Trellech (occasionally spelt Trelech, Treleck or Trelleck; ) is a village and parish in Monmouthshire, south-east Wales. Located south of Monmouth and north-north-west of Tintern, Trellech lies on a plateau above the Wye Valley on the southern fringes of of woodland in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Three Bronze Age standing stones are situated in the village, known as Harold's Stones, which overlook the historic church of St Nicholas, a Grade I listed building.
Although a relatively small village in modern times, it was one of the largest towns in Wales in the 13th century, and is now a site of archaeological interest to determine its extent and role at that time. The village is designated as a conservation area.
There are four nature reserves nearby; New Grove Flower Meadow, noted for its orchids, and Trellech Beacon are both owned by Gwent Wildlife Trust while Cleddon Bog and Croes Robert Wood are both SSSIs.
Etymology
It is thought that the Welsh name Tryleg probably means 'conspicuous stone' and derives from the intensifying prefix try- and *lleg, an unrecorded variant of the common noun llech 'stone, slab'. If so, the name probably refers to a large stone that once stood on a mound about a mile-and-a-half north of the village. Historical forms of the name vary between Try-, Tri- and Tre-. It is likely that the three standing stones known as Harold's Stones influenced those forms that begin with Tri- (Welsh tri 'three'). Another Welsh noun tre(f) 'settlement, town' has probably influenced forms that begin with Tre-. The noun llech, mentioned above, has also influenced various forms of the name. The <ll> in the English form Trellech is given its English pronunciation (not as Welsh ). Likewise, the final <ch> is pronounced as not as Welsh .
The village is noteworthy because of the variety of different modern spellings of the name. Historically, up to 30 different variations of the name have been recorded, of which four are still commonly used. On each of the three roads entering the village, signs give a different spelling: Trellech, Trelleck and Trelech.
History
Trellech was one of the major towns of medieval Wales, the remains of which have been subject to archaeological excavations which have been sustained over many years and which continue today. It is most likely that the town was established by the De Clare family specifically for the exploitation of local supplies of iron ore from the Forest of Dean, and charcoal produced in the surrounding woodlands, to provide weapons, armour and iron work for their military advances in Wales, including the building of Caerphilly Castle. By 1288 there were 378 burgage plots recorded in Trellech, which would have made it bigger than Cardiff or Chepstow at the time. Trellech was largely destroyed in 1291 as a result of a raid following a dispute over alleged deer poaching. The Black Death struck in 1340 and again in 1350. Subsequently, the ravages of Owain Glyndŵr and his men in the early 15th century further reduced the prosperity and in consequence the importance of Trellech.
Archaeological investigations
Archaeological investigations at Trellech have been led since the early 1990s by the South Wales Centre for Historical and Interdisciplinary Research at the University of Wales, Newport. There is currently some dispute over the layout and development of the medieval town and its environs. In 2005, Stuart Wilson bought a field in which, he was convinced, were remains of the lost medieval town. Wilson had previously broken into sites and undermined the work of other archaeologists in the area, claiming he "once sneaked onto Howell's dig site to prove an ancient wall the professor had uncovered was really a modern field drain." .This site had first been identified as of potential interest by (the unrelated) Julia Wilson, in 1998.
Stuart Wilson's interest in this field and the possibility that his hunch might be correct was the subject of a 30-minute BBC Radio 4 documentary, presented by the archaeologist Francis Pryor, and entitled The Boy Who Bought a Field, broadcast on 6 March 2006. The programme revealed that Wilson had apparently discovered medieval walls and yard-paving. In 2008 the Monmouth Archaeological Society said, "there is now no room for debate" that the excavations by Wilson and others have identified the main part of the medieval town to be around the minor road towards Catbrook, to the south of the current village, on what is now farmland. In 2016, Wilson proposed turning the site into a camp site, research centre and tourist attraction. Some of Wilson's claims have been criticised by academic archaeologists.