On your bike

White Heron Estate’s three-day e-bike tour includes a visit to Hay Castle, with a chance to browse its well-stocked bookstalls

- Pamela Goodman

TWICE in the past year I have found myself on Hergest Ridge atop a panoramic stretch of Offa's Dyke where England rolls scenically into Wales. Crowning the ridge is a circle of nine monkey puzzle trees, planted there in the 1990s by Richard Banks. Dick, as he was known—part of the long line of Banks plantsmen and gardeners who continue to oversee the wonderful gardens at nearby Hergest Croft—had realised on a trip to Chile that monkey puzzles thrive in high, windswept places, so he thought he would plant a few back home. These days, some 30 years on, the trees are 60ft high and have become a distinguishing landmark for the pretty Herefordshire town of Kington.