|
Monmouthshire (Welsh: Sir Fynwy) is a
county in south-east Wales. The current administrative area was created in 1996 and covers the eastern
half of the traditional county - namely the following towns:
The area has the following borders:
| Monmouthshire traditional county |
| |
The traditional county of
Monmouthshire includes Newport, and borders Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Brecknockshire, and Glamorgan.
The administrative county of Gwent, which existed from 1974 to 1996, covered this area almost exactly. The county also once included
the exclave of Welsh Bicknor,
locally situated a short distance east of Monmouthshire's east border, sandwiched between the borders of Gloucestershire and
Herefordshire, but this was transferred to Herefordshire in the 1840s.
Monmouthshire's Welsh status was unclear until 1974 when the area (as Gwent) was
specifically incorporated into Wales as part of a local government reform. Previously the legal formula had been to refer to
'Wales and Monmouthshire'. In popular usage it had been considered part of Wales for many centuries. The ambiguity surrounding
its status arose from its not being mentioned in the second Act of Union between England and Wales in the 16th century. The
1911 Encyclopędia Britannica
unambigiously described the county as part of England, but notes that 'whenever an
act [...] is intended to apply to [Wales] alone, then Wales is always coupled with Monmouthshire'.
|