Tintern
Encyclopedia
Tintern is a village
on the west bank of the River Wye
in Monmouthshire
, Wales
, close to the border with England
, about 5 miles north of Chepstow
. It is popular with tourists, who visit for the natural scenery and the ruined Tintern Abbey
.
The modern settlement of Tintern has been formed through the coalescence of two historic villages, previously separate parishes - Tintern Parva, forming the northern end of the village and Chapel Hill which forms the southern end. The village is designated as a Conservation Area
.
, came out of retirement as a Tintern hermit to defeat the invading Saxons
in battle, perhaps at a site known today as Pont y Saison (Bridge of the Saxons) in the Angiddy Valley. The name Tintern may derive from the Welsh
din + d/teyrn, meaning "rocks of the king".
on May 9, 1131, during the reign of King Henry I
. It was the second Cistercian foundation in Britain
, and its monks came from a daughter house of Cîteaux in France
.
The present-day remains at Tintern are a mixture of building works covering several centuries. Between 1270 and 1301 the abbey was rebuilt, and when it was completed around four hundred monk
s lived in the complex. The abbey's land was divided into agricultural units or granges, and local people provided farm labour and served the abbey and its many visitors. For 400 years, it dominated the economy of its surrounding area. During some of this period the area was contested between the Welsh and English, the closest battle being won in 1404 by Owain Glyndwr
, at Craig y Dorth near Monmouth
. The area also had to contend with the Black Death
, and it is suspected that the neighbouring village of Penterry
disappeared at that time. The abbey remained in operation until the Dissolution of the Monasteries
in 1536.
built wire
works. It is possible that brass was made, but the works mainly made iron
wire. This was used for a wide variety of industries with essential goods: cards for the woollen industry, nails, pins, knitting needles and fish hooks. The site was convenient, because the Wye offered transportation, the Angiddy stream water power, trees in nearby woods charcoal
fuel and a ready supply of minerals in the locality. The company began letting their works. Farmers of the works in the 17th century included Sir Basil Brooke
, Thomas Foley, the important ironmaster and his son Thomas Foley. A blast furnace
and forges
were built in the valley in the 17th century and operated with the wireworks until the end of the 18th century.
For 300 years, the numerous works and forges along the Angiddy Valley dominated the village and surrounding communities. A branch railway line connecting the works with the Wye Valley Railway
by way of a bridge was completed in 1875, but by then the works for which it was built had gone out of business. All the works had closed by 1880, but several associated ponds, leats and culverts still remain visible. After being used in the early 20th century as a horse-drawn tramway, the bridge now carries a footpath. Tintern railway station
, which was along the Wye Valley Railway
was a few minutes walk from the village.
, with many visitors travelling on the river to see the abbey and other "picturesque
" sites in the area. William Wordsworth
stayed in the village in 1798 and wrote Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey. The completion of the new turnpike
road (now the A466) in the valley in 1822, and the arrival of the Wye Valley Railway in the 1870s, greatly increased the number of visitors, and tourism became the main stay of Tintern's economy and remains so today.
. Devil's Pulpit is a small rocky outcrop that overlooks the abbey. According to local legend, the Devil used to preach from the outcrop and attempt to seduce the abbey's monks away from Christianity
.
. While much of the church is still clearly visible today, a fire in 1977 left the building in ruins. The churchyard is now maintained by volunteers .
The public house
, The Moon and Sixpence, was originally known as the Mason's Arms, but changed its name in 1948 following a visit by Somerset Maugham, author of the 1919 novel of the same name
.
The name Tintern has been given to a type of blended cheese
made by Abergavenny
Fine Foods, which is seasoned with shallots and chives and covered with a distinctive bright green wax.
Tintern Girls Grammar School
, a private school in Melbourne
, Australia
, was named after the abbey.
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...
on the west bank of the River Wye
River Wye
The River Wye is the fifth-longest river in the UK and for parts of its length forms part of the border between England and Wales. It is important for nature conservation and recreation.-Description:...
in Monmouthshire
Monmouthshire
Monmouthshire is a county in south east Wales. The name derives from the historic county of Monmouthshire which covered a much larger area. The largest town is Abergavenny. There are many castles in Monmouthshire .-Historic county:...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, close to the border with England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, about 5 miles north of Chepstow
Chepstow
Chepstow is a town in Monmouthshire, Wales, adjoining the border with Gloucestershire, England. It is located on the River Wye, close to its confluence with the River Severn, and close to the western end of the Severn Bridge on the M48 motorway...
. It is popular with tourists, who visit for the natural scenery and the ruined Tintern Abbey
Tintern Abbey
Tintern Abbey was founded by Walter de Clare, Lord of Chepstow, on 9 May 1131. It is situated in the village of Tintern, on the Welsh bank of the River Wye in Monmouthshire, which forms the border between Monmouthshire in Wales and Gloucestershire in England. It was only the second Cistercian...
.
The modern settlement of Tintern has been formed through the coalescence of two historic villages, previously separate parishes - Tintern Parva, forming the northern end of the village and Chapel Hill which forms the southern end. The village is designated as a Conservation Area
Conservation Area (United Kingdom)
In the United Kingdom, the term Conservation Area nearly always applies to an area considered worthy of preservation or enhancement because of its special architectural or historic interest, "the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance," as required by the Planning ...
.
Early history
A ford across the navigable and tidal River Wye was in use in Roman times, close to the site of the abbey. After the withdrawal of the Romans from Wales, the kingdom of Gwent emerged, and, according to tradition, in the 6th century one of their kings, TewdrigTewdrig
Tewdrig or Tewdrig ap Teithfallt was a king of the post-Roman Kingdom of Glywysing. He abdicated in favour of his son Meurig and retired to live a hermitical life, but was recalled to lead his son's army against an intruding Saxon force...
, came out of retirement as a Tintern hermit to defeat the invading Saxons
Saxons
The Saxons were a confederation of Germanic tribes originating on the North German plain. The Saxons earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia, an area approximately that of modern Holstein...
in battle, perhaps at a site known today as Pont y Saison (Bridge of the Saxons) in the Angiddy Valley. The name Tintern may derive from the Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
din + d/teyrn, meaning "rocks of the king".
The abbey
Tintern Abbey was founded beside the river by Walter de ClareDe Clare
The de Clare family of Norman lords were associated with the Welsh Marches, Suffolk, Surrey, Kent and Ireland. They were descended from Richard fitz Gilbert, who accompanied William the Conqueror into England during the Norman conquest of England.-Origins:The Clare family descends from Gilbert...
on May 9, 1131, during the reign of King Henry I
Henry I of England
Henry I was the fourth son of William I of England. He succeeded his elder brother William II as King of England in 1100 and defeated his eldest brother, Robert Curthose, to become Duke of Normandy in 1106...
. It was the second Cistercian foundation in Britain
Britain in the Middle Ages
England in the Middle Ages concerns the history of England during the Medieval period — from the end of Roman rule in Britain through to the Early Modern period...
, and its monks came from a daughter house of Cîteaux in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
s lived in the complex. The abbey's land was divided into agricultural units or granges, and local people provided farm labour and served the abbey and its many visitors. For 400 years, it dominated the economy of its surrounding area. During some of this period the area was contested between the Welsh and English, the closest battle being won in 1404 by Owain Glyndwr
Owain Glyndwr
Owain Glyndŵr , or Owain Glyn Dŵr, anglicised by William Shakespeare as Owen Glendower , was a Welsh ruler and the last native Welshman to hold the title Prince of Wales...
, at Craig y Dorth near Monmouth
Monmouth
Monmouth is a town in southeast Wales and traditional county town of the historic county of Monmouthshire. It is situated close to the border with England, where the River Monnow meets the River Wye with bridges over both....
. The area also had to contend with the Black Death
Black Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
, and it is suspected that the neighbouring village of Penterry
Penterry
Penterry is a small rural parish of in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located between the villages of St. Arvans and Tintern, about north of Chepstow, within the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and about from the border with England...
disappeared at that time. The abbey remained in operation until the Dissolution of the Monasteries
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
in 1536.
Brass, iron and wire works
Though it has been suggested that the monks or lay brethren of Tintern Abbey exploited the woodlands and river power for operating iron forges, evidence of this is lacking. Industrial activity began in 1568 when the newly established Company of Mineral and Battery WorksCompany of Mineral and Battery Works
The Company of Mineral and Battery Works was, , one of two mining monopolies created by Queen Elizabeth I of England in the mid-1560s. The Company's rights were based on a patent granted to William Humfrey on 17 September 1565. This was replaced on 28 May 1568 by a patent of incorporation, making...
built wire
Wire
A wire is a single, usually cylindrical, flexible strand or rod of metal. Wires are used to bear mechanical loads and to carry electricity and telecommunications signals. Wire is commonly formed by drawing the metal through a hole in a die or draw plate. Standard sizes are determined by various...
works. It is possible that brass was made, but the works mainly made iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
wire. This was used for a wide variety of industries with essential goods: cards for the woollen industry, nails, pins, knitting needles and fish hooks. The site was convenient, because the Wye offered transportation, the Angiddy stream water power, trees in nearby woods charcoal
Charcoal
Charcoal is the dark grey residue consisting of carbon, and any remaining ash, obtained by removing water and other volatile constituents from animal and vegetation substances. Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis, the heating of wood or other substances in the absence of oxygen...
fuel and a ready supply of minerals in the locality. The company began letting their works. Farmers of the works in the 17th century included Sir Basil Brooke
Basil Brooke (metallurgist)
Sir Basil Brooke , English metallurgist and recusant, inherited the manor of Madeley from his father. This contained iron and steel works and coal mines...
, Thomas Foley, the important ironmaster and his son Thomas Foley. A blast furnace
Blast furnace
A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally iron.In a blast furnace, fuel and ore and flux are continuously supplied through the top of the furnace, while air is blown into the bottom of the chamber, so that the chemical reactions...
and forges
Finery forge
Iron tapped from the blast furnace is pig iron, and contains significant amounts of carbon and silicon. To produce malleable wrought iron, it needs to undergo a further process. In the early modern period, this was carried out in a finery forge....
were built in the valley in the 17th century and operated with the wireworks until the end of the 18th century.
Wye Valley Railway
The Wye Valley Railway was a standard gauge railway that ran for nearly between Chepstow and Monmouth along the lower part of the scenic Wye Valley in Monmouthshire, Wales, and Gloucestershire, England. It followed the route of the River Wye for most of its length...
by way of a bridge was completed in 1875, but by then the works for which it was built had gone out of business. All the works had closed by 1880, but several associated ponds, leats and culverts still remain visible. After being used in the early 20th century as a horse-drawn tramway, the bridge now carries a footpath. Tintern railway station
Tintern railway station
Tintern railway station served the village of Tintern on the Wye Valley Railway. It was opened in 1876 and closed for passengers in 1959 and freight in 1964, when the line was closed completely...
, which was along the Wye Valley Railway
Wye Valley Railway
The Wye Valley Railway was a standard gauge railway that ran for nearly between Chepstow and Monmouth along the lower part of the scenic Wye Valley in Monmouthshire, Wales, and Gloucestershire, England. It followed the route of the River Wye for most of its length...
was a few minutes walk from the village.
The tourist industry
By the late 18th century, tourism had started in the Wye ValleyWye Valley
The Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty is an internationally important protected landscape straddling the border between England and Wales. It is one of the most dramatic and scenic landscape areas in southern Britain....
, with many visitors travelling on the river to see the abbey and other "picturesque
Picturesque
Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year 1770, a practical book which instructed England's...
" sites in the area. William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
stayed in the village in 1798 and wrote Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey. The completion of the new turnpike
Turnpike trust
Turnpike trusts in the United Kingdom were bodies set up by individual Acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road tolls for maintaining the principal highways in Britain from the 17th but especially during the 18th and 19th centuries...
road (now the A466) in the valley in 1822, and the arrival of the Wye Valley Railway in the 1870s, greatly increased the number of visitors, and tourism became the main stay of Tintern's economy and remains so today.
Areas of interest
Walks
Tintern is home to several different walking trails, in addition to notable areas of interest. A bridge a little to the north of the abbey crosses the River Wye, and is open to the public on a yearly basis. The bridge leads to a choice of several clearly marked walking paths, most notably a path to "Devil's Pulpit" and a path to Offa's DykeOffa's Dyke
Offa's Dyke is a massive linear earthwork, roughly followed by some of the current border between England and Wales. In places, it is up to wide and high. In the 8th century it formed some kind of delineation between the Anglian kingdom of Mercia and the Welsh kingdom of Powys...
. Devil's Pulpit is a small rocky outcrop that overlooks the abbey. According to local legend, the Devil used to preach from the outcrop and attempt to seduce the abbey's monks away from Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
.
St Mary the Virgin on Chapel Hill
The ruins of St. Mary's Church can also be seen on a hill to the east of the abbey. Medieval in origin, the church was virtually rebuilt in 1866-68 by John PrichardJohn Prichard
John Prichard was a Welsh architect of the neo-Gothic style. John Prichard was the son of Richard Prichard a rector from Llangan, Glamorgan and was born on 6 May 1817. He established a practice in Llandaff, Cardiff where he became the diocesan architect. Between 1852 and 1863 he set up a...
. While much of the church is still clearly visible today, a fire in 1977 left the building in ruins. The churchyard is now maintained by volunteers .
Water Mill
A disused water-driven mill lies a little to the south of the abbey. Visitor information and shops can be found close by. The village also boasts an award-winning vineyard.The public house
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
, The Moon and Sixpence, was originally known as the Mason's Arms, but changed its name in 1948 following a visit by Somerset Maugham, author of the 1919 novel of the same name
The Moon and Sixpence
The Moon and Sixpence is a novel by W. Somerset Maugham, told in episodic form by the first-person narrator as a series of glimpses into the mind and soul of the central character, Charles Strickland, a middle-aged English stockbroker who abandons his wife and children abruptly to pursue his desire...
.
The name Tintern has been given to a type of blended cheese
Cheese
Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....
made by Abergavenny
Abergavenny
Abergavenny , meaning Mouth of the River Gavenny, is a market town in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located 15 miles west of Monmouth on the A40 and A465 roads, 6 miles from the English border. Originally the site of a Roman fort, Gobannium, it became a medieval walled town within the Welsh Marches...
Fine Foods, which is seasoned with shallots and chives and covered with a distinctive bright green wax.
Tintern Girls Grammar School
Tintern Girls Grammar School
Tintern Schools is an independent, Anglican day for girls and boys located in Ringwood East, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia....
, a private school in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, was named after the abbey.