Penterry

Penterry is a small rural parish of 479acre in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located between the villages of St. Arvans and Tintern, about 4mi north of Chepstow, within the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and about 2mi from the border with England. It now contains an isolated parish church adjoining the site of a deserted village, and a few farms. HistoryThe first evidence of human habitation in the parish is a hill fort at Gaer Hill. This provides a panoramic and strategically important view towards the Severn estuary, and is believed to have been an Iron Age base and lookout point for the Silures. Because of its similarities with another monument on Holyhead Mountain in Anglesey, it is thought possible that the inner earthwork is a Roman signal station lying within an earlier defensive enclosure. Although the area is now quite remote, Penterry was originally located beside the Roman road (locally called Piccadilly) between the Severn estuary in the south and the small fort at Blestium, now Monmouth. The ancient road was superseded in later centuries, other than for local traffic, by that through Devauden to the west (now the B4293), and in the 19th century by the turnpike road through Tintern to the east (now the A466).

Penterry is a small rural parish of 479acre in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located between the villages of St. Arvans and Tintern, about 4mi north of Chepstow, within the Wye Valley Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and about 2mi from the border with England. It now contains an isolated parish church adjoining the site of a deserted village, and a few farms. HistoryThe first evidence of human habitation in the parish is a hill fort at Gaer Hill. This provides a panoramic and strategically important view towards the Severn estuary, and is believed to have been an Iron Age base and lookout point for the Silures. Because of its similarities with another monument on Holyhead Mountain in Anglesey, it is thought possible that the inner earthwork is a Roman signal station lying within an earlier defensive enclosure. Although the area is now quite remote, Penterry was originally located beside the Roman road (locally called Piccadilly) between the Severn estuary in the south and the small fort at Blestium, now Monmouth. The ancient road was superseded in later centuries, other than for local traffic, by that through Devauden to the west (now the B4293), and in the 19th century by the turnpike road through Tintern to the east (now the A466).