Archaeological Heritage

The Wye Valley, inhabited for 12,000 years, has a rich archaeological legacy. Patterns of 6000 years of settlement in this disputed borderland territory reflected the importance of the Valley as a natural and political boundary and the significance of the river as a communication route. The Valley has been a centre of religious life for more than a thousand years and is the site of early industry.

Prehistory
King Arthur's Cave, at the Doward near Symonds Yat and St Peter's Cave at Chepstow provide evidence of settlement dating from Palaeolithic Times - the Old Stone Age, around 10,000 to 12,000 years ago.
Flints found on the Iron Age Chase Hill Camp near Ross are thought to date back to Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) times. Neolithic (New Stone Age) artefacts, dating back some 4000 to 6000 years have also been found within the AONB.
Standing stones at Huntsham Hill (the Queen Stone) and, near Staunton (the Longstone, Buckstone, Toadstone and Broadstone) all have origins dating back to the Bronze and Iron Ages. Harold's Stones at Trellech are thought to date from the Bronze Age. There are also Bronze Age round barrows in Lower Hael Wood.
Iron Age hillforts the length of the Lower Wye Valley took advantage of the natural hilltops and promontories to form well-defended settlements. They vary widely in size and shape, but were all protected by ditches and earthen banks and originally topped with a timber stockade. A cluster of four hillforts in the Woolhope Dome in Herefordshire comprises Backbury and Oldbury ( just outside the AONB boundary) and Capler Camp and Cherry Hill, near Fownhope. Those abutting the Herefordshire Lowlands, like Little Doward and Symonds Yat, appear to mark the southern edge of a pre-Roman territory. To the south there was probably a densely wooded no man's land around the Wye Gorge with forts at Black Cliff, Piercefield, Gaer Hill and Spital Meend marking the edge of a coastal territory. Gaer Hill Fort, near Penterry, is an unusual set of earthworks providing a panoramic and strategically important view from the Severn Estuary around to the west.

Roman Period
The first evidence of the industrial exploitation of iron and coal in the Wye Valley is found in the Roman period. Remains of Roman iron working can still be seen at Clearwell, in the Forest of Dean, just outside the AONB boundary. Within the area, there were iron forges at Whitchurch and Hadnock, and also in Monmouth, which the Romans named Blestium. Cinderhill Street in Monmouth derives its name from Roman-age deposits of iron-rich cinders. At Trellech, remains of Roman iron working were found as late as the 18th century. There were Roman settlements in the Herefordshire Lowlands at Whitchurch, Tretire and Peterstow and a substantial farmstead at Huntsham. A Roman road cut across the AONB linking Whitchurch with Weston-­under-Penyard. The Romans' Watling Street West joined Chester with Caerleon and Caerwent, running via Wroxeter, Ariconium (just north of Ross) and Blestium (Monmouth).

The medieval castle boroughs of Goodrich and Chepstow, which dominate each end of the Wye Gorge, have both probably been important settlements since the Roman period.

Early Medieval
Closely following the River Wye, a major monument of the Early Medieval period is the 8th Century linear earthwork Offa's Dyke. The Dyke was built by Offa, King of Mercia - the first man to call himself King of all England, and to mint a national coin - the gold Dinar. Although successful in battle against the Welsh, Offa was unable to conquer them and decided the best policy was a giant earthen dyke. Largely unmanned and undefended the Dyke was primarily designed to mark out the boundary between England and Wales and is, today, the longest archaeological monument in Britain.

Offa's Dyke is at its most impressive at Devil's Pulpit, which can be reached by footpath by climbing up from Tintern, or through fields from Miss Grace's Lane, Tidenham Chase, and where it climbs the flank of Wyegate overlooking the bridge of Bigsweir.

Neither the river nor the Dyke marked a permanent boundary between England and Wales, which was not fixed until the reign of Athelstan (925-939). Hereford and Gloucestershire are not mentioned as English counties until 1018. Settlements with Anglo-Saxon place names like Itton are found on the Welsh side of the border.Conversely, Archenfield, bounded by the Wye, the Monnow and the Worm Brook, was a Welsh enclave within Herefordshire, where the Welsh language was spoken well into the 19th century. Churches like Peterstow and St Dubricius's, Ballingham on the edge of Archenfield are the successors to Celtic churches known to have existed in the 7th century

Norman
When the Normans conquered the region in the 11 th Century they immediately built major castles at Chepstow and Monmouth, to defend the territory. Building of Monmouth Castle started in 1068 to protect the river crossings of the Wye and the Monnow. High up on its cliff above the River Wye, Chepstow Castle, started in 1067, guarded one of the main river crossings between England and Wales and the thriving port of Chepstow below. Its strategic importance is marked by the fact that it was one of the first castles - if not the first - in Britain to be built in stone.

When work started on the castle, Chepstow was already an important commercial centre (the Anglo-Saxon name "ceap stowe" means market place). It had flourished because it lay in the marcher lordship of Strigoul and was exempt from English taxation.

Goodrich Castle, guarding an ancient river ford, is first mentioned in a document dated 1101-02, the structure at that time presumably a simple affair of bank, ditch and enclosure. The earliest remaining structure is the stone tower, built around half a century later by Godric Mappestone (hence the name of the castle).

On a plateau to the east of the Wye, St. Briavels Castle was another Norman stronghold - often used as a hunting lodge by the Plantagenet King John (of Magna Carta fame). An early motte and bailey castle, it was built in the 12th Century to guard the Welsh border. In 1131, the castle and its boroughs replaced the earlier settlement of Lydney Parva and became the administrative centre of the Forest of Dean.

The remains of what was a subsidiary motte and bailey castle to St Briavels, can be found next to the parish church in the village of English Bicknor near Yat Rock. Held by the Norman Ralph Avenel in 1190, it is thought to have been built between 1100 and 1150, but was destroyed or had decayed by the 14th Century.

Late Medieval
Trellech was possibly the largest community in Wales during the Middle Ages. Its motte and bailey castle, Tump Terret, is first mentioned in 1231. By 1288 there were 378 burgage plots recorded in Trellech, which would have made it larger than Cardiff at the time. At the end of the 13th Century more than 100 dwellings were destroyed in a major fire, when the Welsh tried to regain control of the southern Marches. Unlike other comparable Medieval towns in Monmouthshire, it is not situated on a strategic position on a river. It is most likely that it was established specifically for the exploitation of local iron ore and charcoal. Trellech, named after the three Bronze Age standing stones at its southern end, flourished intermittently, having its own mayor and market as late as 1695.

In the 13th Century, Edward 1 (1272-1397) granted miners born and bred within the Hundred of St Briavels, in the Forest of Dean, the freedom to mine beneath the forest for natural mineral resources. These rights remain to this day, making the Forest of Dean the only place in the UK where "freeminers" can still quarry and dig for coal, minerals and stone.

Newland, a village in the western side of the Forest of Dean, traces its origins back to the 13th Century. Its church, known as "The Cathedral of the Forest" was established by Robert de Wakering (1215-1237).

Elsewhere in the AONB, it seems likely that most of the villages, from Fownhope in the north to St. Arvans in the south, owe their present form to medieval foundation.

South of Goodrich, much of this expansion was probably associated with the iron industry. Shortly after Tintern Abbey was founded in 1131, it was given iron forges nearby, as were the monks of Monmouth Priory in 1139. The Medieval iron industry consumed large quantities of charcoal and much of the woodland - around Trellech for instance - was coppiced for this purpose.

North of Goodrich, Medieval prosperity came from the rich agricultural land. The small manorial hamlets of the period are still present today with a few buildings clustered around a manor house and church such as at Ballingham, King's Caple Caple and How Caple.

The central part of the valley is physically and spiritually dominated by the spectacular remains of Tintern Abbey, one of the most celebrated monastic sites in the British Isles. The abbey was founded in 1131 by Cistercian monks, and largely rebuilt in the 13th Century. It is the best-preserved medieval abbey in Wales and an outstanding example of Gothic architecture.