Monmouthshire

Monmouthshire's service industries employ a very high proportion of the workforce, but manufacturing has started to move into the county, whose fertile soils made it historically, primarily a farming area. Agriculture still plays a role in the economy, as does mineral extraction, but the numbers employed in these sectors amount to little more than 5 per cent of the workforce. Market gardening and dairying continue in the lowlands of the south, and there are sheep farms on the uplands. Forestry, mixed farming, and beef farming all also contribute to the county's economy. Tourism is of growing importance.

The Romans conquered this part of Wales during the 1st century ad, establishing a major military base at Caerleon (now in the unitary authority of Newport), and building the town of Venta Silurum at Caerwent. After the departure of the Romans in about ad 400, the area formed part of the Welsh kingdom of Gwent. The local people resisted Saxon invasions so fiercely that it was not until the 11th century that English settlements were established there. The Normans conquered the region in the late 1060s and built castles at Abergavenny, Caerleon, Chepstow, Monmouth, and Usk.

At that time, part of the area came under the control of the Earl of Hereford, and was considered to be English, while the rest of the territory remained Welsh. Under the Act of Union of 1536 Gwent was granted county status and renamed Monmouthshire, but although the Act did not specifically separate the county from Wales, it was regarded as within the jurisdiction of the English courts from that date until 1830. The county supported the Royalist cause during the English Civil War, but was taken by Parliamentary forces in 1646.