Hello AL and all,
Tredegar is indeed part of Blaenau Gwent, not Monmouthshire as AL points
out. There are indeed FOUR towns in Monmouthshire since the 1997
'reshuffle', Abergavenny, Chepstow, Monmouth and Caldicot.
The Monmouthshire County has a population of 85,000, only 2 percent
speak Welsh and the county has long maintained an identity not quite
England and not quite Wales. The old Gwent motto is Utrique Fidelis-
Faithful to both.
As a short history lesson:- After the conquest Wales by Edward 1st.
1282-1283, Monmouthshire was still controlled by the Marcher Lords.
Henry the VIII absorbed the county into England, but, it was later
included in Wales.
The language and culture of Monmouthshire have endured 2000 years of
pillage, invasion and oppression from far and wide from even our nearest
neighbours.It started with nomadic people settling into agricultural
communities. Then the Celts, a great European tribe, during the Iron age
who built the hill forts so common in South Wales. I suppose the Celts
were the main influence of our cultural identity. The Sulures were next
and then the Romans who founded military forts at Usk, Abergavenny and
Monmouth. Wales were also attacked by Irish, Vikings and the Normans.
The Norman conquest left us with a legacy of castles, especially in the
southern border between England and Wales. This area is known as the
Marches, from the French word Marche meaning frontier.
Wales to the Normans was the wild west and their castles were 'Fort
Apache', the Welsh being the Apaches:))). The Welsh hated the castles as
they were a symbol of Norman supremacy. They were often built by Welsh
slave labour and were used as a base to terrorise the countryside!
Then the invasion of Christianity in the early centuries AD. The Abbeys
at Tintern and Llanthony in Northern Monmouthshire being good examples
of this.
After all those years along comes Monmouthshire County Council!
best wishes
Brenda, Gwent ( Blaenau Gwent:))
In message Kay & Arthur Lewis <ak(a)aklewis.freeserve.co.uk> writes
STOP
1.Tredegar is in Blaenau Gwent County Borough.
2 Only one part of Gwent is now (new) Monmouthshire and is based on the
three towns of Monmouth, Abergavenny and Chepstow.
3.The rest of Gwent now consists of Newport, Torfaen, Blaenau Gwent,
Caerphilly County Boroughs.
It was a crazy political stunt to call Monmouth County Borough a Shire and
it is causing endless confusion
.e.g. Monmouthshire County Hall is in Torfaen and some of Torfaen
Departments share the old Gwent County Hall with Monmouthshire and which
still houses GWENT RECORD OFFICE.
AL
-Visit Gwent FHS at :-
http://www.rootsweb.com/~wlsgfhs/
(comprises, Ebbw Vale, Pontypool, Chepstow, Newport, Abergavenny, Blackwood.
Of interest to anyone who has ancestral connections with the old county of
Monmouthshire.--