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      • Museums & Galleries
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      • 12 Easy Walks
      • Guided Tours
      • The Wye Valley Walk
      • Good with the Dog
      • The Offa's Dyke Path
      • Symonds Yat Rock Walks
      • The Wye Valley Greenway
      • Accessible Walks
      • Other Walking Routes & Trails
    • Cycling
      • Cyclists Welcome
      • Bike Hire
      • Cycle Trails
      • Family Cycling
      • Guided Rides
      • Mountain Biking and Downhill
    • Dog Friendly
    • Family Friendly
      • Young Families
      • With Tweens & Teens
    • Group Friendly
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      • Cycling Tours & Trails
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      • Market Towns Trail
      • Heritage Trails
      • 'Feel the Love' Romantic Trail
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      • Local Food & Drink
      • Farm Shops & Delis
      • Christmas Gift Guide
      • Towns & Villages
      • Online Gift Guide
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  • Food & Drink
    • Afternoon Tea
    • Cafes & Tea Rooms
    • Dog Friendly Places to Eat
    • Farm Shops & Delis
      • Shops Offering Home Delivery
    • Family Friendly Places to Eat
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    • Picnic Sites
    • Food & Drink Experiences
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    • Restaurants
    • Vegetarian & Vegan
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      • Download Our Visitor Guide
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      • Boar
      • Birds
      • Deer
      • Flora
      • Bluebells
      • Daffodils
      • Seasonal Guides
      • Severn Bore
      • Trees
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      • Industrial Revolution
      • Freemining
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      • Gloucester
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      • Abergavenny Excellence
      • Beer and Boutique
      • Rural Monmouthshire
      • Severn Valley Touring
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      • Tintern Treats
      • Wye Valley Perfection
    • Escape the Everyday
      • Escape the Everyday at Home
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    • Rainy Day Ideas
    • Dark Skies
    • Dog Friendly Holidays
    • My Microgap
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      • Autumn: Experience the Rich Colours
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You are here: Explore > Famous People > The Man of Ross

The Man of Ross

Few people have made as great a mark on a town as John Kyrle did on Ross on Wye. Born at Dymock, John Kyrle (1637 - 1724) was the son of Walter and Alice Kyrle. He studied Law at Oxford, but did not qualify as a lawyer, and after his father’s death in the 1650s he inherited the timber-framed house at Ross.

Settling there in 1660, he devoted the rest of his life to philanthropic works. Kyrle introduced a public water supply to the town and laid out the Prospect Gardens. He also reconstructed and added pinnacles to the unsafe 14th century spire of the Church of St. Mary and gave it a magnificent tenor bell. He sponsored the causeway to the nearby Witton Bridge and set up funds for needy local children to attend school. The poet Alexander Pope praised him as the ‘Man of Ross’, the name by which he has been known ever since. John Kyrle lived in a half-timbered Elizabethan house opposite the Market House, which still stands but is now divided into two shops. Behind one of them is an old garden laid out to Kyrle’s original design incorporating a swan motif made of horses’ teeth and a 12 inch high maze of box hedges.

Kyrle lived modestly as a bachelor on an income, it is said, of £500 per year. Apart from Kyrle’s charitable works and deeds which you will discover as you follow the step by step guide to the walk, he also settled disputes, supported the schools, tended the sick and helped the poor. His public-mindedness also extended to beautifying the town and its surrounding landscape. At the great age of 87, John Kyrle died and was buried in the chancel of St. Mary’s Church in Ross.

His life and good works were celebrated by the poet Alexander Pope in his Moral Essays written in 1732. Since then many places in the town have taken his name. John Kyrle’s House stands opposite the Market House. For a period after Kyrle’s death it became an Inn ‘The King’s Arms’ until it was closed in 1805.

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