Town in Monmouthshire, Wales
Monmouth
Shakespeare had a soldier boast that Monmouth has a river just like Macedon's, and the town is still the birthplace of Henry V and home to a gatehouse bridge found nowhere else in Britain.
Key information
- County
- Monmouthshire
- Nation
- Wales
- Population
- About 10,500 (2011 Census)
- Known for
- Monnow Bridge, Henry V's birthplace, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Charles Rolls, the Kymin Naval Temple
- Famous people
- Henry V, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Charles Rolls
About Monmouth
The town Shakespeare made a punchline
In Shakespeare's Henry V, the Welsh captain Fluellen points out that there is a river in Macedon, and a river at Monmouth too, and that both have salmon. Audiences laughed at his logic, but the play had a good reason to name the town. Henry V was born in Monmouth Castle in 1386, which is why he is still called Harry of Monmouth. The Normans built the castle on a rise above the meeting of the Wye and the Monnow. Little of it survives, but the town remembers its famous son. A statue of Henry stands on the front of the Shire Hall in Agincourt Square, named after his greatest victory. Shakespeare also has Fluellen mention Monmouth caps, the woollen headwear the town was known for. The Overmonnow district was traditionally known as Cappers' Town because of the trade.
A gatehouse on a bridge, and nowhere else like it
Monnow Bridge is the town's best-known sight. It is a stone bridge from the 13th century with a fortified gate tower standing in the middle of the span. It is the only surviving example of its kind in Britain. The tower was built for defence and for collecting tolls. Motor traffic has been barred from the bridge since 2004, when a new road bridge opened nearby, so today it belongs to pedestrians. The bridge crosses the Monnow just before the river joins the Wye.
The man who gave us King Arthur, more or less
Geoffrey of Monmouth, who lived in the 12th century, wrote the Historia Regum Britanniae. It was a hugely popular account of the kings of Britain, and it did more than almost any other book to make Arthur and Merlin famous. It also gave later writers the stories of King Lear and Cymbeline. Historians have long argued over how much of it he made up. But the Arthurian legend as we know it grew from his pages, and he named himself after the town.
Rolls, Nelson and a temple on a hill
Charles Rolls, co-founder of Rolls-Royce, grew up at The Hendre near Monmouth. In 1910 he made the first non-stop double crossing of the English Channel by air, flying there and back. A few weeks later he was killed in a flying accident at Bournemouth, one of the first Britons to die in a powered aeroplane crash. His statue stands in Agincourt Square and shows him holding a model aeroplane. High above the town on the Kymin hill is the Naval Temple, built in 1800 to honour British admirals. Nelson visited in 1802 while touring the Wye Valley. Nelson memorabilia and material connected with Rolls, once in the old Nelson Museum in the Market Hall, are now held at Shire Hall Museum. Monmouth School was founded in 1614 through the benefaction of William Jones, a local-born merchant, and the Haberdashers' Company. The girls' school opened in 1892, and in September 2024 the two became the co-educational Haberdashers' Monmouth School.
The first town to wear Wikipedia on its sleeve
In 2012 Monmouth became known as one of the world's first 'Wikipedia towns'. A project called Monmouthpedia put QR codes on landmarks, shops and plaques so that anyone with a phone could pull up an article about the building in front of them. Hundreds of articles were written, in many languages. The town is also known for its food. Monmouth pudding, an old dish of breadcrumbs, lemon, jam and meringue, carries its name, and the market streets around Agincourt Square and Monnow Street are lined with independent shops and cafés. Monmouth sits on the Wye near the edge of the Wye Valley, so rivers, woods and walking country are all close by.