The Time Team broadcast offered good entertainment but was rather short on local input and historical enlightenment.  Caerwent was described as a small town with a town council rather than a regional capital with a tribal council and no mention was made of Caerwent providing the oldest Christian relics to be found in Wales, amongst the oldest in Britain.

Our AGM passed quietly.  The existing Trustees were reappointed.  A suggestion was made that we offer to support Cadw by “staffing” the Westgate Barns for a few hours at weekends, please see item below and respond if you are interested.

Dinham Factory Tour

Saturday 21^st March  10.00am

Opportunities to visit the former Royal Naval Propellant Factory have been infrequent in recent years.  This will be a detailed tour, basically by car with a little walking, covering the function of the various buildings and an outline of the chemical processes involved.  This time we shall be able to compare what we see with a collection of photos from the working days of the Factory.  We shall cover the remains of the old villages too, though there is less and less to see of them.  Meet outside the Main Gate, top of Dinham Road at 10.00am, duration 2 hours.  If you have any memories or mementoes of the Factory or the arms storage facility which followed it, please bring them.  All welcome!

The Welfare Centre

Friday 20^th  March  1.00pm?

As several people were disappointed to miss our visit to the Welfare Centre in September we are hoping to be granted access for a short time towards the end of this Friday afternoon.  If you are keen to come please contact the Secretary as soon as possible and we will keep you informed (still no confirmation of visit or time).

Roman Mosaics

Illustrated Lecture   Sunday May 3^rd  10.30am

With special reference to the mosaics of Caerwent, this lecture by Lawrence Payne will be provided free of charge by Cadw at their Westgate Barns.  They are only able to offer 20 seats for local people so if you would like to attend please inform the Secretary as soon as possible.

The Westgate Barns

Cadw makes provision for guided tours on certain weekdays but the Barns are usually closed at weekends.  If the main room were to be open then we could provide a welcome for individual visitors and also make it possible for local people to browse our library and inspect the small display which should soon be in place.  If you would like to volunteer for a period of, say, two hours to supervise the room on a monthly rota please consider what times you might be available and inform the Secretary.

(7^th March 2009)                  John Nettleship  Secretary   01291 420745  gwent-iscoed@talktalk.net