NOW AND THEN: Where was this photo taken?

THEN: How it looked in days past

NOW: How it looks today

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Last week we featured pictures from the centre of Newport. This is what you had to say:

The then photograph is of High Street at the junction of what was then Station Approach. On the corner was Lloyds Bank, then came the Tredegar Arms and the famous Murenger House. How it got that name is a mystery. The Murenger was a minor borough official charged with collecting the murage, the wall tolls for the upkeep of the town walls. He couldn't possibly have afforded the magnificent four-storey structure which dominated the town. There was a Murenger's House, a more modest structure, near the West Gate, possibly on the site of the National Provincial Bank at the corner of Bridge Street. Incidentally, the existence of the Murenger and the West gate give the lie to those who doubt that Newport ever had town walls. However, the position of Murenger was abolished in about 1324, whereas the so called Murenger House is a Tudor building dated 1541. It was, in fact, the town house of Squire Herbert, whose country mansion was at St Julian's. Fortunately the town house has survived whereas St Julian's House was disgraceful allowed to decay and be demolished by the neglectful City Fathers.

David Hando, Hartridge, Newport

Again a recent photo of the top end of High Street, from the car it looks to be the late 1970s or early 1980s. I well remember when you had to walk in the road because the pavements were so crowded. Prominent in the photo is the Murenger House supposedly built in the 1500s as the town house of Sir Charles Herbert. A murenger was responsible for the upkeep of the town walls although there is no record of Newport having walls. At one time the street was known as Market Street. Near the top it became very narrow so buildings were demolished to widen the road. All of the old shops have long gone, The Great Universal Store which was built in 1934 - it had a basement. London Hosiery, Dunn & Co, Crouch, Mac Fisheries, WH Smith, the Argus offices and works and many more - all memories of a bustling town, a town that is now on life support.

Dave Woolven, Malpas Park, Newport