GWENT'S arrangements are being made ship shape as the nation prepares for the bicentenary of Lord Nelson's victory at the Battle of Trafalgar.

The role of Monmouth and the Forest of Dean was vital in securing the Royal Navy's 1805 victory over the combined French and Spanish fleets which ushered in an era of unchallenged British sea power lasting for more than a century.

Three years before the decisive battle Nelson, together with his mistress, Lady Hamilton, and her husband, William, came to Monmouth, having surveyed timber in the Forest of Dean.

"There is no doubt that local timber, which went into the British ships, played a part in the Royal Navy's victory," said Sue Miles, senior custodian of Monmouth Museum, which has a world-renowned collection of Nelson memorabilia.

"To mark the victory the museum will be concentrating on its Nelson collection, which includes his sword and many items of correspondence." Already the hero of the Battle of the Nile, when Nelson arrived in Monmouth in the summer of 1802, together with Emma and her cuckolded husband, it was in the nature of a triumphal progress.

"In addition to the museum's input, various other things are being organised by the town forum," Sue Miles said.

"The local history society will almost certainly be involved, and there will be events at Nelson's Garden, where we still have the seat where he took tea, and at the naval memorial at the Kymin.

"Nelson memorabilia was avidly collected by Lady Llangattock and passed to us. We are extremely lucky in having items and correspondence of considerable importance to scholars."

On the eve of battle off Cadiz in Spain, a small, one-armed man, blind in one eye and with a salt-stained coat, viewed the numerically superior combined Spanish and French fleet and ordered the hoisting of the celebrated signal 'England Expects that Every Man Will do his Duty'.

With Nelson's flagship, HMS Victory, leading a frontal attack, the British force, which was superior in terms of firepower and discipline, routed its opponents, but Nelson was shot down on his own quarterdeck and died. "Last year some timber planted by Nelson was sent down to Portsmouth to be incorporated into HMS Victory," Sue Miles added.

"There is no actual programme finalised for the celebrations in Monmouth but things are forging ahead. One thing that almost certainly will happen is a lecture by Commander Charles Ebbis, a former commanding officer of HMS Victory."