Usksider's Photo Blog

Anyone want to answer this baa'd boy?

Just thought I'd show you good people my HUGE ASS!

I have to say I'm not sure at this juncture how relevant the new BCUK Communities are to Blogland, but given my addiction to things photographic I've joined the new Photography Group and will be posting some of my images there from time to time.

I do find myself forced to make this observation though; if I wanted to be a member of Facebook (or similar) I probably wouldn't be here. The fact that I choose BCUK for my 'community presence' indicates that I deliberately avoided the others for a simpler, faster, more efficient system. I hope BCUK doesn't suffer as a result of the new additions.

The small rural hamlet of Whitebrook is approximately 6 miles south of the thriving market town of Monmouth. Chepstow lies approximately 12 miles south from Whitebrook.

Between the 17th and 19th centuries, the Whitebrook valley - like the Angiddy valley at Tintern a few miles to the south - was a centre of intensive water-powered industry. A branch of Tintern wireworks was established here in 1606, and wire working continued to be the main industry of the Whitebrook valley until about 1720.

By about 1760, paper mills had taken over and much of the housing in the valley was built for mill-workers around that time. Some of the paper at Whitebrook was made from imported esparto grass, brought in via the river quay at nearby Llandogo.

In the 18th and 19th Centuries, Whitebrook became famous for paper milling when wallpaper became a fashionable way to decorate houses.

Paper making in the Whitebrook valley probably came to an end in the late 1880s. An advertisement in The Times on Monday June 28th 1880 (page 16) stated paper mills at Whitebrook and the Fernside Paper Mill were up for sale, with a supply of water that was "constant and pure."

Although the industry had ceased by 1900, the valley retains the remains of several old mills, warehouses, dams and water courses. Many of these have now been transformed into desirable residential properties. The village is designated as a Conservation Area.

In a recent BBC documentary, 'Great British Journeys', Nicholas Crane said of the Whitebrook valley "I find it almost impossible to imagine in this enchanted woodland, that this was once one of the cradles of the Industrial Revolution."

Richard Drover, a hydro engineer with extensive experience installing small scale hydro electric turbines throughout the UK, has constructed a 3kw turbine in Whitebrook on the site of one former paper mill. This domestic installation provides sufficient power for three homes and replaces a similar system installed in the 1920s which was removed thirty years later when the national grid arrived in the remoter corners of Monmouthshire.

Whitebrook is best known today for its Michelin starred restaurant, The Crown at Whitebrook.

Further up the valley, the buildings of Fernside Mill remain externally intact, and make a most beautiful scene. Beside the mill pond stands the mill-owner's attractive house, enlarged from an earlier cottage which can still be recognised. Below this stands the main mill building. Back from this building stands the former stable block and beside the mill is a series of stone-built water tanks at ground level. It is indeed fortunate that the mill has been preserved, and is likely to remain so.

Photographs of Fernside Mill to follow at a later date.

All images on this page are 'clickable' for a larger view.