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.
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.
. 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.
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.
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
.jpg)
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
: I love Cefn Ila - I was born here near Usk. 
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)