Visiting Tintern

 
First sight
   As your bus draws into Tintern and you see this magnificent ruin flanked by cars and coaches it is difficult to realise that the area, until recently, had seemed wild and untamed. There is so much to say about the site that I will, for the moment, leave the architecture mostly on one side and concentrate on the people who have passed through and the attitudes to it over the centuries.

Foundation and monastery

   It was founded in 1131 on the 9th May by Walter de Clare, Lord of Chepstow, some say as an act of penance because he was haunted by the ghost of his wife whom he had murdered. It was only the second foundation of Cistercian monks in Britain and the first in Wales. This order of white-robed monks followed the rule of St. Benedict but with renewed emphasis on austerity and remoteness: they specialised in manual labour and agriculture. There may have been a brief period when behaviour became more lax as there were reports in 1217 of the Abbot drinking with the Bishop and his monks, and women working in the fields on at least one of the granges - hardly a scandal in our terms! The ruin we see today is largely that of the great church, cruciform with an aisled nave and dating from the 13th century when it was more than 30 years under construction.

The Black Death and Dissolution

   This plague devastated the area as it did so many parts of the country in 1349,  the main effect here being that the thriving agricultural enterprise became neglected and harvests lay ungathered. Tintern found it impossible to recruit the lay brothers it needed to work the fields and tend the sheep (3000 at one estimate) and, by the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII, there were only 13 monks left, although it was the largest house in Gwent. The uprising of Owain Glyndwr further impoverished the estate. It was then valued at a mere £192 per annum and in 1536 on September 3rd it was surrendered to the King with its estates incorporated into crown lands. In 1541 its bells were melted and the King's plumbers paid £8 for the work. It probably became roofless in 1546 as we know that the Earl of Worcester paid £166 for the lead.
   Within 30 years of Dissolution - a gap that seems to me surprisingly short - industrialisation had started in the area and Tintern became a major centre with wireworks and other complexes up the Angidy Valley where you can see the remains today on a lovely walk.

Tourism and the cult of the picturesque.
    During the 18th century there developed a romantic fashion for the cultivation of the individual's sensibility (derided by Jane Austen) and this was focussed on picturesque scenery in a seminal work published in 1782 by the Rev. William Gilpin who defined the concept in great detail finding the Wye satisfying in most respects: the scene had to be rough, intricate, varied without obvious straight lines and must work as a whole with a ruined abbey or castle adding "consequence." In fact the ivy-covered Abbey was insufficiently picturesque for his taste and he famously wrote that "a mallet judiciously used ... might be of service" to make it more irregular.
   There came many renowned writers and artists: Wordsworth wrote his lines above the Abbey after a 5 year gap; Coleridge got lost at night between Piercefield and Tintern - some reports say he nearly rode his horse off the edge of a quarry; Turner's work can be seen in the Chepstow Museum.

A personal view
   Impressive though the frontage is, I find that it is even more so round the back near the river seen from outside and it is here that I wrote a dizain on the subject.

                                            The picturesque: we track it through
                                            Woods, water, ivy, ruined stones.
                                            We conjure phrases: "azure blue"
                                            Tints backdrops for this Abbey's bones;
                                            "What if's?" tick all our known unknowns
                                            We time ourselves as hours pass,
                                            Laugh, chat and tip the decade-glass,
                                            Clock poets, painters, men of God,
                                            Dot chequered picnics on the grass
                                            Where silent white monks turned the sod.

Afterwards
   There is a particularly good shop situated in the car park which sells quality wall hangings with an Arthurian theme and delicious CAKE can be consumed in the White Monk cafe. The excellent Phil Anslow bus service now connects straight through from Cwmbran to Monmouth, where the ruins of the castle can be seen, changing its number at Chepstow: 63/69. You could use it to visit Usk with its castle and the site of the battle of Pwyll Melyn. It is a marvellously scenic run and many people take it for the views of the Severn Estuary and Tintern.
   I am aware that I have merely skimmed the surface of information about this spot and will return to the various aspects in more detail, - in those dark winter months ahead.

      For opening hours click here    

The Roman Amphitheatre in Caerleon

   

Unique

  This impressive amphitheatre is the only one of its kind preserved in Britain and is free to visit, a microadventure 2000 years back in time. It is remarkable that any of it survives as many of the stones were plundered by local inhabitants as building materials for their own dwellings. The Romans settled in Isca, as they called Caerleon, deriving the name from that of the river Usk (Wysg), from 74 A.D. to late in the 4th century. The town was a neat walled rectangle housing members of the Second Augustan Legion, transferred from Strasbourg to Britain in 43 A.D. Most of it is buried under the present village.

The troops watch

  This construction was used for gory combats between gladiators, animal baiting and military exercises and was built around 80 A.D., the same time as the Colosseum. Up to 6000 soldiers would watch from the massive oval earth banks revetted with stone and buttressed on the outside. On the inside the stone was covered with white plaster and on top of the banks were tiers of wooden seats. You can still see a working drain beneath a grille.

  I was transfixed by the sign on the floor where a gladiator stood before entering the arena, possibly never to come out alive.

Legend and fact

  Until the twentieth century the site was known as King Arthur's Round Table, possibly because of Tennyson's links with Caerleon, and was believed to be Camelot. (The poet pondered on and planned Idylls of the King in the Hanbury Arms.) It was excavated in 1926-7 by Sir Mortimer Wheeler and his wife and revealed as the marvel we can relish today.

   I stood where he stood when his blood

   Ran cold and dry, then hot

   As Roman sun, so distant now

   And cooling like his fighter's vow

   To win at Camelot.

Then and now

  Where there was crimson-stained sand, there is now grass, and where men and beasts fought to the death, small boys can now have an informal game of football - though the last one I happened to see was getting fairly blood-thirsty by the end. It quite put me off my CAKE.

There is open access to this site.  Other sites of great interest are: the friendly Museum, the Roman Baths and the remains of the Barracks - all free to enter. You can also go on to Usk on the no 60 bus where the Legion was stationed previously.

Apart from the number 60 bus (see footnote at the very bottom of page) there is a frequent local service (27, 28, 29) between Caerleon and Newport, about 10 minutes away.

For opening hours click here

The Abergavenny Tithe Barn

Tax dodging

   The word "tithe" derives from the Old English "teogotha" meaning a tenth and these were paid as a compulsory contribution of 10% by parishioners to a religious organisation or government, often in the form of agricultural produce which was stored in a barn and went towards the support of the village priest - who was exempt. Naturally this provoked anger as can be heard in the rousing harvest song from the 5th Act of Dryden's opera of King Arthur:

                 We've cheated the parson, we'll cheat him again,

                  For why should a blockhead have one in ten?

It seems that tax evasion was just as popular then as it is now!

  

Restoration 

   This 13th century barn in Abergavenny was in danger of collapse in 1948 when the parish sold it for £400 and, during its recent history, it has been used as a carpet shop, a store for timber and grain, a theatre and a discotheque. By the late 1990's St Mary's Church had the vision for it to become an amenity at the heart of the community and it has been carefully restored: during the 4 year process scorch marks left by Owain Glyndwr's arson were found.  Prince Charles visited at the beginning of the work and again at the end.

 For the visitor

   It now houses a museum, a learning centre with interactive displays, information about the Tudors, a superb tapestry, a cafe and shop where you can buy inexpensive items such as bookmarks for 20p. Entry is free. The tapestry was made from 400 colours of wool in special stitching to give a 3D effect and was worked on from Monday to Saturday, 10a.m. till 4 p.m. It took 3 years 10 months to complete (if a bit of needlework was not quite right, it had to be unpicked) but it was ready before the Barn was completely renovated. It depicts Abergavenny's landscape and history (imaginatively!) with the motto: "Hostes nunc amici" (enemies now friends).

Serendipity and calorie therapy

   I was lucky to hear an informative talk on this amazing piece of work and afterwards - you've guessed it - had a large slice of scrumptious CAKE. If you are also emboldened by gateau you may like to go on to the Castle and ponder the gruesome massacre that took place there in the 12th century. It is only a short walk. Before that, just across the path is the church of St Mary's where there are fascinating medieval effigies.

How to get there

   Bus information at the very bottom of the page. The Barn is a few minutes' walk from the main bus station  at the bottom of town which is (though we don't mention this) next to a large car park.

For opening hours click here