Historic thoroughfare

Glyn Harris, a local historian and author who was born in Tudor Street, has produced a lovely drawing of a house where the Surretts lived.

"They were, I believe, two brothers and their wives and children," says Glyn. "They must have been very hard-working men because I never saw them out of working clothes and they were always covered all over in coal dust. They were miners and worked somewhere up the hills."

The Hen and Chickens public house at the back of the picture is all that is left. The rest of the area has been demolished and is now the main Abergavenny Post Office and depot.

"Just around the corner of the drawing, to the right, was a wonderful bakery and shop known as Redwoods," recalls Glyn.

His aunts would send him on a Saturday morning to get the family cream and jam doughnuts, and his reward would be a half or even a whole one for himself. At other times, Redwoods would deliver by horse and cart.

They were still delivering in this way when Glyn was by then living in Old Barn Way, "which brought the old horse to the end of his tether," after tramping up the steep hill. Glyn was then 14; he's now 66.

Flannel Street was famous far and wide for the quality of its flannel and weavers. People came from all over England and Wales to buy this much sought-after material, which made the businesses immensely wealthy.

Abergavenny at the time was also famous for the making and bleaching of high-quality white wigs.