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MONMOUTHSHIRE, a western border county of England,bounded E. by Gloucestershire, N.E. by Herefordshire, N.W.by Brecknock, W. and S.W. by Glamorganshire (Wales), andS. by the estuary of the river Severn. The area is 534 sq. m.The surface is varied, and in many districts picturesque, especiallyalong the valley of the Wye, and between that river andthe Usk. In the west and north the hills rise to a considerableheight, and this mountain region encircles a finely undulatingcountry. The highest summits are Sugar Loaf (1955 ft.),Blorenge (1838), and Skirrid Fawr (1601), summits of the hillswhich almost encircle the town of Abergavenny. On the otherhand, along the shore of the Severn estuary on either side ofthe Usk, are two extensive tracts of marshland, called theCaldicot and Wentlloog levels, stretching from Cardiff toPortskewet, and protected from inundations by strong embankments.The principal rivers are the Wye, which forms thegreater part of the eastern boundary of the county with Gloucestershire,and falls into the Severn; the Monnow, which forms aportion of its boundary with Herefordshire, and falls into theWye at the town of Monmouth; the Usk, which rises in Brecknock,and flows southward through the centre of the county;the Ebbw, which rises in the north-west, and enters the estuaryof the Usk below Newport; and the Rhymney, which rises inBrecknock, and, after forming the boundary between Monmouthand Glamorgan, enters the Bristol Channel a little east of CardiffSalmon abound especially in the Wye and the Usk, and trout areplentiful in many of the streams.
Geology.—The oldest rocks in the county are the Silurian strata(Wenlock Shale and Limestone, and Ludlow Beds) which forman extensive anticline at Usk; a smaller inlier appears at Rumneyon the south-west borders of the county near Cardiff. These bedsdip under the Old Red Sandstone, a great series of red marls,sandstones and concretionary limestones (cornstones) which occupiesthe north-eastern part of the county; the highest beds containgrits and conglomerates which give rise to bold escarpments andlofty plateaux (e.g. the Sugar Loaf and Skirrid Fawr) alongside theoutcrop of the Carboniferous Limestone. The western part of thecounty, between Pontypool and the river Rhymney, is occupiedby the eastern end of the great South Wales coal-field, where theCarboniferous Limestone, Millstone Grit and Coal Measures (LowerCoal Series, Pennant Sandstone and Upper Coal Series) dip westwardand succeed each other from east to west. The Coal Measuresabound in coal-seams and ironstone, and their densely populatedvalleys offer a marked contrast to the agricultural and pastoraldistricts of the rest of the county. The Carboniferous Limestonecomes in again in the south-east near Chepstow, and has impartedits characteristic scenery to the lower reaches of the Wye. Aftera prolonged interval, during which these older formations werefolded, faulted, upheaved and finally carved by erosion into hillsand valleys, the southern portion of the region was submergedbeneath the waters of the Triassic lake in which the Keuper Marlswere deposited. These consist of red conglomerates and marlswhich wrap round the heights and fill up the hollows among theolder rocks to the south-west of Chepstow, and the subsidencecontinuing, admitted the waters of the Jurassic sea which depositedthe fossiliferous Rhaetic and Lias limestones and shales of Llanwernand Goldcliff near Newport. Glacial gravel and boulder-clay arefound in the valleys and a broad tract of alluvium borders theshores of the Bristol Channel.
Agriculture.—Along the Severn shore the soil is deep and loamy,and admirably suited for the growth of trees. The most fertileland is that resting on the Red Sandstone, especially along thebanks of the Usk, where wheat of fine quality is raised. In themountainous regions more attention is paid to grazing than tothe raising of crops. There are a considerable number of dairyfarms, but sheep-farming is much more largely followed. Onlyabout seven-tenths of the total area of the county is under cultivation.There is a large extent of hill pasture, and a considerableacreage under orchards.
Mining.—The coal-mines and iron-works which Monmouthshireshares with South Wales are very important. They occur in thewild and mountainous western part of the county, where a seriesof upland valleys, running parallel from N.N.W. to S., haseach its populous mining townships and railways, which have inmany cases necessitated remarkable engineering works—such asthe great Crumlin viaduct. These valleys, in order from east towest, with the principal townships in each, are as follows: AfonLwyd (Panteg, Pontypool, Abersychan and Blaenavon); EbbwFach (Abertillery, Nantyglo and Blaina), joining the Ebbw (Risca,Ebbw Vale); Sirhowy (Bedwellty and Tredegar); Rhymney (NewTredegar and Rhymney). Besides coal, a considerable quantityof fire-clay and some iron are raised.
Communications.—The principal railway serving the county isthe Great Western, but in the mining districts there are also variousbranches of the London and North-Western, Rhymney and Breconand Merthyr systems. The Crumlin Canal from the Ebbw Valley,and the Monmouthshire Canal from Pontypool converge uponNewport, which is the principal port in the county. The BreconCanal runs north from Pontypool into the valley of the Usk.
Population and Administration.—The area of the ancientcounty is 341,688 acres, with a population in 1891 of 252,416,and in 1901 of 292,317. The area of the administrative countyis 349,712 acres. The county comprises 6 hundreds. Themunicipal boroughs are Abergavenny (pop. 7795), Monmouth(5095), and Newport, a county borough (67,270). The followingare urban districts: Abercarn (12,607), Abersychan (17,768),Abertillery (21,945), Bedwellty (9988), Blaenavon (10,869),Caerleon (1367), Chepstow (3067), Ebbw Vale (20,994), Llanfrechfa,Upper (2979), Llantarnam (5287), Mynyddislwyn(3337), Nantyglo and Blaina (13,489), Panteg (7484), Pontypool(6126), Rhymney (7915), Risca (9661), Tredegar (18,497), andUsk (1476). Monmouthshire is in the Oxford circuit, andassizes are held at Monmouth. It has one court of quartersessions, and is divided into 11 petty sessional divisions. Theboroughs of Monmouth and Newport have commissions of thepeace, but no separate court of quarter sessions. The parliamentarydivisions are the northern, western and southern, eachreturning one member; and the Monmouth district of parliamentaryboroughs, consisting of the towns of Monmouth,Newport and Usk, returns one member.
History.—The district which is now Monmouthshire formed theWelsh kingdom of Gwent at the time of the Heptarchy, and,owing to the extraordinary courage of the Gwentians in resistingthe repeated inroads of the Saxons, no permanent English settlementwas effected in the district until close upon the middle ofthe 11th century. The incursions of the West Saxons began inthe 7th century, and, during the reign of Alfred, Brochmaeland Fermael, kings of Gwent, acknowledged Alfred as theirlord, and sought his protection against their enemies. In the9th and 10th centuries the district was frequently harried bythe Danes, who in 915, under Ohter and Hwald, sailed roundWessex and Cornwall to the mouth of the Severn and plunderedall along the banks of the Wye, finally taking prisoner thebishop of Llandaff, whom they only released on a ransom of£40. In 926 Æthelstan obliged the kings of the north Britonsto meet him at Hereford and fixed the Wye as the limit of theirterritory. In 976 the Danes destroyed Caerleon, at this timethe chief town of the district. The early 11th century wastaken up with a series of interminable contests between theWelsh princes for the succession in South Wales, as a resultof which the Welsh Chronicle relates that in 1047 the wholeof South Wales lay waste, and in 1049, when a fleet of Irishpirates entered the Severn estuary, Griffith, the king of SouthWales, assisted them in plundering the neighbourhood. In1065 Harold conquered the whole district between the lowerreaches of the Wye and the Usk, and gave orders for theconstruction of a hunting-box at Portskewet for Edward theConfessor, but very shortly after Caradoc ap Griffith, witha large body of followers, killed all the workmen engaged in the building and carried away the provisions prepared for theking’s reception.
After the Conquest the district conquered by Harold wasbestowed on William Fitz Osborne, earl of Hereford, who builtMonmouth Castle, and continued the line of defence againstthe Welsh frontier along the Wye, while a second. line of fortificationsalong the Usk Valley marked the continued advanceof the Normans, who by 1085 had subjugated almost the wholeof Gwent. The lordship of Overwent fell to Hamelin de Baladun,who founded the castle and priory of Abergavenny, and fromhim passed to Brian Fitz Count and later to Walter Fitz Miles,earl of Hereford. The lordship of Netherwent remained for manycenturies with the Clare family. Penhow Castle was a strongholdof the family of St Maur or Seymour, from whom aredescended the present dukes of Somerset, and Grosmont andSkenfrith Castles of the family of Braose. Gwent still rankedas Welsh territory at the time of the Domesday Survey, butthe town of Monmouth, the castle of Caerleon, and the districtof Archenfeld, are assessed under Herefordshire, and thethree hardwicks of Llanwern, Portskewet and Dinam underGloucestershire. The Norman lords of the present county heldtheir lands “per baroniam,” so that the king’s writ did not runin them, and the lives and property of the poorer inhabitantswere entirely at the mercy of these lords marchers as they weretermed. The county still exhibits remains of no less thantwenty-five Norman castles. The province of Gwent wasformerly divided into four cantrefs, each comprising severalcommotes. Cantref Uwchcoed, or Upper Gwent, comprised thecommotes of Erging and Ewyas, now principally in Herefordshire,and the greater part of the present hundreds of Skenfrith,Abergavenny and Usk; Cantref Iscoed, or Lower or NetherGwent, comprised the present hundred of Raglan and partsof Caldecote and Usk; Cantref Gwentlwg comprised the presenthundred of Wentlwg; while the fourth cantref, Cantref Coch,now forms the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire. Leland,writing in the 16th century, describes Gwent as comprisingthe three divisions of low, middle and high “Venteland,”and at this period it included no less than 24 lordshipmarches, each governed by its own ancient laws and customsand ruled by its own lord. Under the act of 1536 for theabolition of the marches, these 24 lordships were united toform a shire; Monmouth was constituted the shire town,and the sheriff’s court was ordered to be held alternately atMonmouth and Newport. A commission was also appointedto divide the shire into hundreds, which were made 6 innumber: Abergavenny, Caldecote, Raglan, Skenfrith, Uskand Wentlwg, the bounds being subsequently ratified by act ofparliament of 1542–1543. No sheriffs were actually appointedfor Monmouthshire until 1541, and the legal authority of thelords marchers was not finally abolished until 1689. The actof 1536 did not expressly separate the county from Wales, andit was only gradually that Monmouthshire came to be regardedas an English county, being included in the Oxford circuit forthe first time in the reign of Charles II.
Ecclesiastically Monmouthshire has been almost entirely includedin the diocese of Llandaff since the foundation of that diocese inthe 6th century. Monmouth, however, was in the diocese of Hereford,and a few parishes formed part of the diocese of St Davids,until under the statute of 1836 the whole county was placed underthe jurisdiction of the bishop of Llandaff. It contains, wholly orin part, 134 ecclesiastical parishes.
The river fisheries of Monmouthshire have been famed from veryearly times, Caerleon with seven fisheries in the Wye and the Uskyielding a return of £7, 10s. at the time of the Domesday Survey.Coal is said to have been worked in the reign of Edward I., butthe industry lapsed altogether until it received new life from theconstruction of the canal between Blaenavon and Newport, begun in1792 and completed in 1795. The first iron-workers at Pontypoolwere a family of the name of Grant, who were succeeded in 1565by Mr Richard Hanbury. In 1740, however, Monmouthshirecontained only two furnaces, making 900 tons annually. Fiftyyears later three new furnaces were constructed at Blaenavon,and from that date the industry steadily improved.
By the act of 1536 two knights were to be returned for the shireand one burgess for the borough of Monmouth, but the first returnsfor the county were made in 1547 and for the borough in 1553.From 1698 the boroughs of Newport and Usk returned one membereach. Under the Redistribution of Seats Act of 1885 the countynow returns three members in three divisions.
Antiquities.–Of Norman fortresses in Monmouthshire, eitherbuilt or taken possession of by the lords of the marches, there areremains of no less than twenty-five. The more interesting andimportant are: Caldicot, the seat of the De Bohuns, with a roundkeep of the 13th century, gatehouse and other portions, still partlyinhabited; Chepstow, one of the finest examples of the Normanfortress extant, in an imposing situation on a cliff above the Wye;Newport, Abergavenny, the gateway and hall of Grosmont, oncethe residence of the dukes of Lancaster; and Usk Castle, rebuiltby the Clares in the time of Edward IV. Raglan Castle, begun inthe reign of Henry V., is a very extensive ruin, still in good preservation,and of special interest as a very late example of thefeudal stronghold. Charles I. resided in it after the battle ofNaseby, and in 1646 it was delivered up to the parliamentary forcesafter a stubborn resistance of ten weeks against Colonel Morgan and General Fairfax.
At the Reformation there were in Monmouth two hospitalsand fifteen other religious houses; but of these there are now importantremains of only two—Llanthony Abbey and TinternAbbey, both Cistercian. Llanthony Abbey in the Black Mountainswas founded by William de Lacy in 1103, and the church, datingfrom about 1200, is one of the earliest examples in England of thePointed style. The ruins consist of portions of the nave, transept,central tower and choir.Tintern Abbey (q.v.), founded by Walterde Clare in 1131, occupies a position of great beauty on the Wye,and is among the finest monastic ruins in England. Of the churches,those chiefly worthy of mention are at Abergavenny, belonging toa Benedictine priory, and containing a number of old tombs; Chepstow,partly Norman, and possessing a richly moulded doorway;St Woolos’ Church, Newport, also Norman; the Norman chapelof St Thomas, Monmouth; Christchurch, principally Norman;Mathern, Early English, with a tablet to Tewdrig, king of Gwentin the 6th century; and Usk, formerly attached to a Benedictinepriory.
SeeVictoria County History,Monmouthshire; William Coxe,An Historical Tour in Monmouthshire, 2 pts. (London, 1801);N. Rogers,Memoirs on Monmouthshire (London, 1708); DavidWilliams,History of Monmouthshire (1796); George Ormerod,Strigulensia. Archaeological Memoirs relating to the District adjacentto the Confluence of the Severn and the Wye; M. E. Bagnall-Oakeley,Account of the Rude Monuments in Monmouthshire (Newport,1889); J. A. Bradney,A History of Monmouthshire (1904, &c.);also the publications of the Caerleon Antiquarian Association.
