Monmouthshire (historic)



Monmouthshire (Sir Fynwy) is one of thirteen, covering south-east Wales. It was formed from the by the.

The county borders to the east,  to the northeast,  to the north, and  to the west. The parish of, situated a short distance east of Monmouthshire's eastern border, sandwiched between the borders of Gloucestershire and Herefordshire, was considered part of Monmouthshire until it was made part of "for all purposes" by the.

Under the, the use of Monmouthshire for and  purposes ended on , , although it remains in use  as a general geographic area and for other purposes, such as a  for biological recording.

A local government named  was created on, , covering the eastern 60% of the historic county.

The county is traditionally divided into six :

The chief rivers are the (much of which forms the border with Gloucestershire), the, and the  (which forms the border with Glamorgan). The county has a diverse industrial base including agriculture, electronics, engineering, tourism and service industries. The current of  is similar in extent to the traditional county of Monmouthshire with the addition of the  area.

The administrative county
An of Monmouthshire, governed by an elected, was formed in  under the terms of the. The administrative county had similar boundaries to the traditional one, but included the, , and  areas of south. The county council was based in Newport, rather than the traditional of Monmouth. In the borough of  achieved  status and therefore left the administrative county, although the Shire Hall continued to be based there. In the same year the parish of, an of , was transferred to both the administrative and geographic county of Monmouthshire.

Under the Monmouthshire was divided into  and s, based on existing s. The county contained one,. The urban districts were, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and. The rural districts were Abergavenny, Chepstow,, Monmouth, Pontypool and.

In Abergavenny was incorporated as a borough. Two further urban districts were formed, in, and  in.

revised the number and boundaries of the urban and rural districts in the administrative county. A new urban district was formed by the abolition of Llanfrechfa Upper and Llantarnam UDs, Abersychan and Panteg UDs were absorbed by Pontypool urban district, and  was formed by a merger of two rural districts.

The last major boundary change to affect the administrative and geographic county was in when the parish of  was removed to be included in the county borough of, and therefore the geographic county of Glamorgan.

The administrative county of Monmouthshire was abolished in under the. Most of its area formed the new local government county of, with parts going to the new  district of  and  district of. Successor districts of Gwent were, , , and.

Ambiguity over Welsh status
Monmouthshire's Welsh status was ambiguous until relatively recently, with it often thought of as part of. The entirety of Wales was made part of the by the, but did not adopt the same civil governance system, with the area of Monmouthshire being under the control of.

The integrated Wales directly into the English legal system and the "Lordships Marchers within the said Country or Dominion of Wales" were allocated to existing and new shires. Some lordships were annexed to existing counties in England and some were annexed to existing counties in Wales, with the remainder being divided up into new counties. Despite Monmouthshire being a new county, it was given two in common with existing counties in England, rather than one as in the counties in Wales. The relevant section of the Act states that "one Knight shall be chosen and elected to the same Parliaments for every of the Shires of Brecknock, Radnor, Montgomery and Denbigh, and for every other Shire within the said Country of Dominion of Wales". As Monmouthshire was dealt with separately it cannot be taken to be a shire "within the said Country of Dominion of Wales". The specifically enumerates the Welsh counties as twelve in number, excluding Monmouthshire from the count.

Despite this integration of Wales into England, the word "England" was still taken to exclude Wales in many contexts. The ensured that "in all Cases where the, or that Part of Great Britain called England, hath been or shall be mentioned in any Act of Parliament, the same has been and shall from henceforth be deemed and taken to comprehend and include the Dominion of Wales and Town of ".

Despite this, Monmouthshire was often associated with Wales. The unambigiously describes the county as part of, but notes that "whenever an act [...] is intended to apply to [Wales] alone, then Wales is always coupled with Monmouthshire". However, most Acts of Parliament included Monmouthshire as part of England, for example the listed both the administrative county of Monmouth and county borough of  as part of England, but in the rare event that an  was restricted to Wales, Monmouthshire was usually included as "Wales and Monmouthshire". For example, although the Sunday Closing (Wales) Act 1881 and the Welsh Language Act 1967 did not apply to Monmouthshire, creation of the in  did. The Sunday Closing Act was also extended to Monmouthshire in 1915 under wartime legislation. Another typical example was the division of England and Wales into s in the &mdash; one of which, the "Welsh Division", was defined as including "Monmouthshire,  and ".

Being a part of the diocese of Llandaff, Monmouthshire was included in the area in which the was disestablished in 1920 to become the.

The question of Monmouthshire's status continued to be a matter of discussion, especially as Welsh nationalism and devolution climbed the political agenda in the. The Wales and Berwick Act was repealed in regard to Wales in 1967 under the. The provides that in legislation passed between 1967 and 1974, "a reference to England includes  and Monmouthshire".

The issue was finally clarified in law by the, which provided that "in every act passed on or after , and in every instrument made on or after that date under any enactment (whether before, on or after that date) "Wales", subject to any alterations of boundaries..." included "the administrative county of Monmouthshire and the county borough of Newport".

The nominated candidates for the  in three of six constituencies in the area of the historic county with a view to promoting a  on 'Letting Monmouthshire Decide' whether it wished to be part of  or. The party received between 2.2% and 2.7% of the vote and failed to have any members elected.