Abergavenny
town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales, UK
Abergavenny ( ; Welsh: Y Fenni, pronounced [ə ˈvɛni], archaically Abergafenni, 'mouth of the River Gavenny') is a market town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales. Abergavenny is promoted as a "Gateway to Wales"; it is approximately 7 miles (11 km) from the border with England (Herefordshire) and is located where the A40 trunk road and the recently upgraded A465 Heads of the Valleys road meet.
Originally the site of a Roman fort, Gobannium, it became a medieval walled town within the Welsh Marches. The town contains the remains of a medieval stone castle built soon after the Norman conquest of Wales.
Abergavenny is situated at the confluence of the River Usk and a tributary stream, the Gavenny. It is almost entirely surrounded by mountains and hills: the Blorenge (559 m, 1,834 ft), the Sugar Loaf (596 m, 1,955 ft), Skirrid Fawr (Great Skirrid), Ysgyryd Fach (Little Skirrid), Deri, Rholben and Mynydd Llanwenarth, known locally as "Llanwenarth Breast". Abergavenny provides access to the nearby Black Mountains and the wider Brecon Beacons National Park. The Cambrian Way, Beacons Way and Marches Way pass through Abergavenny whilst the Offa's Dyke Path passes through Pandy five miles to the north and the Usk Valley Walk passes through nearby Llanfoist.
In the UK 2011 census, the six relevant wards (Lansdown, Grofield, Castle, Croesonen, Cantref and Priory) collectively listed Abergavenny's population as 12,515. The town hosted the 2016 National Eisteddfod of Wales.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Abergavenny” as town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales, UK. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales, UK. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q609161. The first chronological checks are 2011 and 2016.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Abergavenny”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Abergavenny primary sources, Abergavenny archive and Abergavenny research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Abergavenny”?
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- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
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This entry incorporates text from “Abergavenny” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.