We rejoin Fred Hando as he explores the ruins of Tudor Street.

And of course, this was with a few yards of the site of the great Tudor’s gate.

The town wall comes behind the Nevill Street houses, is incorporated into Old Court and continues majestically to the castle.

Across Tudor Street was the western gate of the town, about which Coxe wrote in 1800, Tudor’s Gate is a strong Gothic portal, defended by a portcullis, of which the groom is visible. In passing through the arch, the eye catches a perspective view which is much admired...and produces an effect which neither the pen nor the pencil can adequately delineate.

Why were these gaols - if they were gaols - located near the town gates?

A similar dungeon was found under the West Gate of Newport.

That had been assumed to have some connection with the toll-booth adjacent to the gate.

We were among the last to enter the Tudor Street cellar. Both houses disappeared last week and I assume that the cellar is now filled with debris.

On most of us, ruins exert a lugubrious attraction. Visit the Colosseum or the Parthenon on any fine summer’s day and you will find hordes of rotarians, accountants, townswomen guilders and shale lorry monopolists, all thrilled to their hard cores by fallen stones.

Me, too. I can’t keep away from Tudor Street, in Abergavenny and, when late at night I slip in to my bath, a froth of white dust floats around me. For months and months the good people of Nevill Street have found similar dust in their curtains, their soup and their hair.

With the exception of low rear walls, the houses were flat.

Those good men, Messrs. Jackson and Thacker, had saved as much as possible, including, to my astonishment, the fine timber-framed gable end wall and, again to my delight, they had earmarked the stone arch of the underground prison for removal to the castle wall.

An Abergavenny lady with her little girl approached.

“Could you, could you,” she begged, “show me the way you took down to the prison cellar?”

Amid the chaos of rubble and dust a black hole yawned.

“That, madam,” - I struck a Napoleonic pose - “that is the entrance!”

She grabbed her daughter, shrieked, “No, you don’t, Elsie!” and I turned as Mr Alfred Jackson’s hand descended on my shoulder.

For the next hour I was regaled with an exhibition of the latest addition to Abergavenny museum.

Fascinating in truth they were but, as the museum is closed for the winter months, I will refer to one item only. That is the magnificent Victorian dress in brocade, silk, velvet and lace which, as Mr Thacker instructs me, belonged originally to Mrs Davies, second daughter of Mr Ebenezer Lewis, of the Maindee, Newport.

Now, the Maindee was the fine stone house off the Chepstow Road which gave its name (maen-ty - the stone house) to the eastern portion of Newport - Newport Ultra Pontem, as it were.

From the museum I made my way to the King’s Arms Inn, at the corner of Nevill Street and Tudor Street and therefore close to the site of Tudor Gate.

Carved stone heads of oxen on the upper storey of one of the houses remind us that Nevill Street was once Rother (cattle) Street.

At the inn, Mrs Barnfield showed me the excellent stud-and-panel screen on the left of the passage and a similar screen separating the two rooms on the left. One upright post had elaborate mouldings recalling the splendid work at Coldbrook in Llandenny.

In delightful rooms on the first floor the ancient beams with their simple “stops” were displayed. But my hostess led me then to her prize exhibit.

In the old bar the removal of plaster had laid bare a beam above the fireplace.

On this beam, clear as when it was written, I read the following: Good Quarters for the 15th of King’s Hussars, 15th of October 1817. To Arms for Ever. Jas. Hall, F. Troop 24, S.C.L.E. Berry.

Military historians among my readers may know how the King’s Hussars came to be stationed in Abergavenny in 1817.

Abergavenny Museum

Although less than a year old, the museum at Abergavenny has caught the fancy of the good folk who dwell in the north-east corner of the county.

Treasures hoarded in some instances for centuries have been brought in; the demolition of old houses in the town has provided splendid relics; and the co-operation of the council and the Rotary members, together with generous grants, has enabled the enterprising committee not merely to house the exhibits, but also to show them properly cased and labelled.

Some of the cases - very handsome they look in their turquoise frames - have come from the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The museum buildings rise on part of the site of Abergavenny castle. Few destinations are more attractive than the green castle mound with its majestic views of mountains and river valley, by my readers should note that the museum is only open on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

I arrived at the museum and saw the end product of an exciting act of schoolboy enthusiasm.

Mr Thacker, of White Castle, had rescued from Tudor Street an excellent stud-and-panel screen which fitted one of the walls in the museum basement.

After three centuries, the screen needed cleaning and treating.

“Imagine my delight,” said Mr Thacker, “when a group of Abergavenny Grammar Schoolboys begged to be allowed to undertake the renovation.”

l This is an extract from Hando’s Gwent, Volume Two, edited by Chris Barber and reproduced with Mr Barber’s permission.