includes sections of the nine-mile Daffodil Way and two of the linear bus-stop-to-bus-stop routes designed by local walking expert Les Lumsdon specifically for the Daff.
One trail follows the route of a decommissioned canal, which is now bordered by bulrushes, leading to the church at Oxenhall, located a mile northwest of Newent. Here, an annual daffodil weekend unfolds, featuring homemade cakes and guided walks. Continuing my journey, I find myself meandering through woods and meadows adorned with delicate pale golden flowers. This area is the Gwen and Vera’s Fields nature reserve managed by the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust. Suddenly, a large brown hare dashes past me, its black-and-white tail vanishing into the hedge.
The tunnel under the M50 is flooded due to melting snow, so I continue onwards to locate the footbridge. Persistent heavy rain has transformed some paths into boggy terrain. After eventually discarding my waterproof trousers, now caked in pink clay, I revive myself with tea and cake at Dymock church (£4, open daily 11am-4pm until 7 April). Next door, the community-run Beauchamp Arms is bustling with a folky musical event in the back room.
Two of the Dymock poets lost their lives in the war, and these words by Wilfred Gibson are typically elegiac:
Dymock and daffodils and days of song
Before the war had scattered us apart …
Groups of friends are talking and laughing in the pub, and I recall Gibson’s lines from “The Golden Room” about a lamplit evening with his fellow poets:
And still, whenever men and women gather for talk and laughter on a summer night, shall not that lamp rekindle; and the room glow once again alive with light and laughter; And, like a singing star in time’s abyss, Burn golden-hearted through oblivion?
It’s tempting to linger and enjoy Wye Valley beers by the log fire, but there is one more church I want to visit before heading home. I set off along a lane lined with gold-flowered trees and through an ancient orchard. A couple of miles’ walk from Dymock, pink-walled St Mary’s church in Kempley boasts some of England’s best-preserved medieval frescoes. Inside, there’s a wheel of life in the nave and a doomsday scene in the chancel with rows of Romanesque apostles. These faded artworks from the early 12th century, visible through an ornate Norman arch, are well worth the muddy walk. Kempley village lies a mile south, and during the annual daffodil weekends, a free shuttle bus runs there and to Oxenhall from Newent. Guided walks are available, some of which visit St Mary’s, or you can take a special Daff and Ride bus to see the flowers.
A tour of Westons cider mill (£15) in Much Marcle, at the end of my epic walk, takes you through time, starting from the old stone house and farm buildings where Henry Weston first lived as a tenant farmer in 1878, through the modern production plant with its huge oak vats, and ending with a tasting session. Taking the bus means I can enjoy the six generous samples of cider and perry and then stroll over to the nearby Walwyn Arms.
On Sundays, the Daffodil Line runs from outside the pub or directly from Westons. The surrounding landscape looks even more beautiful than usual through the bus window on the 15-minute journey to Ledbury, with roadside daffodils nodding in the breeze and the distant snow-capped Malvern hills in view. Ledbury, another excellent hub for a car-free holiday, hosts a summer poetry festival. Back issues of Down the Line show an area buzzing with year-round activities, from drag nights to wassailing. Clare is upbeat about the Daff, which has become a powerful focus for community events as well as a bus route: “Good public transport is essential for a fairer, greener future,” she says, “and we’re proud to be a part of that.”
