Introduction to Monmouth by Greg Stevenson

Monmouth sits so close to the border with England that it hasn’t always been sure if it was in Wales or not. Yet, if its architecture is anything to go by, this is a town we’re glad to have back on our side of the border.

Monmouth retains a complete medieval street system but I love it because of its eighteenth century buildings. It must be one of the best preserved Georgian towns in Wales with an unusually high number of early Georgian villas and townhouses dating from before 1800.

Monmouth has always been an important trading post because the river was the main form of transport for goods until the 1820’s when the road was built. The town was also well placed to receive tourists on the Wye Tour when British tourism took off in the last decade of the eighteenth century. You can still see some of the big coaching inns left in town.

Monnow Bridge has become the iconic building that represents Monmouth. It’s unique because it’s the only fortified medieval bridge in Britain where the tower is on the bridge itself. It was built at the end of the 1200’s and it’s hard to believe that it took until 2004 to stop the traffic from crossing it.

The bridge protects the entrance to Monnow Street, the main street of the town which has runs straight up to the castle since the fourteenth century. The architecture tells us that boom-time here was the eighteenth century. That was the time the local industry such as iron smelting, forging and tinplate was doing well.

It doesn’t feel very industrial today as we’ve been left with a genteel collection of middle class homes built for the industrialists and solicitors, a few wonderful gentry’ townhouses, and some important coaching inns from around 1800.