Last week’s picture showed High Street, Abergavenny.

The Now and The picture is High Street, Abergavenny. I have many memories of the area as I used to work in Woolworths and also George Mason’s the grocers. It was a very busy street and even though nowadays it has changed remarkably, it is still very busy.

There used to be a shoe shop and a jewellers as well as a bank in the area. I still visit the town regularly, and I’m proud to say that the town has kept its identity in spite of all the changes over the years.

Glyn Parry, Abergavenny

The Now and Then picture this week is of High Street, Abergavenny, which nowadays isn’t an easy place to get to from Usk, where I live, unless you have your own transport. There is no direct traffic going into Abergavenny and you have to change buses at Raglan or Little Mill.

Years ago there used to be a regular service run by the Western Welsh Bus Company to and from Abergavenny and when that ended there used to be a bus run by a local firm on a Tuesday, but those days are long gone.

Rosemary Jones, Usk

The town is paved, lighted with gas, and abundantly supplied with the purest water on the constant supply system, the water being conveyed through pipes from a spring at the base of the Sugar Loaf mountain, the pressure being sufficient to drive the water to the highest house in the town. The works, gas and water are the property of the town. The Abergavenny ancient parish has been formed into two, the municipal area being known as Abergavenny and the remainder as Abergavenny Rural.

There are breweries, corn mills, lime and stone works, iron foundries, engine works and maltings. The Post Office is in Cross Street. There are four banks, a branch of the National provincial Bank of England Limited, one of the Capital and Counties Bank Limited, Lloyds Bank Limited, and the Birmingham District and Counties Banking Co. Limited.

The Lunatic Asylum for the county, standing on an eminence on the Old Monmouth road, is an extensive building of stone, erected in 1851 at a cost of £37,083, and enlarged at different times at a further cost of £21,000, and again in 1882-3, at an additional cost of£50,000, these additions including a chapel of stone, erected at a cost of £3,500, which stands apart in the grounds, and consists of chancel, nave, transepts north porch and a central turret containing one bell. In 1891-2 the asylum was further enlarged, and it is now available for 950 patients: the total amount expended on buildings, lands, furniture and outfit has been £133,700.

Taken from Kelly’s Directory of Monmouth 1901