Historic Market Town
This ancient and historical town dates back to when the landscape played host to the treachery and guile of waring medieval march Lords, Chieftans and powerful Barons.
The first known fort settlement 'Gobanium' was during the Roman period followed by the Normans under Hamelyn de Ballon who built a motte and bailey around which a walled town grew up. Hamelyn founded the Benedictine Priory, upon which, today we have the beautiful St. Mary's Priory Church.
The Glyndwr period was the last time the town was to hear the clash of arms as it appears to have entered a recovery period during the sixteenth century for in 1538, Leland The Tudor antiquary, called Abergavenny "a fair walled town, prosperous and well-inhabited". In 1602 George Owen echoed a similar account when he described it as a "fair town, wealthy and thriving, and the very best in the shire." It was probably the success of the market, the earliest record of which is dated 1257, which accounted for the wealth of Abergavenny.
Park Street Infants School lies in the Grofield Ward among rows of terraced houses built at the turn of the century for railway workers. Within five minutes walk of the town centre this landmark building has been the focal point for a wide number of communities for more than twelve decades.
Modern Abergavenny
With historic references to Abergavenny being "fair, wealthy & thriving" sounding loudly, today however, a different picture emerges. Set against a modern backdrop of asset stripping, inorganic growth and sparse inward investment over a long period, is a changing picture of sociology and community connectiveness. The loss of social networks once supported by corner stores, post offices and extended family presents us with the true social cost of modernity and rural towns being turned urban. 'Cost' and 'best value' are not measured in financial terms alone. This recognition is accompanied by an understanding that the social cost of dislocation criss-crosses all postcodes, cultures and generations to permeate lives and uncover a multitude of complicated human situations and behaviour.
Having a unique space from which to support and enable people in the - often silent - processes of self-help and mutual aid is one step on the journey to become the just, caring and tolerant society we aspire to be.
Making this connection today
restores the balance needed
to change tomorrow.