A market on the hill
Domesday Book records Ross as a manor and village belonging to the Bishop of Hereford, with a priest and mill. In 1138 King Stephen granted the right to weekly markets. These records establish a settlement with religious, agricultural and commercial functions before the river scenery became a reason to visit. [2]
The medieval town is still legible in its property pattern. Long burgage plots extend behind narrow street frontages around Broad Street, Market Place and High Street. The council’s conservation appraisal contrasts the red sandstone Market House with timber-framed buildings such as John Kyrle’s house opposite. Streets, plots and materials preserve different kinds of evidence about how the town grew. [3]
An open hall at the centre of exchange
The Market House gives the market a built focus. Historic England describes a seventeenth-century structure of local red sandstone, with an open ground-floor arcade beneath rooms above. Round arches rest on Doric columns, while a small clock lantern crowns the tiled roof. The building offered covered space without sealing traders off from the surrounding streets. [4]
Its survival has required continued care. The town council reported the completion of a conservation project in October 2024, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and other funders and inspected during the work by Historic England. The council also planned for the Made in Ross art and craft gallery to return to the upper floor. Maintenance and ongoing activity both keep the old market building relevant. [9]
A church made over generations
St Mary’s is largely a thirteenth-century church. By the middle of the fourteenth century its east end had been extended, and a tower and porches had been added. The Markye Chapel followed in 1510; an organ chamber completed the present ground plan in the nineteenth century. This sequence explains why the church cannot be assigned to a single building date. [5]
Six surviving piscinae, the basins associated with altars, indicate that the medieval building once accommodated several altars. Later memorials to the Rudhall family and John Kyrle make the interior a record of local households and benefactors as well as worship. The church’s architectural changes and commemorative objects offer complementary ways into Ross’s history. [5]
Making a public prospect
John Kyrle leased the Prospect in 1696 and laid out gardens with a fountain and water supply; gates bearing his monogram and crest date from 1700. A riverside water engine installed by Kyrle and his partners in 1705–06 pumped water uphill to the fountain and reservoir. The view over the Wye was also a place of organised improvement, supported by practical engineering. [6]
The Prospect sits beside the church but opens the town towards its surrounding landscape. Kyrle’s work joined recreation, planting and a water supply in one public setting. It helps explain why the experience of Ross involves both tightly enclosed streets and an expansive view over the river below. [6] [3]
Visitors learn to look at the Wye
The Wye Tour developed from river excursions associated with Ross rector John Egerton, who had a boat built for taking guests downstream in 1745. Commercial boats later catered to growing demand. A journey between Ross and Chepstow offered visitors a sequence of views, stopping places and ruins, making the river a route to be experienced as scenery. [7]
William Gilpin’s journey in 1770 and the publication of his Observations on the River Wye in 1782 helped spread that fashion. The National Library of Wales connects his book with the rise of picturesque tourism: travellers learned to value scenery through ideas about composition and beauty. Its manuscript collections show later visitors following the same route, including Thomas Martyn’s recorded tour of 1801. [8]
The tour’s principal period of popularity ran from around 1760 into the 1830s. Commercial boats gave Ross another economic role alongside its market. The town’s importance lay partly in being a departure point: the landscapes that made the tour famous extended well beyond Ross itself. [7]
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