The Industrial Wye

At a cursory glance, the lower Wye Valley reveals a tranquil landscape of woodland, pasture and river-meadows, a productive agricultural sector with modern industrial estates on the fringes of the market towns.

Scratch the surface of this landscape, however, and an industrial heritage as remarkable as any area of Britain is revealed. It has left tantalising evidence that can be seen today in the most unexpected of locations the length and breadth of the AONB.

Birthplace of the Industrial Revolution

Iron has been made in the Wye Valley since Roman times, using the ready supply of timber, good quality ore and abundant charcoal from the Forest of Dean. The river provided transport for the raw materials and finished product, and with the introduction of the blast furnace in the 1500s, its tributaries began to be used for waterpower.

The Lower Wye Valley can claim to be the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. The first brass made in Britain was founded at Tintern in 1566. Wire-making quickly followed, with mills situated on all the tributaries of the Lower Wye - the Angiddy, Whitebrook, Redbrook, Lydbrook and Bishopswood. The area resounded to the noise and smoke of heavy industry for the next 400 years and gave rise to many pioneering industries.

The Woodlands

Bark for tanning, which was mainly taken down river to Chepstow, was a major industry on the Wye. The wood from which the bark was taken was used to make ships, charcoal, staves and hoops for barrel-making.

The Valley industries were massive consumers of timber. A ship of 150 tons, for example, required 3,000 wagonloads of timber to complete - and in 1824, 13 ships were launched at Brockweir alone. Each iron furnace required huge supplies of charcoal.

The woodlands were carefully managed to produce mature trees for keels and masts, or by coppicing and harvesting wood for charcoal on an 8-12 year cycle. The importance of the timber trade can be gauged by the 36-vessel fleet of ships and trows owned by James Hodges of Llandogo in the early 1800's. These conveyed timber and bark, much of it to Ireland, with the return cargo being iron ore from Furness, Lancashire.

Navigation and Shipbuilding

As well as forming a natural boundary between England and Wales, the River Wye contributed to the economic growth of the area, providing a means of transport, trade and communication until the early 19th Century.

The Romans undoubtedly used the river for transport, and the Normans, too, used it as a thoroughfare, controlling this vital frontier with a string of castles. No significant roads penetrated the valley until the time of Waterloo, so the river was the economic backbone of the region.

In late medieval times, weirs constructed to catch salmon hindered free passage up and down the river. They became a serious source of contention, but not until 1662 and the Wye Navigation Act was any serious attempt made to solve these problems and develop the river's potential to the full. By 1727 shallow draught boats could get upstream beyond Hereford, and also up the tributary river Lugg to Leominster - remains of a flash-lock survive near Mordiford Bridge. An article in the Penny Magazine in 1835 records craft moored at Hereford, which when the water was high enough, could go twenty-five miles up the river, nearly to Hay. At other times, however, they had difficulty getting as far as Hereford. At this date, coal and wood was still being brought to Hereford by barges from Bristol, Chepstow and the Forest of Dean, and Herefordshire cider and other articles were "exported" along the same route. Even so, the article notes that the Wye can "scarcely be considered a commercial highway" above Monmouth. By the 1880's Brockweir Bridge was the effective upper limit of navigation and in time heavy silting made even this untenable commercially.

The distinctive Wye trow - a flat bottomed barge - was the workhorse of the river. There are photographs in local museums and one can be seen at the Ironbridge Museum in Shropshire. The trows plied the river, carrying iron, coal, timber, gravel, stone, sand and other products to the developing ports of the South Wales coast or across the Bristol Channel. The Llandoger Trow, a 17th century public house in Bristol, owes its name to the vessels, used by merchants who traded from Welsh Back, so-named because you could always find a boat "back to Wales" from the quay there.

Another distinctive river craft was the Wye coracle, or truckle, used extensively for salmon netting and angling until the 1900s. Made of interwoven willow twigs covered in horse-hide, or, later, pitched canvas, these one-man vessels were similar to those used by the Celts in pre-Roman times. An original 20th Century example can be seen in Hereford museum, and there are photographs of coracles in use on the Wye in the collection at Monmouth Museum.

A significant shipbuilding industry developed on the Wye in the 19th Century, with shipyards in Monmouth, Brockweir and Chepstow. Ships of up to 500 tons, like the " Agincourt, launched in 1825, were built at Monmouth. Such vessels traded around the globe. This industry slumped when the Valley railway arrived, although vessels up to 6500 tons were built at Chepstow's National Shipyard during the Great War. The last ship built at Llandogo was the "Hannah Louisa", in 1868. Remains of this industry include old wharves and slipways at Monmouth, Brockweir, Tintern and Chepstow and seamen's graves in Llandogo churchyard. There are also known to have been quays or wharves in the northern part of the AONB at Hole-in-the Wall, How Caple, Fownhope and Holme Lacy, and ship and boatbuilding yards at Fownhope and Holme Lacy. Other signs of bygone river navigation are pub names like The Sloop at Llandogo, the Boat Inn at Redbrook and the Hope and Anchor at Lydbrook.

Road and Rail

The road network in the lower Wye Valley remained essentially undeveloped during the rise of the Valley's industrialisation, until a series of Turnpike Trusts were authorised during the 18th century. It was not until 1828 that the current Wye Valley road, the A466, was first constructed.

Railways reached the Valley very early. In 1811 the Severn & Wye Tramroad linked Lydney to Lydbrook, allowing coal and iron ore to be easily moved. This enhanced the industrial developments at Lydbrook, where a wharf beside the river became a major transhipment point. The route of the tramroad can be followed to the east of Lower Lydbrook at Bishopswood.

In 1813the Monmouth Tramroad linked Coalway (near Coleford), Redbrook and Monmouth. This boosted the developing industrial complex at Redbrook. The inclined arch up Newland Road, sections of old tunnel and bridges, cuttings and embankments all survive as evidence of this narrow gauge line. This was also the world's first railed-way to make specific powers in its Act of Parliament to allow for the charging of fares to passengers.

In contrast to these tramroads, the standard-gauge railway came late. The line between Chepstow, Monmouth and Ross opened only in 1876. This line, and the associated lines to Coleford and Pontypool, simply extended the life of the industries along the Valley rather than enhancing them.

Technological changes and economies of scale had already sounded the death knell for many of them. The owners of the Whitebrook paper mills, for example, initially planned a branch up their side-valley. The high carriage rates charged by the railway company, however, put paid to this scheme and the last mill closed in 1888.

Railway closures began early with the Wyesham Junction to Coleford branch closing in 1916. Its rails were sent for use on the railways of the Western Front, but sunk in transit across the Channel. The Valley line lost its passenger services on January 4th 1959 and the line closed completely in 1964. Sections are now bridlepaths and cycleways. Tintern Station is one of the few railway buildings to survive, but old bridges remain, such as those at Redbrook and Lydbrook.

The rise and fall of Industry

The second half of the 16th century saw significant industrial development in the lower Wye Valley. Wireworks were founded at Tintern in the 1560s and at Whitebrook around 1606. Many forges and mills were established in the 17th and 18th centuries, using the waterpower of the narrow, side valleys - notably the Lydbrook, Angiddy, Redbrook, Whitebrook and Valley Brooks.

In the 18th and 19th Centuries, Whitebrook became famous for paper milling, when wallpaper became a fashionable way to decorate houses.

Copper works were established at Redbrook by 1691. By 1700 some 42 furnaces processed nearly 1000 tons of imported ore per year. A furnace in Redbrook used coke for smelting iron ore (from the Forest of Dean) as early as 1716, one of the first in the world so to do.

Redbrook's copper industry failed when major works were built at Swansea , but the village rose, phoenix-like, to become, by the 1790's, one of the world's major tinplate manufacturing centres. This industry survived until the 1960's and was renowned for producing the thinnest, highest quality plate in the world.

The Lydbrook Valley was a thriving centre for various metal industries, benefiting from the tramroad from the Forest. Many furnaces and foundries came and went. Most were gone by the 1960's, although the valley retains a distinctly industrial atmosphere, now lost in Redbrook or Tintern, and is a fascinating place to linger. The Lydbrook Cable Works was the main supplier of telegraph cables for use on the Western Front in the Great War.

Lime production was another important industry in the area. It was carried out on some scale in support of the local agricultural economy in the later 18th and earlier 19th centuries. Lime kilns and small quarries, exploiting narrow beds of limestone, were often sited in remote rural locations. Remnants of the kilns can be found throughout the Valley.

Industry was flourishing in the Valley at the end of the 18th century. Gilpin, writing in 1792, describes the "life and bustle" of the quayside at Lydbrook, the "thick smoke" of the iron forges and, within half a mile of Tintern, the "great iron works, which introduce noise and bustle into these regions of tranquillity". These were an essential component of the popular "Wye Tour".

However, a s the 19th century progressed, the Valley's industries gradually declined and management of the woodlands lessened when there was no longer a ready market for their products.