Around Monmouth

Punch House Monmouth

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Hotel | "The Punch House - Average All Round"

View from the Punch House Photo - Punch House Monmouth, Monmouth, Wales

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One of the more popular bars in Monmouth has to be the Punch House; however, I have to assume that it for its location, right in the main square than for anything else, although it is a fair sized and clean looking bar.The premium seats are those outside, which look over the historic Shire Hall and statue of Charles Rolls (yes the Rolls Royce guy) who was a toff of the town, and who bank rolled engineer Royce to produce early cars and planes. Rolls died in a plane accident around 100 years ago.The Punch House itself is a grade 2 historic building painted white and usually decked in baskets of flowers. The pub inside is rather unimaginative as it looks like any other modern chai...Read More

Member Rating 3 out of 5 on September 11, 2012

Punch House Monmouth
4 Agincourt Square
Monmouth, Wales 25 3

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Monmouth Show Grounds

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Attraction | "Excellent Agricultural Show in Monmouth"

Judging at Monmouthshire Show Photo - Monmouth Show Grounds, Monmouth, Wales

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As a local to the area, I always remember Monmouthshire Show from my childhood. In those days it was excitement in a very small rural community when thousands of people descended upon the place, and it put Monmouth on the map. I guessed it had been 25 years or so since I had visited the show (I no longer live in the area) so a reappraisal was long overdue. Since I left Monmouth almost 30 years ago, it has experienced a constant gentrification; it is a rare South Welsh town that sports upmarket stores like Waitrose, White Stuff and a Marks and Spencer's Food Hall. Consequently, it is easier to buy a bottle of organic wine than it is to buy clothes pegs and the farmers show has also experien...Read More

As a local to the area, I always remember Monmouthshire Show from my childhood. In those days it was excitement in a very small rural community when thousands of people descended upon the place, and it put Monmouth on the map. I guessed it had been 25 years or so since I had visited the show (I no longer live in the area) so a reappraisal was long overdue.

Since I left Monmouth almost 30 years ago, it has experienced a constant gentrification; it is a rare South Welsh town that sports upmarket stores like Waitrose, White Stuff and a Marks and Spencer's Food Hall. Consequently, it is easier to buy a bottle of organic wine than it is to buy clothes pegs and the farmers show has also experienced an upgrade, with plenty of stalls offering green wellies, huntsman outfits, bespoke wooden furniture makers and country gentlemen outfitters.

Fortunately enough of the country folk remain, and we fair marvelled at the sheer variety of the breeds of sheep on show at the fair. Much of the time is taken up with judging the animals and issuing rosettes. Obviously, the value of a farms stock goes up if the breeding pairs are show winners.
We were just a tad disappointed to find that there was no chicken showing, and we spotted just 4 pigs at the show this year.

After looking around the animals we lingered a while at the main showground to watch a horse jumping show and then a motor cross display. Many of the show jumping greats visit Monmouthshire Show, although it is fair to say that show jumping is not the popular sport it once was.

We bypassed the "win a tractor" competition given that we have about enough land to provide it with parking space, rather than have any need for one and progressed to the food hall, where cheese galore awaited us. We also really enjoyed the home made marmalade stalls and met up with a family friend, a renowned local butchers and snaffled a delicious homemade Herefordshire beef burger each from him. It helps to have friends in high places.

The arts and crafts tent was a very poor affair, and I vowed that one of my paintings would certainly have won a prize there, given the poor competition. The jams and cake making competitions looked a little more fiercely competed. I seem to remember this being a much bigger part of the show 25 years ago, but I guess fewer people make their own food from scratch these days.

We found the show very well organised (although for those bringing their cars to the show ground found their cars covered in mud from the sodden fields), and spent around 4 hours at the show in total; not bad value for the £12 entrance fee.

Monmouthshire Show is held at Monmouth Show grounds on the Redbrook Road on the edge of Monmouth on the last Thursday in August. As one of the largest UK one day agricultural shows I can fully recommend the show.
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Member Rating 5 out of 5 on September 10, 2012

Monmouth Show Grounds
Redbrook Road
Monmouth, Monmouthshire NP25 4LG
01981 580 710

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Littledean Jail

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Attraction | "A fascinating collection of knick knacks at Littledean Jail"

Littledean Jail Photo - Littledean Jail, Littledean, Gloucestershire

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One place I've been fancying visiting for a while is the weird and wonderful exhibitions at Littledean Jail in the heart of the Forest of Dean and about 15 miles or so out of Monmouth. It's certainly one of those places with something for everyone. The exhibitions are set up in the original jail and I kind of wished there was a little more space devoted to the jail itself, although one or two cells are bare of exhibits so you get a feel for what a night in the cells might have been like. Given the width of the benches in the cells those foresters were a lot shorter than we are now!The entrance to the jail is littered with warning signs telling the easily offended not to enter and suc...Read More

One place I've been fancying visiting for a while is the weird and wonderful exhibitions at Littledean Jail in the heart of the Forest of Dean and about 15 miles or so out of Monmouth. It's certainly one of those places with something for everyone.

The exhibitions are set up in the original jail and I kind of wished there was a little more space devoted to the jail itself, although one or two cells are bare of exhibits so you get a feel for what a night in the cells might have been like. Given the width of the benches in the cells those foresters were a lot shorter than we are now!
The entrance to the jail is littered with warning signs telling the easily offended not to enter and such like. It appears to me that the owner (a former bassist with the punk band Demob) is a little too up himself, thinking he is more radical, anti-establishment and unusual than he actually is. Entrance to the jail and exhibits is £7 a person.

It's difficult to describe the inside as it seems to consist of a lot of knick knacks and curios’ collected by the owner, such as stuffed tigers and animals with two heads and a lot of autographs and posters of famous people, who usually have some kind of scandal or reputational damage attached to them. Stand up Jacko.

I guess it's all up to personal taste, but on the plus side I was interested in all the Nazi and British fascist memorabilia. Not because I'm a fan of the regime but because it is interesting. The little action men type figures depicting life in a concentrate camp with the hanging and rape of prisoners is particularly gruelling. I was less excited by the posters and autographs of various stars, but of course within the many hundreds on display you are going to find someone of interest. Punk (and the likes of Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious and Toyah are well represented as you might expect given the history of the owner.

I also liked the Quadrophenia Collection of film artefacts in a shed in the grounds of the jail, including the bike driven by Sting in the film, and lots of stills and clothes from the era.

The only things I was personally unhappy with was the undue fascination with criminals and criminal wives, including letters from convicted murderers (including quite a lot from Charles Manson). I don't particularly agree with glorifying criminals, particularly the likes of Charles Bronson (a UK criminal convicted for attacking policemen and prison officials) or gangsters and their wives, like the Krays. I really am not interested in one of the Kray’s suits or his wife's wedding dress. However, if that's your thing then they are there to be viewed.

We concluded that ideally we would need two or three visits to see all the exhibits; after 90 minutes or so, your eyes tend to glaze over and you start skimming the exhibits rather than reading and exploring them. While there were a few bits I didn't particularly get excited by, this is a fascinating collection and well worth the visit.
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Member Rating 4 out of 5 on April 24, 2012

Littledean Jail
Church Street
Littledean, Near Cinderford GL14 3NL
01594 826659

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Wedges at the Coach House

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Restaurant | "Grab a slice of Wedges at the Coachhouse "

Inside Wedges Restaurant Photo - Wedges at the Coach House, Monmouth, Wales

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Considering Monmouth is a fair sized tourist venue, there isn’t a huge number of dining choices in the centre of town.We recently visited Wedges, a restaurant that used to be down the bottom end of town (by the Monnow Bridge), before disappearing without trace or notice. It has now recently reopened in the former coaching house of the former Kings Head, one of Monmouth’s former plush hotels. The building dates back to the 1400’s or so, and in its time has been a pub, and the hospital as well as the stabling for the old hotel. Wedges is just a few steps from the main street in town, Monnow Street, so is a mightily convenient place to dine.Wedges looks more of a day café kind of ...Read More

Considering Monmouth is a fair sized tourist venue, there isn’t a huge number of dining choices in the centre of town.

We recently visited Wedges, a restaurant that used to be down the bottom end of town (by the Monnow Bridge), before disappearing without trace or notice. It has now recently reopened in the former coaching house of the former Kings Head, one of Monmouth’s former plush hotels. The building dates back to the 1400’s or so, and in its time has been a pub, and the hospital as well as the stabling for the old hotel. Wedges is just a few steps from the main street in town, Monnow Street, so is a mightily convenient place to dine.

Wedges looks more of a day café kind of place; bright and breezy with white and pale green walls, and light but chunky furniture. However, it is very nicely decorated, and is a pleasant place for a meal.

Given the look of the place, I was actually a little surprised that Wedges is fully licensed, with a small bar selling proper Welsh beer, and a couple of choices of lager. The wine choice is also reasonable.

To be fair, the menu is a little limited, but I much prefer those places that do a few things very well, rather than one that does many things quite poorly. The starters seemed to be limited to around a half dozen items: a couple of soups, pate & toast, mushrooms in a cream & garlic sauce, and deep fried camembert. However, with the exception of the camembert, it looks nicely homemade.

I enjoyed my rough-cut pate and toast, with a hunk of fresh salad. It was certainly a filling starter and very tasty. The starters come in at around £4-£5 each.

For my main course, I chose the Chilli Con Carne with rice. I was warned the dish was very spicy, and I was not disappointed; even the salad was hot with small slices of pickled jalapeño peppers lurking to assault the taste buds. The chilli was obviously home cooked, and very tasty.

Two of my dining companions chose the Lasagne and garlic bread; again, it was obviously home made and cooked with a very generous topping of cheese. My beloved opted for one of the cheaper rump steaks, and received a filling dish with good quality local steak. Her rare was slightly towards the medium side, a common occurrence in more rural areas of the UK but given the quality and good value of the meal she could forgive the slightly overlong cooking. Her dish came with a huge plate of homemade chips (fries), that the whole party were able to share.

Sadly, we were so full; we were unable to sample one of the sweets, although the ice cream looked very nice.

The only downside came with the owner of the restaurant, who also served us; he was just the wrong side of polite, with too many over generous "thank you’s", and a couple of sycophantic "what would like to choose, my dear?" comments. I guess it was a small grumble, and I’d rather a pleasant and attentive food server than a grumpy and surly one,

In total our meal for five came to around £65 (or £13 ($20) a head), which we agreed was good value.
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Member Rating 4 out of 5 on February 23, 2009

Wedges at the Coach House
St. John’s Street, Monmouth, NP25 3EA
Monmouth
(01600) 775517

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Cripple Creek Inn

Best Of IgoUgo

Restaurant | "Up the Cripple Creek without a Paddle!"

Outside the Cripple Creek Photo - Cripple Creek Inn, Bryngwyn, Wales

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One of the dining pubs in the Monmouth area we have enjoyed eating at is the unusually (and perhaps politically incorrectly) named Cripple Creek Inn at Brygwyn near Raglan. The Cripple Creek is just a little off the main road, and is a handy place to drive to. Unfortunately, our recent overall experience was rather disappointing considering the price of the food is no steal.We decided to eat fairly late on Sunday lunch to avoid the worst of the weekend dining rush. Our arrival seemed positive, as there were a number of diners just finishing their meals, and a freshly laid table awaited. The pub itself is old looking from the outside, but unfortunately has few origin...Read More

Member Rating 2 out of 5 on August 28, 2008

Cripple Creek Inn
Old Abergavenny Road
Bryngwyn NP15 2AA
+44 (1291) 690256

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