Wye Bridge, Monmouth

The original wooden bridge was built in the Middle Ages; there is a clear reference to it in the fourteenth century. Earlier references to a bridge at Monmouth may refer either to a bridge over the Wye or to the fortified bridge over the Monnow, although local historian Keith Kissack wrote that the bridge was known to exist in 1282 when it formed a boundary with the Forest of Dean. It was completely rebuilt in stone in the early seventeenth century (1615–17). At that time, tolls were collected from all those crossing the bridge. A plaque on the parapet records the widening of the bridge on both sides in 1878–80 under the architect Edwin Seward of Cardiff, stating, This bridge was widened…