Monmouth
Monmouth is the historic county town of Monmouthshire, Wales and a community. It is situated where the River Monnow meets the River Wye, within 2 miles of the border with England; the town is 30 miles northeast of Cardiff, 113 miles west of London. It is within the Monmouthshire local authority, the parliamentary constituency of Monmouth. Monmouth's population in the 2011 census was 10,508, rising from 8,877 in 2001; the town was the site of a small Roman fort and became established after the Normans built a castle here after 1067. Its medieval stone gated; the castle came into the possession of the House of Lancaster, was the birthplace of King Henry V in 1387. In 1536, it became the county town of Monmouthshire. Monmouth became a tourist centre at the heart of the Wye Valley, as well as a market town, it now serves as a shopping and service centre, as a focus of educational and cultural activities for its surrounding rural area. The name Monmouth is an English contraction of'Monnow-mouth'; the Welsh name for the river, which may have meant "fast-flowing", was anglicised as Monnow.
The town was known in Welsh as Abermynwy, replaced by Trefynwy by the 1600s. Excavations undertaken by the Monmouth Archaeological Society on sites along Monnow Street have uncovered a wealth of information about the early history of the town. Indeed, the Council for British Archaeology have designated Monmouth as one of the top ten towns in Britain for archaeology. Evidence of a Bronze Age boat building community, including three 100 feet long channels adjoining the site of a now-vanished lake, was discovered in September 2013, during archaeological investigations by the Monmouth Archaeological Society of the Parc Glyndwr housing development site north-west of the town; the excavations revealed the remains of a Neolithic crannog. The dwelling was constructed on stilts on a man-made island away from the lake shore in water up to 10 feet deep. Oak timbers had been "skillfully" cut with stone or flint axes to form stilts, of posts and poles, which "probably" rested on three parallel fully-grown tree'sleeper beams', up to 3 feet 3 inches wide, laid horizontally on the lakebed.
Timbers from the structure were radiocarbon dated to 4867 years before present. The first recorded settlement at Monmouth was the small Roman fort of Blestium, one of a network of military bases established on the frontiers of the Roman occupation; this was connected by road to the larger Roman towns at Isca Augusta. Archaeologists have found Roman pottery and coins within the modern town centre. During the Roman period, between the 2nd and late 4th centuries, it appears to have been a centre for iron working, using the local iron ores and charcoal worked at nearby Gobannium and Ariconium. After the end of Roman rule in Britain, the area was at the southern edge of the Welsh kingdom of Ergyng; the only evidence of continuing settlement at Monmouth is a record of a 7th-century church, at an unknown location within the town, dedicated to the Welsh saint Cadoc. In 1056, the area was devastated by the Welsh prince Gruffydd ap Llywelyn, on his way with an army of Welsh and Danes to defeat Ralph, Earl of Hereford and sack the Saxon burh at Hereford, 18 miles to the north.
Following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, the earldom of Hereford was given to William FitzOsbern of Breteuil, one of King William's closest allies, responsible for defending the area against the Welsh. A new castle was built at Monmouth, holding commanding views over the surrounding area from a sound defensive site and exerting control over both river crossings and the area's important resources of farmland and minerals, it would have been a motte and bailey castle rebuilt in stone, refortified and developed over time. A town grew up around it, a Benedictine priory was established around 1075 by Withenoc, a Breton who became lord of Monmouth after Roger, the son of William fitzOsbern, was disgraced; the priory may have once been the residence of the monk Geoffrey of Monmouth, born around 1100 and is best known for writing the chronicle Historia Regum Britanniae. The town was recorded in the Domesday Book, expanded thereafter. There was early burgage development along Monnow Street, the suburb of Overmonnow, west of the river and protected by a defensive moat called the Clawdd-du or Black ditch, began to develop by the 12th century.
Charters from the period refer to the town's trade in iron, to forges making use of local ore and charcoal. The cinders produced by the forges formed heaps, were used in building foundations. During the period of turmoil between the supporters of King Henry III and the barons who sought to curtail his power, the town was the scene of a major battle in 1233, in which the king's forces were routed by the troops of Richard Marshal, Earl of Pembroke; the castle was extended by Henry's son Edmund Crouchback, after he became Earl of Lancaster in 1267. In about 1300, town walls were built, the bridge over the Monnow was fortified; the bridge, now pedestrianised, remains in place today, the only such fortified bridge in Britain and reputedly one of only three similar crossings in Europe. King Edward II was imprisoned at Monmouth Castle in 1326 after being overthrown by his wife Isabella and
Meander
A meander is one of a series of regular sinuous curves, loops, turns, or windings in the channel of a river, stream, or other watercourse. It is produced by a stream or river swinging from side to side as it flows across its floodplain or shifts its channel within a valley. A meander is produced by a stream or river as it erodes the sediments comprising an outer, concave bank and deposits this and other sediment downstream on an inner, convex bank, a point bar; the result of sediments being eroded from the outside concave bank and their deposition on an inside convex bank is the formation of a sinuous course as a channel migrates back and forth across the down-valley axis of a floodplain. The zone within which a meandering stream shifts its channel across either its floodplain or valley floor from time to time is known as a meander belt, it ranges from 15 to 18 times the width of the channel. Over time, meanders migrate downstream, sometimes in such a short time as to create civil engineering problems for local municipalities attempting to maintain stable roads and bridges.
The degree of meandering of the channel of a river, stream, or other watercourse is measured by its sinuosity. The sinuosity of a watercourse is the ratio of the length of the channel to the straight line down-valley distance. Streams or rivers with a single channel and sinuosities of 1.5 or more are defined as meandering streams or rivers. The term derives from the Meander River located in present-day Turkey and known to the Ancient Greeks as Μαίανδρος Maiandros, characterised by a convoluted path along the lower reach; as a result in Classical Greece the name of the river had become a common noun meaning anything convoluted and winding, such as decorative patterns or speech and ideas, as well as the geomorphological feature. Strabo said: ‘…its course is so exceedingly winding that everything winding is called meandering.’The Meander River is south of Izmir, east of the ancient Greek town of Miletus, now Milet, Turkey. It flows through a graben in the Menderes Massif, but has a flood plain much wider than the meander zone in its lower reach.
Its modern Turkish name is the Büyük Menderes River. When a fluid is introduced to an straight channel which bends, the sidewalls induce a pressure gradient that causes the fluid to alter course and follow the bend. From here, two opposing processes occur: secondary flow. For a river to meander, secondary flow must dominate. Irrotational flow: From Bernoulli's equations, high pressure results in low velocity. Therefore, in the absence of secondary flow we would expect low fluid velocity at the outside bend and high fluid velocity at the inside bend; this classic fluid mechanics result is irrotational vortex flow. In the context of meandering rivers, its effects are dominated by those of secondary flow. Secondary flow: A force balance exists between pressure forces pointing to the inside bend of the river and centrifugal forces pointing to the outside bend of the river. In the context of meandering rivers, a boundary layer exists within the thin layer of fluid that interacts with the river bed. Inside that layer and following standard boundary-layer theory, the velocity of the fluid is zero.
Centrifugal force, which depends on velocity, is therefore zero. Pressure force, remains unaffected by the boundary layer. Therefore, within the boundary layer, pressure force dominates and fluid moves along the bottom of the river from the outside bend to the inside bend; this initiates helicoidal flow: Along the river bed, fluid follows the curve of the channel but is forced toward the inside bend. The downstream velocity of the fluid is convectively transported to the outside bend, resulting in higher velocities at the outside bend; this secondary flow effect dominates over that of irrotational flow: In real meandering rivers, we observe higher downstream fluid velocities at the outside bends. The higher velocities at the outside bend result in higher shear stresses and therefore results in erosion, thus meander bends erode at the outside bend, causing the river to becoming sinuous. Deposition at the inside bend occur such that for most natural meandering rivers, the river width remains nearly constant as the river evolves.
Where the is not forced to bend by a natural obstacle, Coriolis force of the earth can cause a small imbalance in velocity distribution such that velocity on one bank is higher than on the other. This can trigger deposition of sediment on the other; the technical description of a meandering watercourse is termed meander geometry or meander planform geometry. It is characterized as an irregular waveform. Ideal waveforms, such as a sine wave, are one line thick, but in the case of a stream the width must be taken into consideration; the bankfull width is the distance across the bed at an average cross-section at the full-stream level estimated by the line of lowest vegetation. As a waveform the meandering stream follows the down-valley axis, a straight line fitted to the curve such that the sum of all the amplitudes measured from it is zero; this axis represents the overall direction of the stream. At any cross-section the flow is following the centerline of the bed. Two consecutive crossing points of sinuous and down-valley axes define a meander loop.
The meander is two consecutive loops pointing in opposite transverse directions. The distance of one meander alo
Symonds Yat
Symonds Yat is a village in the Wye Valley and a popular tourist destination, straddling the River Wye and on the borders of the English counties of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire. It is within a few miles of the Welsh border; the name is said to come from Robert Symonds, a 17th-century sheriff of Herefordshire, yat, an old word for a gate or pass. Archaeologists have uncovered bones from hyenas, sabre-toothed cats and a mammoth in and around the caves of the valley and human habitation can be traced back to 12,000 years ago with findings of their tools and clothes. In the Iron Age the forts on the Great Doward and Yat Rock provided secure, defensible settlements for the local residents. During Roman times these forts became focal points in the region and the importance of the iron here and in the Forest of Dean made this a valuable prize for the conquerors. Offa's Dyke was built in the 8th century directly above the Yat to separate Wales; the first recorded use of Yat in connection with the area is in a Patent Roll of 1256, where the place appears as Symundesyate and Symondesyate.
This may contain the Old English personal name Sigemund or a early surname deriving from it. Yat represents the Old English word geat, describing the gorge. Although a popular local belief, it is not true that the addition of Symonds was made in the 17th century in reference to Robert Symonds of Sugwas and Evesfield, High Sheriff of Herefordshire in 1685, indeed a member of the family who owned the lands from Wormelow near Hereford to the border regions in which surround the Yat; the area is shown as Symons Yate on maps in 1665, Symons Yat in 1717 and Symmonds Gate in 1830. The Old Court Hotel in Symonds Yat, built in the 16th century, was the ancestral home of the Gwillim family and was home to John Graves Simcoe, governor and one of the founding fathers of Upper Canada; the Yat Gorge was mined for iron ore and remains of a smelting works are located down stream of the Symonds Yat Rapids. The ironworks at New Weir date from the 1590s and were operated by the White family until 1753, when George White leased the site to John Partridge, an ironmonger from Ross on Wye.
Partridge combined the ironworks at New Weir with his forge at Lydbrook which smelted pig iron from his furnace at Bishopswood. The works closed when the lease ran out in 1798 and the adjacent weir and lock buildings were demolished and the lock filled in 1814; the ferry at Symonds Yat has always played a huge part in the life here. In 1800 there were 25 hand ferries between Ross and Chepstow just like those outside Ye Old Ferrie Inn and the Saracen's Head today, they were introduced in Roman times to link the forts of the Doward and the Yat and have served military, civilian and horse traffic over the years. Symonds Yat encompassed all the lands southerly of Huntsham curve on both sides of Symonds Yat Rock and would have included the area around Coldwell Rocks; the name Symonds Yat used to refer to quite a large area of land and the hamlet of Symonds Yat, consisting of the Saracen's Head Inn, the Fish House, Lockkeepers Cottage and one or two cottages on the hillside, was called New Weir and is seen on maps as such up until 1955.
In April 2009 Herefordshire Archaeology excavated New Weir Iron Works at Symonds Yat to establish how the iron works functioned between the start of smelting in and the decline of the works in the 1800s. It was found that the works included a'slitting mill', for making wire nails and a rolling mill powered by water wheels. Symonds Yat is on the eastern side of the river close to the Gloucestershire border, it has WyeDean Canoe and Activity Centre and the Saracens Head Inn. A steep footpath leads from the village up to Symonds Yat Rock. Another footpath and a cycleway, constructed on a former railway line, runs on the eastern bank to Monmouth. Symonds Yat is on the western side of the river, it has a large caravan and camping site, a small amusement park owned by Kimberly Danter. Symonds Yat amusement park used to have a small funfair, removed in 2010 due to lack of service and the small numbers of people declining over the years, it used to contain outdoor dodgems, casino royale miami, flying jets, bouncy castles, ski jump, etc.
Most rides were moved up to Stourport on Severn theme park owned by Henry Danter. Some of the old rides are now at Murco's Petrol Station on the approach to Symonds Yat coming from Monmouth. Symonds Yat has visitor attractions including a maze built in 1977 to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, the Wye Valley Butterfly Zoo. Two hand cable ferries enable foot passengers to cross the river, powered by ferrymen who pull the ferry across the river using an overhead cable; the only connection by road is upstream over Huntsham bridge. One ferry is operated by the other by the Ye Old Ferrie Inn. A suspension bridge was built over the river by the Forestry Commission using local oak timbers in 1957. Linking Symonds Yat to the Biblins camp site, the bridge was refurbished in 1997 and rotten timbers and the two support towers were replaced. Although it is designed to take up to 30 people, it has signs requesting that no more than 6 cross at a time. Symonds Yat Rock overlooks a spectacular gorge.
This rock is a good viewpoint from which to watch raptors: a pair of peregrine falcons that nest annually within sight of the rock can be
Coleford, Gloucestershire
Coleford is a small market town in the west of the Forest of Dean, England, two miles east of the Welsh border and close to the Wye Valley. It is the administrative centre of the Forest of Dean district; the combined population of the two electoral wards in Coleford at the 2011 census was 8,359. Coleford was a tithing in the north-east corner of Newland parish; the settlement grew up, as its name suggests, at a ford, through which charcoal and iron ore were carried. By the mid-14th century, hamlets called Coleford and Whitecliff had grown up along the road in the valley of Thurstan's Brook. Coleford had eight or more houses in 1349 and was described as a street in 1364, it had a chapel by 1489. In 1642 the commander of a parliamentary garrison in Coleford started a market in the town, because the nearest chartered market, in Monmouth, was under royalist control. Coleford saw some action during the English Civil War. On 20 February 1643, Lord Herbert, the Earl of Worcester's eldest son, the King's Lieutenant-General of South Wales, marched through Coleford heading for Gloucester, at the head of an army of 500 horse and 1500 foot.
At Coleford their progress was impeded by a troop of Parliamentarians under Colonel Berrowe, aided by a disorderly group of country people. A skirmish ensued, during which the market-house was burnt, Major-General Lawday, who commanded the foot, two other officers were shot dead from a window. Colonel Brett was put in command of the foot, Lord John Somerset continuing at the head of the horse; the Royalists forced a passage through, after capturing Lieutenant-Colonel Winter, together with some other officers and soldiers, so, putting the Parliamentarians to flight, marched unimpeded for Gloucester. Following the restoration, a market was granted in 1661, a new market house built in 1679. Much building took place within the town and by 1710 it was reckoned to have 160 houses. Among the older surviving buildings in the market place the Old White Hart Inn dates from the 17th century. In the late 18th century and the early 19th the town expanded along its other streets and most of its older houses were rebuilt.
The Angel inn, which had opened by the 1650s, was re-fronted or rebuilt around 1800. For many years it housed an excise office and in the mid 18th century it was the town's principal coaching inn and it was used for public meetings and assemblies; the number of public houses increased as the town grew in importance and in 1830 there were seven or eight inns, most of them in the market place, a larger number of beerhouses. The market house was rebuilt on a larger scale in 1866. In the market place was the church, rebuilt on an octagonal plan in 1820, but proved too small for the growing congregation and was pulled down in 1882, its tower being retained for a clock tower. A much larger church, St John the Evangelist's, was built on a hillside overlooking the town; this church was closed in 2016, its building put up for sale. Expansion of the town continued in piecemeal fashion throughout the 20th century with both council and private development. Traffic congestion in the market place was eased by the demolition of the town hall in 1968 and the introduction of a gyro system around the clock tower.
Iron production in Coleford dates to the Middle Ages, this produced large quantities of waste material or cinders. Some formed prominent mounds, which by the late 17th century were being re-worked to provide iron-ore for the furnaces which were more efficient by that time; the medieval ironworks were moveable forges operating on the royal demesne woodland of the Forest of Dean. An ore smithy, or furnace, was operating at Whitecliff in 1361, the hamlet had a number of furnaces and forges in the 15th and 16th centuries. In the Middle Ages iron was worked in Coleford town, where there was a furnace next to the chapel in 1539. There was coalmining to the east of Coleford from the 16th century. Limestone was quarried at the south-west end of Whitecliff before the 17th century. Lime kilns operated at Whitecliff, Scowles, which supplied much lime to Monmouthshire. In 1798, work commenced on Whitecliff Ironworks, situated on the south-western edge of Coleford; the furnace began operating in 1801 or 1802.
A second furnace was built beside it before 1808. The output was limited by the quality of coke used. In 1809 David Mushet, a noted metallurgist, was employed to increase productivity but the works remained unprofitable and Mushet withdrew from the venture after a few months; the furnaces were abandoned several years perhaps by 1812, by 1816. The surviving ruins are open to the public for viewing. A tramway opened in 1812 to link mines in the Forest with the River Wye at Redbrook and Monmouth and ran through Coleford; the Monmouth tramway continued in use. The first railway to reach Coleford, a branch line from Parkend, was opened by the Severn and Wye Railway Company in 1875, it ran through Milkwall to a station on the south-east side of the town. A second railway from Monmouth, the Coleford Railway, using parts of the old tramway route, was completed in 1883, it included a short tunnel at Whitecliff and crossed the Newland road to reach a station next to that of the Severn & Wye Co. A junction was made between the two railways in 1884, after the Monmouth line was taken over by the Great Western Railway.
The Severn and Wye line, on which passenger services had ceased in 1929, was abandoned in 1967 and the track between Whitecliff and Parkend had been removed by 1971. Some railway buildings at Coleford, including a goods shed, were incorporated in the Coleford Great Western Railway Museum, opened in 1988; the nearest railway station is Parkend on t
Floodplain
A floodplain or flood plain is an area of land adjacent to a stream or river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge. The soils consist of levees and sands deposited during floods. Levees are the heaviest materials and they are deposited first. Floodplains are formed; when a river breaks its banks, it leaves behind layers of alluvium. These build up to create the floor of the plain. Floodplains contain unconsolidated sediments extending below the bed of the stream; these are accumulations of sand, loam, and/or clay, are important aquifers, the water drawn from them being pre-filtered compared to the water in the river. Geologically ancient floodplains are represented in the landscape by fluvial terraces; these are old floodplains that remain high above the present floodplain and indicate former courses of a stream. Sections of the Missouri River floodplain taken by the United States Geological Survey show a great variety of material of varying coarseness, the stream bed having been scoured at one place and filled at another by currents and floods of varying swiftness, so that sometimes the deposits are of coarse gravel, sometimes of fine sand or of fine silt.
It is probable that any section of such an alluvial plain would show deposits of a similar character. The floodplain during its formation is marked by meandering or anastomotic streams, oxbow lakes and bayous, marshes or stagnant pools, is completely covered with water; when the drainage system has ceased to act or is diverted for any reason, the floodplain may become a level area of great fertility, similar in appearance to the floor of an old lake. The floodplain differs, because it is not altogether flat, it has a gentle slope downstream, for a distance, from the side towards the center. The floodplain is the natural place for a river to dissipate its energy. Meanders form over the floodplain to slow down the flow of water and when the channel is at capacity the water spills over the floodplain where it is temporarily stored. In terms of flood management the upper part of the floodplain is crucial as this is where the flood water control starts. Artificial canalisation of the river here will have a major impact on wider flooding.
This is the basis of sustainable flood management. Floodplains can support rich ecosystems, both in quantity and diversity. Tugay forests form an ecosystem associated with floodplains in Central Asia, they are a category of riparian systems. A floodplain can contain 100 or 1,000 times as many species as a river. Wetting of the floodplain soil releases an immediate surge of nutrients: those left over from the last flood, those that result from the rapid decomposition of organic matter that has accumulated since then. Microscopic organisms thrive and larger species enter a rapid breeding cycle. Opportunistic feeders move in to take advantage; the production of nutrients falls away quickly. This makes floodplains valuable for agriculture. River flow rates are undergoing change following suit with climate change; this change is a threat to other floodplain forests. These forests have over time synced their seedling deposits after the spring peaks in flow to best take advantage of the nutrient rich soil generated by peak flow.
Many towns have been built on floodplains, where they are susceptible to flooding, for a number of reasons: access to fresh water. The worst of these, the worst natural disaster were the 1931 China floods, estimated to have killed millions; this had been preceded by the 1887 Yellow River flood, which killed around one million people, is the second-worst natural disaster in history. The extent of floodplain inundation depends in part on the flood magnitude, defined by the return period. In the United States the Federal Emergency Management Agency manages the National Flood Insurance Program; the NFIP offers insurance to properties located within a flood prone area, as defined by the Flood Insurance Rate Map, which depicts various flood risks for a community. The FIRM focuses on delineation of the 100-year flood inundation area known within the NFIP as the Special Flood Hazard Area. Where a detailed study of a waterway has been done, the 100-year floodplain will include the floodway, the critical portion of the floodplain which includes the stream channel and any adjacent areas that must be kept free of encroachments that might block flood flows or restrict storage of flood waters.
Another encountered term is the Special Flood Hazard Area, any area subject to inundation by the 100-year flood. A problem is that any alteration of the watershed upstream of the point in question can affect the ability of the watershed to handle water, thus affects the levels of the periodic floods. A large shopping center and parking lot, for example, may raise the levels of the 5-year, 100-year, other floods, but the maps are adjusted, are rendered
River Wye
The River Wye is the fifth-longest river in the UK, stretching some 215 kilometres from its source on Plynlimon in mid Wales to the Severn estuary. For much of its length the river forms part of the border between Wales; the Wye Valley is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The Wye is important for nature recreation; the meaning of the name is not clear. The earliest reference to the name is Guoy in Nennius' early 9th Century Historia Brittonum and the modern Welsh name is Gwy; the Wye was much given a Latin name Vaga, an adjective meaning'wandering'. The Tithe map references a Vagas Field in both Chepstow. Philologists such as Edward Lye and Joseph Bosworth in the 18th and early 19th centuries suggested an Old English derivation from wæg, "wave"; the source of the Wye is in the Welsh mountains at Plynlimon. It flows through or past several towns and villages including Rhayader, Builth Wells, Hay-on-Wye, Ross-on-Wye, Symonds Yat and Tintern, meeting the Severn estuary just below Chepstow, its total length is 134 miles.
The lower 16 miles of the river from Redbrook to Chepstow forms the border between England and Wales. The River Wye forms two Sites of Special Scientific Interest, one covering the Upper Wye above Hay-on-Wye, one covering the Lower Wye downstream to Chepstow; the criteria for inclusion of the river as an SSSI include geology, flora, invertebrates and birdlife, as the river and its tributaries constitute a large linear ecosystem. The Lower Wye SSSI is itself divided into seven units of assessment set by Natural England, administrative responsibilities are shared between the county authorities of Powys, Herefordshire and Monmouthshire; the Wye abuts a range of other SSSIs in England and Wales, including the Upper Wye Gorge and Lower Wye Gorge. It is a Special Area of Conservation and one of the most important rivers in the UK for nature conservation, it is an important migration route and wildlife corridor, as well as a key breeding area for many nationally and internationally important species.
The river supports a range of species and habitats covered by European Directives and those listed under Schedule 5 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. In Powys the river lies within the Radnorshire Environmentally Sensitive Area. Much of the lower valley is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty; the Lower Wye has been designated as a salmonid fishery under the EC Freshwater Fish Directive. The Wye is unpolluted and used to be considered one of the best rivers for salmon fishing in the United Kingdom, outside Scotland. In the 1980s and 1990s salmon in the Wye declined dramatically. In 1967 the Wye rod catch was 7,864, as as 1988 it was 6,401, it is now recovering from this low in response to the extensive habitat improvement work carried out by the Wye and Usk Foundation, set up to restore the spring salmon runs. In 2015 the five-year average once again climbed above 1,000 and it is now the third best salmon river in England and Wales, surpassed only by the Tyne and Wear; the Wye was famous for its large "spring" salmon that had spent three or more years at sea before returning to spawn.
They used to enter the river between January and June and sometimes reached weights of over 50 pounds, the largest recorded being 59 lb 8 oz landed after a long fight by Miss Doreen Davey from the Cowpond Pool at Winforton on 13 March 1923. The last recorded 50 lb rod-caught salmon from the Wye was taken in 1963 by Donald Parrish and weighed 51 lb 8 oz. Since the early 2000s the spring catch has been recovering and salmon of over 35 lb have been reported every year since 2011; the Romans constructed a bridge of stone just upstream of present-day Chepstow. The River Wye was and still is navigable up to Monmouth at least since the early 14th century, it was improved from there to a short distance below Hereford by Sir William Sandys in the early 1660s with locks to enable vessels to pass weirs. According to Herefordshire Council Archaeology, these were flash locks; the work proved to be insufficiently substantial and in 1696 a further Act of Parliament authorised the County of Hereford to buy up and demolish the mills on the Wye and Lugg.
All locks and weirs were removed, except that at New Weir forge below Goodrich, which survived until about 1815. This was paid for by a tax on the county. Weirs were removed all along the Wye in Herefordshire, making the river passable to the western boundary, beyond it at least to Hay on Wye. A horse towing path was added in 1808, but only up to Hereford. Money was spent several times improving the River Lugg from Leominster to its confluence with the Wye at Mordiford, but its navigation is to have been difficult; the Wye remained commercially navigable until the 1850s. It is still used by pleasure craft. In 2017 MORE than 600 people took to the River Wye in inflatables ranging from dinghies to paddling pools during the event WYE FLOAT, opened by former Olympic ski jumper Eddie the Eagle; the Environment Agency is the navigation authority for the river. The Normal Tidal Limit of the river is Bigsweir and navigation below this point is under the control of the Gloucester Harbour Trustees as Competent Harbour Authority.
There is a public right of navigation downstream from Hay-on-Wye. Canoes are permitted at and downstream of Glasbury, so long as they do not disturb anglers; the River Wye provides for canoeing and kayaking as it has sections
Carboniferous Limestone
Carboniferous Limestone is a collective term for the succession of limestones occurring throughout Great Britain and Ireland that were deposited during the Dinantian Epoch of the Carboniferous Period. These rocks formed between 325 million years ago. Within England and Wales, the entire limestone succession, which includes subordinate mudstones and some thin sandstones, is known as the Carboniferous Limestone Supergroup. Within Great Britain the suite of rocks known traditionally as the Carboniferous Limestone Series was deposited as marine sediments in three distinct ‘provinces’ separated by contemporary landmasses. One of these landmasses was the Wales-London-Brabant Massif, an east-west aligned belt of land stretching through central Wales and the English Midlands to East Anglia and on into Belgium; the limestones deposited to its south form a distinct South Wales-Mendip province which extends from Pembrokeshire in the west through southern Carmarthenshire and south Powys to Monmouthshire and north Somerset.
These rocks continue eastwards at depth beneath Oxfordshire. The Carboniferous Limestone sequence of South Wales and the Bristol area is subdivided thus: Pembroke Limestone Group Oystermouth Formation Oxwich Head Limestone Formation Penderyn Oolite Member Honeycombed Sandstone Member Dowlais Limestone Formation Abercriban Oolite Subgroup & Clydach Valley Subgroup Avon Group Cwmyniscoy Mudstone Formation Castell Coch Limestone Formation The limestone found north of the Wales-London-Brabant Massif and south of the emergent Southern Uplands block is identified as a separate northern province, it is characterised by the presence of numerous ‘blocks’ and ‘basins’ each with its own particular depositional style. To the north of the Southern Uplands are the limestones of the Scottish Midland Valley stretching from Ayrshire and Arran in the west to Fife and Berwickshire in the east. Though of Carboniferous age, the limestones of this Scottish province are not assigned to the Carboniferous Limestone Supergroup.
The Carboniferous Limestone is widespread throughout Ireland. The Carboniferous Limestone is a significant landscape-forming rock unit in each of the depositional provinces of Great Britain within which it is found. Within Pembrokeshire the Carboniferous Limestone forms the spectacular coastal cliffs at St Govan’s Head along from which are features such as Huntsman's Leap and the Green Bridge of Wales, a natural arch, it forms prominent headlands such as those of Stackpole Head and Lydstep Point and the cliffs at Tenby. A narrow, intensely quarried outcrop runs inland from Carmarthen Bay through Carmarthenshire from Kidwelly, entering the Brecon Beacons National Park at Llandyfan and extending westwards through the Black Mountain to Cribarth above the upper Swansea Valley, it is here referred to as the ‘north crop’ as distinct from a sub-parallel outcrop, the ‘south crop’ which defines the southern rim of the South Wales Coalfield. The outcrop continues through Ystradfellte to Pontneddfechan and Pontsticill.
It runs near the southern margin of the national park via Trefil and the Llangattock escarpment to Blorenge where it turns southwards. A narrow ‘east crop’ and ‘south crop’ run by Cwmbran and north of Cardiff, it turns west again to meet Swansea Bay at Porthcawl. West of the bay, the rock forms the renowned southern coast of Gower between Mumbles Head and Worms Head. There are further occurrences in the Vale of Glamorgan, both inland and on the coast. An important outlier is that of the Forest of Dean basin which forms the cliffs of the Wye Valley, straddling the England/Wales border and extends southwestwards through Chepstow to Undy; the larger part of the Mendip Hills are formed from Carboniferous Limestone, showing notable geomorphological features, including Cheddar Gorge, Burrington Combe and the showcave of Wookey Hole. The Avon Gorge west of Bristol and the coastal cliffs at Clevedon and Weston-super-Mare are cut in this rock; the limestone islands of Flat Holm and Steep Holm are prominent in views across the mouth of the Severn Estuary.
There are limited outcrops on the Isle of Man and more extensive ones in Anglesey notably along the Menai Strait, around Benllech and towards Puffin Island. The Carboniferous Limestone belt extends eastwards to form the Great Orme at Llandudno, the neighbouring Little Orme and a zone of country in inland Denbighshire running through Denbigh and Ruthin. A broader belt forms high ground east of the Clwydian Hills extending south to form the impressive west-facing Eglwyseg escarpment north of Llangollen and continuing as a broken outcrop southwards beyond Oswestry. There are a few outcrops at Little Wenlock; the White Peak is named for the limestone which characterises the heart of the Peak District and through which deep gorges have been cut by rivers such as the Wye and Manifold. The limestone is concealed beneath younger rocks to the east and west and to the north through the South Pennines. To the north the limestone is exposed once again in the Yorkshire Dales. There are numerous limestone hills in the Arnside and Silverdale AONB and in the southern Lake District e.g. Whitbarrow Scar with coastal exposures around the northern margins of Morecambe Bay such as Humphrey Head.
An outcrop extends from Kirkby Stephen along the western side of the Vale of Eden and wraps around the northern margin of the Lake District as far as Cleator Moor. North again, it is a major landscape forming feature in the North Pennines and thence through Northumberland to the Northumberland Coast where it extends to the Scottish border at Berwick-upon-Tweed. There are scattered outcrops along the north coast of the Solway Firth. Limestones occu
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