Mounton, Monmouthshire
| Mounton | |
| Monmouthshire | |
|---|---|
 St. Andoenus' Church, Mounton | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | ST513930 |
| Location: | 51°38’10"N, 2°42’13"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | Chepstow |
| Postcode: | NP16 |
| Dialling code: | 01291 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Monmouthshire |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Monmouth |
Mounton is a Hamlet in Monmouthshire, located two miles west of Chepstow in a rural setting.
The parish was originally part of the holdings of Chepstow Priory, with the name Monktown. It has a tiny parish church dedicated to St. Andoenus, which was almost wholly rebuilt in 1880 and which lies in the ecclesiastical Parish of Mathern and Mounton with St Pierre.[1]
St. Andoenus has been identified by some with St. Owen, and by others as an obscure Greek saint. It has been suggested that he was initially a 7th-century French scribe, but became Bishop of Rouen and Chancellor to three French monarchs. He is represented in the Grouped Parish logo by the quill of the scribe.
The furnishings in the Sanctuary are mainly a memorial to Capt. Ian Oswald Lidell, VC, 5th Battalion Coldstream Guards, killed in action in 1945. The stained glass windows are memorials to the Evill and Bragington families. One of the gravestones, to a Christopher Cooper who died on 8 April 1680, indicates that the churchyard is much older than the present church building.[2]
Until the late 19th century the village had three water mills, producing paper, carpets and cloth.[3] These were called Lady Mill, Lark Mill and Linnet Mill. The last owner, John Birt, closed the mills down in 1876 after being accused of polluting Mounton Brook.[4] According to Fred Hando one of the mills produced the paper used for Bank of England notes,[5] but a monograph by local historian Ivor Waters states that they "rarely made anything but brown and blue packing paper", using old rags, rope and straw as raw materials.[4]
Mounton House School, now a special school for boys, was built as a country house in the Arts and Crafts style in 1914 by Henry Avray Tipping, a leading garden designer and writer, assisted by local architect Eric Francis.
References
- ↑ "St Andoenus, Mounton" at churchinwales.org.uk
- ↑ "MOUNTON, ST ANDOENUS" at churchinwales.org.uk
- ↑ Sir Joseph Bradney, A History of Monmouthshire: The Hundred of Caldicot, 1933
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Ivor Waters, Mounton Valley Paper Mills, Chepstow Society, 1978
- ↑ Hando, F.J., (1944) "The Pleasant Land of Gwent" - Chapter Eleven, Mathern, Moynes Court and Mounton, R. H. Johns, Newport.
