Methodist Chapel, Monmouth

Contrary to the Listing information about this Grade II* building Monmouth's methodist chapel is not "prominently sited". In fact, it has to be searched out and is easily missed, being built back from the street line. It was designed by the architect G.V. Maddox and a panel supported by scrolls in the pediment proclaims the date of its completion as 1837. Maddox gave the building a classical facade with Ionic columns at ground level supporting a porch, Ionic pilasters on the first floor, triangular pediments over the rectangular ground floor windows and round-topped windows in recessed arches above. It is a fine composition that deserved a more public location. A small step in making it better seen by the passing public would be the removal of the bushes that impair the view.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Fields of borage

Walking by Offa's Dyke near Monmouth we came upon several lavender coloured fields. We knew they weren't lavender having become familiar with the lavender fields of Norfolk. Closer inspection revealed that it was the herb borage. We have seen this plant grown on farms once before, but not on this scale. Borage is grown for its seed oil which has a number of pharmaceutical uses including being the richest source of Omega 6 and for its culinary properties. This many flowering plants attracts high numbers of bees and we saw plenty of hives along the hedge sides of the fields - a further source of revenue for the growers of borage.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Offa's Dyke near Monmouth

Offa's Dyke is an 82 mile long earthwork, incorporating a ditch, that stretches along the border between England and Wales. It is thought to have been built for King Offa who was the Anglo-Saxon king of Mercia 757AD-796AD, though recent research suggest part of it may date from the early 5th century, about the time the Romans departed Britain. The dyke varies in depth and width. A long-distance footpath, the Offa's Dyke Path, is 177 miles long and incorporates about 60 miles of the earth work. The photograph shows a deep section near the town of Monmouth with a footbridge inserted to take the path over the dyke.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: iPhone

Young herring gull

Young gulls can be difficult to identify - they are nearly all white with brown flecks over much of their bodies. If you have one of each common species all together (unlikely) you can usually make an identification by size. I took into account the size of this young bird and, with other features concluded it is a 1st winter herring gull. It was standing on some rocks in the River Monnow at Monmouth, one of several youngsters more interested in being fed scraps by people on the bridge than scavenging in the shallows of the river.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon P900

Hand in Hand fire insurance plaque

In the late C17, after the Great Fire of London of 1666, insurance companies were set up to provide fire protection for building owners. For an annual premium the companies made available their own fire service of men and machines to deal with fires at their insured buildings. In the early 1700s the companies began to mark their buildings with a "fire mark" or "fire plaque". These were made of thin copper plate, tinned iron sheet, or cast iron. The plaques made insured buildings more readily identifiable to the fire brigades and were a form of advertising. The Hand in Hand company was an early company founded in London in 1696. It was very successful, securing clients across the country. In 1905 it was incorporated in the Commercial Union Group. The plaque shown above is on an eighteenth century building in Monmouth.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Wall-hung floral display

The flowers in this photograph decorate a wall in the town of Monmouth. Pots filled with begonias and contrasting leaves are placed in rows up the wall and allowed to grow so that the wall and pots cannot be seen. The effect is very striking and has been the preferred summer display at this location for a few years to my knowledge. 

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

The Duke of Beaufort bridge

The Duke of Beaufort bridge is a disused railway bridge over the River Wye at Monmouth. It was opened in 1874 as part of the Ross and Monmouth Railway that had begun operating in 1873. The design is three spans of steel lattice girders on pairs of steel tubular piers between stone abutments. Today the bridge is part of a public footpath. It is hoped that bridge can be re-decked to also serve bicycle traffic.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Return to The Kymin

In May 2021 we made our first, and up to that point, only visit to The Kymin, the hill overlooking the Welsh town of Monmouth. Recently we made a second visit and I again photographed The Roundhouse, the c.1796 building that was built at the viewpoint. It had received a recent coat of paint and looked splendid in the March afternoon sunlight. Whilst my wife chatted with a cyclist who had toiled up to the summit I composed a shot that included them for scale.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Shire Hall, Monmouth

The administrative headquarters of English, Welsh and Scottish regional government is (or was - some have acquired different uses) the Shire Hall or the County Hall. These usually date from the eighteenth, nineteenth or twentieth centuries. Monmouth's Shire Hall is quite a typical example. It is an imposing Baroque-style limestone building of 1724 - quite a late date for this particular look - that was built on the site of its 1571 predecessor. The architect of the main elevation was Fisher of Bristol. Work in 1828 by Edward Haycock remodelled the courtrooms and added rear stairs. The Shire Hall lost its purpose in 1974 when the county of Gwent was created and the courts were moved to Abergavenny. The building hosts Monmouth Town Council and is currently in the process of accommodating the exhibits of the town's museum which was formerly housed in the old market hall of 1837-9.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Late afternoon at the Monnow Bridge

The fortified gatehouse on the medieval bridge over the River Monnow at Monmouth is a subject I look at each time we visit the Welsh town. However, on a recent afternoon the details of the tower and archways were subdued as we walked towards the brightness of the descending sun. And, as is often the way in winter, the silhouette, shadows and the attendant colours, people and birds became key subjects in the photograph. 

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon Z 5

Monnow Bridge gatehouse, Monmouth

Over the years I've taken several photographs of the Monnow bridge gatehouse in Monmouth. It is one of ony two remaining medieval fortified bridges in Britain and has been the subject of artists down the centuries. On a recent visit, as we passed over the bridge, I took this quick snap, prompted by the cloud of feral pigeons swirling around the roof of the gatehouse. There are usually pigeons to be seen on the building and I'm sure many use it as a nest site. They contributed something vital and transient to this view of the bridge and prompted me to ignore the view I usually choose (see here and here).

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Great Castle House, Monmouth

Great Castle House in Monmouth was built in 1673 for Henry Somerset, 3rd Marquis of Worcester and Lord President of the Council of Wales and the Marches. It is a grand "town house", a secondary dwelling to his country estate, a residence suitable for him to occupy when busy with his official duties. The building is located near the ruins of Monmouth Castle and is constructed of pink and grey blocks of local Old Red Sandstone. The main elevation is symmetrical: the almost symmetrical wings are nineteenth century additions. The house became superfluous to its owner's needs relatively soon in its life, and it subsequently became an assizes, a judge's lodgings, a school for young ladies, headquarters of the Militia Regiment and the museum of the Royal Monmouthshire Royal Engineers, a function it still maintains.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10

Former Congregational Chapel, Monmouth

What to do with old buildings that no longer fulfill their original purpose has always been something of a problem. Something of an answer, more often than not, involves converting them to housing. I've seen windmills, water mills, factories, pubs, hospitals, prisons, maltings, breweries, warehouses, post offices, and many other kinds of building converted to single or multiple occupancy housing. The Congregational Chapel, Glendower Street, Monmouth, is an example of a religious building that has become housing (in 2002). It was built in the town's backstreets in 1843-4, in the classical style, by William Armstrong of Bristol. The facade has been sympathetically painted  and only the palms, the absence of an information board, the name-plate "Glendower House" and the blocked ground floor windows, give a hint that it is no longer a place of worship.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Sony DSC-RX100

Shell hood, Castle Hill House

In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries shell hoods were a fashionable enhancement of a main doorway. They were not used on the biggest houses but did find favour on smaller town houses and those where the main door was on or adjacent to a street. They were seen as giving stature to the house by drawing the eye to the entrance. The example above, at Castle Hill House in Monmouth, is on the street that leads to the grandest house in the town which is next to the remains of the medieval castle. The "shell", very typically, rests on console brackets above the transom light and the door. These hoods can never have provided much protection against rain: ornamentation was their main purpose.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Ghost advertisement?

On a recent visit to Monmouth I noticed this "ghost advertisement", the residue of an old advert of, perhaps, Edwardian or Victorian origin, that had been uncovered by a later workman and kept for its historical interest. It reads: "Support Home Industries, J. Hillman Milliners, Extra Quality Silk Hats, Unequalled for Hard Wear, Always in Stock". The time when people required a silk hat at all, never mind one that is hard wearing, is long past, so I presumed the advert was quite old. An internet search, however, revealed something different. Apparently it dates from 2004 when BBC TV was filming a "Doctor Who" episode, "The Unquiet Dead" in the town and presumably needed to make the location fit the year 1869 in which the story was set. Not a real ghost advertisement and not old at all!

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Naval Temple at the Kymin, Monmouth

Near the Roundhouse at the summit of the Kymin (see previous post) is the Naval Temple. This is a memorial structure, with classical details, built as a commemoration of the second anniversary of the Battle of the Nile. It was erected by the Kymin Club in 1800, probably to designs by T. Fidler, and additionally commemorates sixteen British Admirals who were responsible for significant naval victories up to that time. It was visited by Lord Nelson who made admiring comments about it during his visit to Monmouth in 1802. Other writers of the time were less complimentary.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

Roundhouse at The Kymin, Monmouth

The Roundhouse at The Kymin, a hill and view point above Monmouth,was built around 1796 by the Monmouth Picnic Club, also known as the Kymin Club. This was a group of gentlemen who met weekly "for the purpose of dining together, and "spending the day in a social and friendly manner."  The building's purpose was to give members "security from the inclemency of the weather". It has a kitchen on the ground floor and a banqueting room above.

It was furnished with a telescope to take advantage of the views of Monmouth below and the Welsh mountains in the distance (click photo above to enlarge). In 1807 the Monmouth antiquarian, Charles Heath, noted that ten counties can be seen from the Roundhouse - Gloucestershire, Monmouthshire, Herefordshire, Glamorganshire, Breconshire, Worcestershire, Montgomeryshire, Shropshire, Somerset and Radnorshire. Today the building and the immediate area is owned by the National Trust and is open to the public.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Nikon D5300

Stained glass subjects

The subjects that are depicted in the stained glass of Britain's churches usually embrace familiar themes. Christ and his family, the apostles, saints, stories from the Bible, the Holy Ghost, instruments of the passion, decorative designs based on architecture and nature, coats of arms, donor's details etc will all be familiar to most regular visitors. Sometimes, however, a subject surprises the viewer. I've seen the coronation of Queen Victoria, graphic WW1 scenes, tributes to local inventors, and much else. But, the window in the medieval church of St Mary, Monmouth, showing, George Edward Street, one of the premier Victorian architects, the man responsible for one of its restorations, is most unusual. All the more so because when Street was asked to report on the building prior to working on it he called it "extremely unattractive and uninteresting." The glass shows him holding the plan he came up with that would have swept away the Georgian work and replaced it with his own cruciform design.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Charles Rolls and Henry V

Villages, towns and cities are understandably proud of the famous people that grow up and thrive in their communities. Frequently the most famous are commemorated with a statue. Such memorials tend to be found in cities simply because their higher populations are more likely to produce people who achieve fame. It is, therefore, unusual for a small town such as Monmouth in Wales (population c.11,000), to produce two people whose names are known acrosss the world. Charles Rolls (1877-1910) was a pioneer aviator and co-founder of the Rolls Royce motor car and aero engine manufacturing companies. Henry V (1386/7-1422) is well known for his military successes against France, and particularly his victory at Agincourt, but more widely through Shakespeare's play that takes his name as its title.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2

Victorian letter box

Tall, cylindrical, red and black letter boxes (also called post boxes and pillar boxes) displaying the monogram of Queen Elizabeth II and the words Royal Mail, are common throught Britain. Visitors to these shores see them as symbolic of our nation. However, it took some time from their introduction in 1852 for a settled design to be used widely across the country. Quite a few of the different Victorian precursors can still be seen, still in use. One such is the so-called "Penfold" named after its designer, that was installed between 1866 and 1879. Its ornate character and octagonal shape made it popular with the public. But, its relatively small capacity and its tendency to jam, necessitating design changes inside, led to its abandonment. The Penfold in the photograph can be seen outside the Shire Hall, Monmouth, where its colourful contribution enhances the historic setting. The painting of the royal coat of arms may be by a local civic group.

Lower down the column (out of shot) is the simple VR (Victoria Regina) monogram.

photo © T. Boughen     Camera: Lumix FZ1000 2