The Gwent County History. Volume 3

This handsome volume constitutes the third in a series of five studies covering the history of Gwent/Monmouthshire from prehistory to the modern day. Sandwiched between the Age of the Marcher Lordships and Industrial Monmouthshire, it tackles a host of social, political and cultural themes to trace the area’s varied responses to its new status as an English county after the Union of 1536. With no less than sixteen contributors, ranging from senior academics to independent historians, the book makes a substantive contribution to the history of the region, and highlights important avenues for future research. Although the book is not formally divided into two parts, the first eight chapters take the reader through the religious and political history of the county, leaving the other eleven chapters to cover social, economic and cultural themes. This structure is generally well-advised, although those unfamiliar with the county might have wished for a stronger overall introduction to acclimatise themselves to the county’s geography and historical development before the Act of Union. The early chapters on Tudor Monmouthshire do indeed highlight the artificiality of the new county unit, and the essential continuities of its early history are recognised by most of the contributors. Even at élite level, the dominant aristocratic families would retain a strong Welsh character into the Stuart period, although after the civil wars they would migrate to a more national orbit. For those lower down the social ladder, the pace of change was even less dramatic, for the county remained largely rural in character until the onset of industrial development in the later eighteenth century. Even in 1801, its largest borough, the county town of Monmouth, could boast a population of only 3,345, out of a county total of some 45,000. The contributors demonstrate that this sluggish growth did not preclude significant change in key areas of county life, although neighbouring Glamorgan and Gloucestershire appear more dynamic across the period

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