Castles and Cars - Hiking England's Coast to Coast Way: Landscape, Laughter and Love - page 33

Richmond Castle
The bus sped us back to Richmond in an absurdly short time, making a mockery of our re-
cent speed walking, but once we had regained the Bed and Breakfast, showered and drank
the obligatory cup of tea, we had to dash into town to get to Boots the Chemist before it
closed. Boots was my last hope of replenishing the blister supplies before the end of the
trip. The shutters were going down, but we pleaded with the friendly assistant who let us in
and sold us their meager stock!
Beguiled by the charms of Richmond, I asked our landlady at breakfast to tell us of its his-
tory. She told me that the castle was very largely for deterrent and defensive purposes and
that it dated back to Norman times. Later I discovered that there was evidence of human
settlements in the Richmond area since the earliest times. I also learned that the town re-
ceived its charter from Queen Elizabeth l and that since then there had been the wonderful
custom of boundary beating. Every seven years the townsfolk gather to walk the fourteen-
mile boundary to renew their claim on the land. There is pomp and circumstance mixed
with levity and joyfulness, and footraces—including one reserved for the councilors. The
town's mayor is borne by the water-wader into the middle of the River Swale, since that is
where the boundary lies for a while, proclamations are read, coins are thrown, and certific-
ates are available for those who walk the entire way. Of the fifty-seven Richmonds across
the globe, this is the oldest and held a special significance for me since my daughter was
then studying at the third oldest Richmond in Virginia, USA. We'd only had a sample of
Richmond and would have liked to have stayed longer and explored not only the castle, but
also the large cobbled marketplace, the Georgian Theatre, the museums, the many churches