REDBROOK
Situated on a attractive stretch of the Wye, Redbrook
was an important industrial centre thanks to an ample
supply of water power which ran down the valley and
surrounding hills to the river. From Swan Pool down
to the Wye, a number of leats, dams and reservoir ponds
were created with many industrial sites including mills,
an iron furnace, tinplate works and copper works. The
oldest site is the King's Mill, which was a corn mill
fist recorded in 1434 and remained in use until 1925.
Though destroyed by fire some ruins and the wheel pit
can still be seen by the road leading up the valley
(following the track of the 812 Monmouth & Coleford
Tramway). The Redbrook Copper Works was established
c1960 using ore brought from Cornwall via Chepstow and
worked until 1740 when it closed down and the buildings
leased for the manufacturer of tinplate. The tinplate
factory, run by the Redbrook Tinplate Co., was world
famous for the high quality product it made and did
not close until 1962. Today the manager's residence,
dating from c1700, still survives (as private houses)
but of the other buildings little now remains. Redbrook
was also a port where the various products of the local
industries were shipped out and the quay, though overgrown,
still survives, along with a stone warehouse and a tram-road
which linked the industrial works to this building can
still be made out.
The most obvious feature at Redbrook is the wooden
pedestrian bridge which once carried the Wye Valley
railway across the river and now forms part of the Wye
Valley Path.The railway was opened in 1876 to connect
Monmouth to the South Wales line and did not close until
1964. On the opposite side of the river by the bridge
is The Boat Inn, which originated as a hostelry for
river watermen and is now an attractive little unspoilt
real ale pub..
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