Penalt
(A description written in 1891)
A Parish on the old Chepstow road and on the west bank of the river Wye, 2 miles south-east-by-south from Monmouth railway station, 4.1/2 miles by road to the centre of the parish; Southern division of the county, Raglan Hundred, Petty Sessional division of Trellech, Union and County Court district of Monmouth, Raglan & Trellech Highway district; eastern division of Usk rural deanery, Monmouth archdeaconry and Llandaff diocese.
The parish church [known as Old Church] is an ancient building of stone, standing on the side of a hill looking down upon the river Wye, and consists of chancel, nave, aisles, transept, south porch and an embattled western tower, containing 4 bells, one of which is dated 1660: the church was restored in 1885, and contains many curious tomb inscriptions and a hagioscope [a small opening in an interior wall of the church, enabling those in the transept to view the main altar]: there are 180 sittings. The register of Baptisms and Burials dates from the year 1779; Marriages, 1765. The living is a vicarage separated from Trellech in 1887, tithe rent-charge £156, with 28 acres of glebe and Queen Anne's Bounty of £12 a year, gross yearly value £192, in the gift of the Bishop of Llandaff, and held since 1887 by the Rev. Reginald Philip Goldney B.A. of Christ's College, Cambridge. In 1888 a vicarage house was erected at a cost of £1,200 by Richard Potter Esq.
In the approach to the church is a large oak, at the foot of which is a stone seat, and it was formerly the custom when a funeral passed this way for the corpse to be rested on this stone while the mourners and others stood around singing a psalm: the practice of resting the corpse on this stone is still observed.
St. Mary's Chapel of Ease to the parish church, erected in the year 1869, is a small building of stone in the Gothic style, consisting of chancel, nave, and a western turret containing one small bell.
There is a chapel for Baptists erected in 1858, and one for Primitive Methodists, erected in 1864.
Schools:
Parochial Endowed School, Pentwyn, endowed with £6 by Rev. Zachary Babington, vicar of Trellech in 1689, built in 1834 for 68 children, with class-room added in 1890 for 35 infants; average attendance, 52; Miss Emily Crisp. mistress.
Post: Letters through Monmouth arrive at 8 a.m; the nearest money order & telegraph office is at Redbrook. Wall letter box cleared at 4 p.m. in winter, 5 p.m. in summer.
The Duke of Beaufort K.G. who is lord of the manor, Thomas Prosser Esq. J.P., the Rev. William Bagnall-Oakeley M.A. of Newland, Coleford, and Richard Potter Esq, are the principal landowners. The soil is sandy, with some clay; subsoil, old red sandstone. The chief crops are barley, oats, potatoes and turnips. Cider is made from apples grown in the district. The area is 2,263 acres of land and 24 of water; rateable value, £2,091.
The population in 1881 was 477.
(extracts from Kelly's 1891 Directory of Monmouthshire, transcribed by J. Doe)
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