Twyn Square Usk

'Twyn Square' is Usk's public centre piece, an attractive arrangement of houses, shops and pubs with a Victorian clock standing proudly on an island in the middle.

 

During the course of his travels around Monmouthshire in 1964, local historian, Fred Hando produced a sketch of Twyn Square and the following description of the square and the local people frequenting it.

“My drawing, with which I have taken liberties, shows the view from Twyn Square, Usk. Sardonic, imperturbable, the castle surveys from Buga’s Bank the traffic surging along the Raglan road. “Step on it,” it seems to grunt, “I’ll be here long after you have gone.” The great trees nod assent. This afternoon Twyn Square is like a harbour with the town clock as its lighthouse. All the spare space in the harbour (empty in my drawing) is packed with cars, moored here away from the main stream. Their owners make Usk a talking-place and rest centre. They have come from farmhouses with splendid Welsh names; their jolly clean-shaven faces are red, like the good red lands of mid-Gwent which they work. Of medium height, there is no giant or dwarf among them.”

Fred Hando's drawing of Twyn Square

50 years on from when Fred Hando wrote this description, I think Usk has a much wider catchment area for visitors than local farms, but Twyn Square is still a central “talking place” and “rest centre” and is usually at the forefront as a “hub” for important events. In fact, as you stand in Twyn Square today it is fascinating to think that it has probably been this 'hub' of activity for well over 800 years.

History

The name “Twyn” is Welsh for “hillock” or “tump”. The site of Twyn Square, may well have once rested on a small hillock, but I believe the name probably refers to the adjacent  small hill on which Usk Castle is built (shown in Hando's drawing) which could also have been the site of an iron age hill fort mound.

Geoff Mein's study of 'Norman Usk shows how the township of Usk was founded by Richard Strongbow de Clare between 1154-1170. He writes:

"The town was planned so as to attract trade to the town centre from neighbouring settlements by routing all the main roads through its market place, now Twyn Square but perhaps originally kown as Twyn y daley du (the hillock of the black leaves)."

Twyn Square was used  as one of Usk's  market places until the early 1900's. It seems that the 'market', was in fact held in various locations around the town with many of the shops and houses having metal rings or hooks  inserted in their walls to allow temporary pens for livestock to be erected. Writing in 1920, Joseph Bradney describes Twyn Square having  being used as a market place and to host 'pleasure fairs'.

"The original market-place was what is now called the Twyn (tump) where there may once have been a small mound of earth which has since given its name to the square. Mr Wakeman quotes a conveyance dated 31st December, 1459, in which a burrage is described as situate "in old chepyng' ystrete joining the churchyard on the south (Chepyng is an old English word meaning 'market. Don't confuse this street with the current 'Old Market Street.)...... By one hundred years later (1598)  the market would seem to have been removed to its present locality......... in the lower part of 'New Market street.......The present market house and town hall (now the Royal British Legion Club) was built by the Duke of Beaufort in 1816. ..... The fairs are those on Trinity Monday, largely a pleasure fair, held in the Twyn, 19th, and 20th April, and St Luke's day , 29th October. ......The following was the ancient proclamation of the fair used in 1816:

'All persons are commanded while the Charge is given  and the Fair proclaimed by the Rev. James Barnard Davies, Portreeve of this Borough. And it is strictly given you in charge, that no person shall go armed, or carry any offensive weapon, during the time of the Fair, and that no Leather, Wollen, or Linen Cloth be sold without first being sealed with the seal of this Borough, nor Horses, without first being entered in the Toll Book, on forfeiture to the Lord of the Borough'."

Plan of Usk showing Twyn Square,  taken from Coxe's 'A Historical tour of Monmouthshire'. At Coxe's time of writing 1801, Usk had around 700 residents living in 165 houses.

David Lewis provides a more detailed account of  the properties in Twyn Square and the people residing and working in them in Victorian times, as recorded by the 1851 census enumerator for Usk, 27 year old solicitor Horace Shepard who lived in Bridge Street.

“In the house now a branch of Midland Bank (HSBC) a spinster Hannah Barnard Davies lived with her brother and servants…… Next door stood the Nags Head, a public house known earlier in the century by its Welsh equivalent Pen Cefyl. The publican here, George Morgan, lived with his wife, six children and servant, and gave his occupation as timber merchant. Opposite, John Williams was inn-keeper of the Castle Inn … Other householders on the Square (including those living in a block of shops and houses on the present car park site demolished in the 1960s) included a brick maker, stone mason, grocer, wheelwright, sawyer, shepherd, carrier of goods and a tiler."

The two public houses in Twyn Square,  The Castle Inn and The Nag’s Head,  remain open and active today, both popular with visitors and local people.

Photos from the Usk in Bloom website

In the 1960’s when I was a small child, there was a small garage complete with petrol pumps on the Square where the new curtain shop is now and Thelma and John Morgan ran a popular gift shop on the opposite side of the Square next door to Ken Smith's Butchers Shop. We still have a butcher’s shop in these premises on the Square (now the only one in Usk, we used to have four), taken over recently by ND Lewis and Son but formerly run by Mike Phillips. There was a small slaughter house serving some of the butcher shops in Usk, just around the corner in Four Ash Street. It closed when the introduction of more stringent European hygiene, legislation made it far more difficult for small slaughter houses to survive. There is now a private house on this site. Other commercial premises currently in the Square include 'Hoofs Coffee Shop' run by the Nag's Head,  a branch of HSBC bank,  an art/ photographic gallery 'Gallery on The Square' (in the old converted chapel); a florist shop, Up Market Flowers', a gift shop 'Manon' and a newly opened curtain shop and a dental surgery.

Old photos of Twyn Square

Some of the photos  show the clock in its original position near the chapel

Post card by Francis Frith

Coming up to date

March 2014 ('the leaning clock of Usk' - don't worry it's my angle not the clocks!!!)

Looking towards 'Ty Brith'  (the Speckled House) now called Priory House, a large house dating from Tudor times beyond the car park . As a child I remember accompanying my Grandmother to Ty Brith to pay her rent to Sweets  the builders, who built many of the houses in Usk from 1930s - 1980s. Ty Brith which has now been converted into several dwellings was a substantial property with stables, a brew house and landscaped gardens. It was later used by Sweets as their offices, a health clinic and careers centre.There was a block of shops and houses in front of Ty Brith where the car park now is, that were demolished in the 1960s.

Ariel view - photo  taken by Bath Balloons

The former Congregational Chapel on the edge of Twyn Square , now 'Gallery in The Square', was built in 1862, at a cost of £1,200. An attractive stone construction in the Gothic style with a turret which had one bell and could seat 400 people.The old red telephone box on the right of the chapel is classed as a Grade 2 listed building. The beautiful, majestic cedar tree on the opposite side of the road was grown from seed collected by novelist and adventurer Edward John Trelawney who lived at Cefn Ila near Llanbadoc during the 1850's. Trelawney was a friend of the Romantic poets Byron and Shelley and had a reputation for having numerous mistresses and living a bohemian life style. To the left of the tree is a lane which would once have been a street leading up to Usk Castle.

Looking down Bridge Street towards HSBC bank,  from the edge of Twyn Square near the chapel

The changing seasons in Twyn Square - it always looks beautiful! The wonderful, prize winning, floral displays in the Square are thanks to the 'Usk in Bloom' committee and volunteers  (I will be writing more about Usk in Bloom in another post)

Spring

Summer
In Summer Twyn Square is a blaze of colour  

 photo from Usk in Bloom website

Winter

photos from Usk Town website

The Usk Christmas Market held in Dec in Twyn Square

 Photo from Usk Town website

The Town Clock

The  clock  in the centre of Twyn Square, was built by public subscription to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1887. The clock originally stood on the corner of Twyn Square near the Congregational chapel. It was moved in the 1970s. Celebrations were held in the square in 1987 to mark the clock's 100th birthday with Happy Birthday dear clock being sung. The clock is a popular gathering place to welcome in the New Year with the townspeople gathering to link hands around it to sing Auld Lang Syne!

The clock has a  brick cast 'cartouche' on three of its sides

Drawings of Twyn Square  by local artist Anne Leaver 1989

Reference Sources

A Historical Tour Through Monmouthshire -  Archdeacon William Coxe 1801

Kelly's Directory of Monmouthshire,1901

A History of Monmouthshire, The Hundred of Usk - Joseph Alfred Bradney 1921

Here and There in Monmouthshire - Fred J Hando 1964

Norman Usk The Birth of a Town - A.G. Mein 1986

A Portrait of Usk - Anne Leaver 1989

Early Victorian Usk - David R Lewis 1982

Usk Castle, Priory and Town - Jeremy K. Knight and Andy Johnson 2008

Usk Civic Society - Usk Town Trail

Usk in Bloom

Usk Town

A special thank you to Bev Banfield  for allowing reproduction of postcards collected by her late father Roger Banfield - some of these are from the wonderful  Francis Frith Collection

Finally as a foot note a  few photos of me with my horse 'Rowan' taken  in Twyn Square over the last 10 years

British Driving Society - Monmouthshire Branch - about 2007 on a fun drive  I organised  

a stop off for 'refreshments' at The Nag's Head - there were about eight traps and carriages. 

My friend Susan,  is pictured holding Rowan in the second  photo

February 2014  beating the heavy rain - walking back from routine visit to Usk Vets

Wooded Hillside of the Wolf - Allt-y-Bela

Recently,  Jez and I rode past Allt-y-Bella, a very beautiful medieval farm house, with an unusual bell tower, nestled in a hidden valley near the hamlet of Llangeview near Usk.

When I was in my teens in the 1970s,  I would regularly ride past Allt-y-Bela following ancient paths and tracks that were once used by cattle drovers taking beasts to market. As a thirteen year old girl on a pony, I didn't really fully understand the historical significance of the partial ruin I was passing, but I knew it must have been quite an impressive and beautiful house when it was built.

At that time I recall there was lot of scrap farm machinery and old cars and caravans piled up around the ruin and in the surrounding fields, belonging to local farmer Lewis Williams. All in all it was in a very sorry, almost derelict state. The photos below from Monmouthshire County Council show Allt-y-Bela looking very much as I remember it in a very ruinous condition!

Fred Hando wrote about Allt-y-Bela in 1951 and like me he remembered it being called by local people 'Artie Bella' or 'Altie Bela', as most of the local people I knew when growing up, referred to it. Fred Hando was clearly very taken with the position and beauty of this house and its very intriguing history.

The photo shows Allt-y-Bela in the 1950's as it would have looked when Fred visited.

The story of Allt-y-Bela

Allt-y-Bela was built as a hall house in the mid 15th century sometime around 1420, and would originally have been a long, single storey, construction with mullioned windows. The name Allt-y-Bela translates from the Welsh as 'Wooded Hillside/ Heights or Cliff of The Wolf'.  About 100 years later in 1550 a first floor was added with chimneys and dormer windows.

Fred Hando's drawing of Allt-y-Bela

In 1599, a wealthy wool merchant from the Midlands, Roger Edwards, added the three storey Renaissance Bell Tower at one end. On his visit to Allt-y-Bela in the late 1940's early 1950's, Fred Hando noted the builder's inscription mark -1599, E.R. R.E (taken to mean Elizabeth Regina the Queen at the time and Roger Edwards) - and was also shown  by the owner, local farmer, Mr Moseley, the central spiral staircase running up through the tower which was built around a massive single tree-trunk newel post. Hando noted that the stair treads had holes through which bell-ropes would once have passed up to the tiny bellcote, with a bellframe, at the very top of the tower, but the bell by then, had allegedly been moved to the nearby church at Llangeview.

The purpose of the bell tower is not fully known, but it is thought that as the Edwards family belonged to a strict religious sect, the bell might have summoned members of the sect to services. Hando refers to his thought of the bell summoning farm workers from the fields for their refreshments - so perhaps the bell  at Allt-y-Bela served a number of functions.

The Roger Edwards Trust

Fred Hando tells the interesting story of how Roger Edwards came to bequeath his wealth to charity rather than leave it to his heir.

"When Roger Edwards was eighty, a hopeful nephew went there to look after his uncle. The years passed; each morning the hale old squire took his morning canter; at last the impatient nephew decided to wait no longer.When next his uncle was mounted on his pony, the nephew, pretending to adjust the saddle, cut the girths, hoping that at the first corner the rider would be thrown and killed. Riding slowly along, Roger noticed a slight movement of his saddle, and soon found the cause."

Following this incident, Roger Edwards changed his will. When he died on 28th March 1624 Edwards' money did not go to the nephew but was used for charitable purposes. The almshouses at Llangeview were founded on his instructions to give homes to 'necessitous persons' of three local parishes. Under the terms of the Roger Edwards Charity, the almshouse dwellers are 'occupants by licence', not tenants, and pay a 'maintenance contribution', not rent. Attached to the building was a chapel, with a chaplain appointed by the trustees. When I was a small child in the 1960s I remember walking up the hill from Yew Tree Cottage with my Mother with my small sisters in the pram and myself and my brother trudging alongside, when we reached the Alms Houses at the top Mum would stop and talk to the old people that were living in them at the time.

By the time I was in my teens however, the Alms Houses had pretty much fallen into disuse and they lay sad and unused until the 1990's when the 12 original tiny Alms Houses and chapel were converted into five more modern cosy cottages. The Roger Edwards legacy lives on in these through the Roger Edwards Alms House Charity which aims to provide low cost rural housing for local people. When one of the cottages becomes vacant you can apply to rent it, if you meet their criteria of being 'local' (see link below for details). several of my friends have had these as 'starter homes' and they are really lovely and in a lovely location!

The restored Alms Houses Llangeview (Coed Cwnr) 

Roger Edwards also made provision in his will to found the Grammar School in Usk. My Mum taught at this school when it was Usk Secondary Modern School in the late 1950's and 1960's before it closed. I will write more about the school in another post! Edwards also founded Almshouses in Newland, Gloucestershire, which still retain many of their original 17th Characteristics. 

The decline and rise of of Allt-y-Bella

After Roger Edwards' death, Allt-y-Bela was passed down to various descendants until it was sold to a local farmer, Mr Moseley in the 20th Century. By the 1980's, the building had been totally abandoned, the tower being held up by make-shift scaffolding and the tree trunk in the centre supporting the staircase.

Derelict for over 30 years, and having been used as a grain store and farm, the tower was in serious need of repair. Allt-y-Bela's condition came to the attention of Monmouthshire County Council, who attempted to remedy the situation by serving repairs notices and following the legal procedures as required by the building's Grade 2 listed status. However, these were unsuccessful, and in 2001, the Council served a compulsory purchase order on the building, and handed it over to the Spitalfields Trust for restoration.  The Trust secured a £300,000 grant from Cadw, borrowed the same amount from the Architectural Heritage Fund, and also spent £400,000 of its own funds on restoration.

Allt-y-Bela undergoing the extensive restoration project.

Allt-y-Bela today

Allt-y-Bela is today run as a bed and breakfast guest house by owner William Collinson. There are three guest rooms, with the interiors containing exposed wooden beams, leaded casement windows and richly polished floorboards. Downstairs there are flagstone floors and original architectural features.The garden is designed by Collinson's partner, Chelsea Gold Medal winner Arne Maynard. Garden design courses are run at Allt-y-Bela periodically. Enquire via the links below. One of the first things the current owners did was paint the house in a golden ochre colour - they felt cream looked too harsh against the landscape. Chipping away at the layers of paint on the building they found the golden/orangey colour underneath and decided to restore it. The yellow ochre colour, is a colour that would have been used in medieval times from 1400s, although generally houses tended to be white washed/lime washed most commonly. The house is not open to the public but you can get a good view of it as you pass.

Watch short video of Allt-y-Bela

Fully restored, Allt-y-Bela is a stunning sight as you approach it down the steep, old drovers track from Coed Cwnr, either on foot, or on horseback as we did! I think Roger Edwards and Fred Hando would approve don't you? You can also approach Allt-y-Bela along the lane from Llangeview.

Jez enjoying the view with 'Midge'

Reference sources

Journeys in Gwent - Fred J Hando 1951

Allt-y-Bela 

Allt-y-Bela B+B

BBC article - architectural legacies

Arne Maynard's Garden

The Alms Houses Llangeview

The Roger Edwards Trust

Me with my Irish Draft x Cob mare 'Rowan' on the bridle paths above Allt-y-Bela at Coed Cwnr

Jez on Ellie Hawkins' (New Court Livery) 'Midge' posing in the snowdrops at Allt-y.Bela