Monmouthshire Antiquarian Association Blog

  The Lost Plaques: Goscombe John's plaques to the memory of Alderman Thomas Jones, ship owner, coal exporter and Mayor of Newport in 1892-3.  A newspaper drawing of Thomas Jones' memorial plaque When Thomas Jones died in New Zealand on October 18, 1903 his Welsh friends asked the Welsh artist Goscombe John to create two memorial plaques to commemorate his life in Wales. One of them was to be created in bronze. Questions come to mind. Who was Thomas Jones and why did he deserve this honour and where are the plaques today? However his story is relevant because just as we are trying to defeat Corona Virus he was trying to defeat tuberculosis a bacterial disease of which many people were dying in his lifetime. The disease had been known since ancient times but in the 18th and 19th centuries it increased due to the growth of industrialisation leading to large urban areas. It affected the rich and the poor and was not effectively defeated until and the BCG vaccine became available ...

The Magical Marshlands of Monmouthshire by Mary Evans As our world has become smaller and our travel plans restricted our local area has taken on a new focus and significance. For many of us this has led to rediscovering locations we haven’t visited for a long while or even better, discovering a new place of interest on our doorstep. Here in Monmouthshire we have beautiful countryside supporting a wide range of wildlife and although not as long or scenic a coastline as our neighbouring Glamorgan Heritage Coast, we do have the fascinating area of the Gwent Levels.   These stretch east of Cardiff to Chepstow alongside the splendid Severn Estuary and are an intriguing mixture of heritage, mystery and tradition. An ancient land of ditches, dinosaur footprints, religious places, salmon fisheries, skeletal boat remains, tiny islands and now sculptures. Over several sunny days in September with my husband as driver and navigator we explored new locations and revisited others in...

                                                       The breach of the Great Tower at Raglan Castle The Revd. Moore Pye:   A Cromwellian Soldier and Schoolmaster at Monmouth and Llanvapley by Jeremy Knight      In 1646, soon after Raglan Castle fell to the Parliamentary army, an ex-soldier Revd Moore Pye , became Usher (Deputy Headmaster ) of Monmouth School . The Pyes were a Herefordshire family, whose head was the royalist Sir Walter Pye of Dewchurch. More Pye’s unusual Christian name probably derived from a marriage alliance with another border family, the puritan Moores of Bishop’s Castle in Shropshire, clients of the influential parliamentarian Harleys of Brampton Bryan. Moore Pye had family connections with Walford, between Monmouth and Hay on Wye.  He was a university graduate, one of...

Re-visiting the National Roman Legion Museum - with thoughts about socks, buttons, hair pins, home insurance and revenge.    National Roman Legion Museum was handed over to the care of National Museum Wales in 1930 because the Monmouthshire Antiquarian Association could no longer maintain the upkeep on the building but the MAA have retained a close relationship. R ecently we have seen the Museum pass through difficult times.  It was closed last year for work to be carried out on the roof and then had to close in March for the national lockdown due to Covid 19. Recently due to a local lockdown it has closed again. I have visited twice since the reopening and have visited countless times in my life but I am always amazed by what I see.  This time I looked more closely at some of the exhibits and have recorded my thoughts and taken pictures. Interestingly the exhibits had to be removed for the roof to be mended and had to be put back exactl...