Pandy, Monmouthshire

Location

Pandy is 5 mi north of Abergavenny on the A465 road to Hereford immediately north of Llanfihangel Crucorney. The Wales–England border is one mile to the north, and the Offa's Dyke Path and Marches Way pass through the village.

History

The village of Pandy ranges from the Pandy watermill at Allt-yr-Ynys in the north to the edge of Llanfihangel Crucorney to the south. The fulling-mill at Pandy served the Llanover estate in the 17th century producing wool, which was turned into Welsh flannel. Pandy is the Welsh word for a fulling-mill.

The village was on a route used by the early railways; the Abergavenny to Hereford line still passes to the west. There was at one time the Grosmont tramroad as well, now demolished. Raymond Williams was born in a cottage next to Offa's Dyke where his father was a railway signalman on the Hereford to Abergavenny railway line.

The village was redeveloped in the Victorian era by a pioneering lady architect, Bernadette Rocher, who, in the 1870s, extended and reworked many of the older properties in local red sandstone. She is buried at the parish church at Oldcastle, Monmouthshire, a short distance to the northwest.

Amenities

The village has no parish church, but has two Nonconformist chapels, one Baptist and one Presbyterian Church of Wales.

The village has several campsites and small caravan parks and two pubs. The housing is a mix of Victorian-era cottages, farms and villas and some 1970s housing estates such as Wern Gifford.

The Black Mountains rise up to the west of the village, with the outlying Skirrid looming high over the village to the east.

Pandy has two hotels, the Park Hotel and Allt Yr Ynys Country Hotel.

Transport

Pandy railway station closed in 1958, with trains running through between Hereford and Abergavenny on the Welsh Marches Line.

Notable people

The singer-songwriter MARINA lived in Pandy for most of her childhood, although she was born in Brynmawr. The socialist writer and academic Raymond Williams was born in Pandy in 1921.

References

References

1. "A Century of Raymond Williams". Jacobin.