Newport; Sunday, 15 June, 2025

I had a bit of a Sunday lie-in and braced myself for another calamitous breakfast, but it turned out that either everyone had dined early, or were leaving it even later (or weren’t bothering at all), as there were plenty of spare tables and lots of food this morning.

Having finished breakfast, I headed back up to my room, packed and then checked out, leaving my luggage with the hotel, and heading down to the bus station to pick up the bus out to Duffryn on the outskirts of the city.

Duffryn is a 1970s estate built on the land previously owned by the Tredegar Estate which after by then had mostly passed into the hands of the council who used some of the park land to build much needed housing, whilst retaining a large amount of the parkland as an open space. Since 2012 the historic house, built in the 17th century on the foundations of an earlier Tudor building, has been under the management of the National Trust.

The Morgan Family (later the Lords Tredegar) had the house built in the late 1600s and lived in it up until the end of the Second World War at which point it became a catholic girls boarding school for 25 years, before being passed over to the council. Today the house has been restored to how it would have looked at various points during it’s use, including recreating the Tudor style kitchen.

I spent quite a bit of time wandering around the formal gardens and house, which are included in the entrance fee, before heading out into the wider parkland, which is free to wander around for everyone.

I had a long walk around the park, in particular round the tranquil lake which offers some excellent views back across the waters to the house.

With my time in Newport coming to an end I headed back to the bus stop from the house and picked up the bus back into Newport, grabbed my luggage and then headed over to the station to pick up the Rail Replacement bus over to Bristol Parkway, as even the diversion route via Gloucester wasn’t available this Sunday.

The bus journey was smooth and I made it to Bristol Parkway with 25 minutes to spare before the train was due to depart so I was able to wander down to the front and grab a table seat. I was quite glad I’d boarded where the train was starting as it really filled up at the next stop in Swindon and by the time the train left Reading it was standing room only up the length of the train.