Welcome to the web pages of Usk Civic Society.  For quick navigation around our pages, click on the buttons below.

Our Aims: 

To promote high standards of planning, architecture and design; to educate the public in the history, geography and conservation of the natural and built environment in Usk and surrounding parishes not covered by other Civic Societies.

What we do: 

We take an active and positive interest in planning policies and proposals and proposed developments in our area by:

• Responding to consultations on draft development plans published by the Local Planning Authority (Monmouthshire County Council);

• Scrutinising all planning applications and development proposals, submitting observations and objections to the relevant public body, statutory undertaking and others; we appear at public inquiries to express our views;

• Responding to consultations or documents prepared by the Welsh Assembly Government by submitting views on them.

• We promote good design and environmental improvement through annual Awards for Environmental Improvement, which were re-introduced in 2003 with a newly designed framed certificate.

• We contribute towards Usk in Bloom by financial support and by awards in the category ”Best House Front without a Garden”. 

• We promote interest in, and concern for, the history, geography and civic pride of Usk by arranging a series of lectures in the autumn and winter months (held on the second Wednesday of each month at the Sessions House in Usk).

• We hold social events – a Summer Party and a Christmas Party at which the Environmental Improvement Awards are presented by our President.  Details of social events appear in our Events Diary. 

• We attend Usk Show each September with an exhibition to broadcast and promote our activities and interests.

Current projects and campaigns.

• A silver plaque was unveiled in the library of the Sessions House in Usk by the Mayor of Usk, Councillor Tony Kear, in January 2009, in the presence of the President of Usk Civic Society, The Lord Raglan, Members of Usk Town Council, the President and the Chairman of the Usk and Raglan Branch of the Royal British Legion and members of Usk Civic Society.

  The inscription on the silver plaque reads:

  PRESENTED TO HMS USK BY THE INHABITANTS OF USK, MONMOUTHSHIRE JANUARY 1941
  HM Submarine Usk was a U class submarine that entered service in late 1940 and was subsequently assigned to the First Submarine flotilla based in Malta.  In January 1941 a campaign was launched in Usk to raise £20,000 to buy 10 torpedoes for the boat.  Sadly, it was lost with all 31 hands on or around 29th April 1941 probably off the coast of Cape Bon, Tunisia.  A wreck has never been found but it is believed to have hit a mine as no German or Italian records indicate any anti-submarine activity at the time. HM Usk was one of a batch of 12 U-class submarines ordered at the very start of World War 2.  Losses were very high in this type of vessel and only 3 of HS Usk's sister ships survived the war.   
  LEST WE FORGET

  Information provided by Mr Roger Davies BA ACIB APMP and from 'Usk at War' by Jan Barrow: 2006.  

  Sadly we had forgotten, and it was Mr Davies who was instrumental in rescuing the plaque which had at some point been consigned to the obscurity of a dark corner of the foyer. He had seen the name of the submarine inscribed on a memorial on the Thames embankment and as he had connections with Usk was sufficiently intrigued to do more research. He informed Usk Civic Society who then arranged for the plaque to be re-hung.
   

• The Society published in March 2004 the “Usk Town Trail” with the aid of a grant from Monmouthshire County Council. Prepared by local historian, archaeologist and former Society chairman the late Mr Geoff Mein, and with the layout designed by Ms Angela Bowyer, the 32-page booklet provides an outline of Usk’s history and a guide to some of its interesting buildings. It is illustrated by drawings of some of the town’s notable buildings and contains a map of a route around the town from which the buildings can be enjoyed. The booklet (price £3) is on sale at: Usk Rural Life Museum (New Market Street) and Mandalay Books in Twyn Square. An updated version of the Town Trail is being prepared.
   

• Complementing the “Usk Town Trail”, the society has devised a scheme for the installation of “blue plaques” (in English and Welsh) on many of the buildings or sites of historic interest described in the booklet. The Town Trail is supplemented by a leaflet, the 'Plaque Trail' describing where the plaques are.  With the support and help of a working party including the Rural Life Museum, Town Council and the Vale of Usk Tourist Association, we made a submission in June 2004 to the Monmouthshire County Council and thence to the Welsh Assembly Government for 80% of the funds for their manufacture and installation in 2005 and 2006 (see our newsletter for details of progress with this). By the end of July 2006 we had installed 28 plaques at, for example:

  • Usk Prison (designed by Thomas Henry Wyatt (1807-1880)), built in 1841 on the model of Pentonville;

  • The Sessions House of 1874, also by Wyatt;

  • the location of the Battle of Pwll Melin in 1405;

  • the location of the mediaeval leper hospital until 1403;

  • the two gaols before the prison was built.
     

•  Included in the blue plaque project was the installation of plaques in some of Usk’s pavements to mark the location of some of the town gates (now demolished) and the line of the walls of the first and second forts built by the Romans.

Membership of the Society is open to all. Individual membership is £6 a year; dual membership £10. As a member you will receive the annual newsletter and programme, can come to the autumn/winter talks and will be invited to the summer and Christmas parties. You can help stage the annual exhibition in the Society’s tent at the Usk Agricultural Show. You can raise with the Committee your planning and environmental concerns.

Many members avail themselves of the arrangement for payment by direct debit. For the names and addresses of the Treasurer and Membership Secretary click here.

For the Society’s 2009 Newsletter, click here.

The Society is affiliated to the Civic Trust for Wales, with which it keeps in regular contact through attendance at conferences, bulletins and by contributing to the Trust’s own newsletter.

The Officers of the Society for 2011-12

Ann Morse Chairman Tel: 01291 673233
Rita Evans Treasurer
Kath Collis Secretary Tel: 01291 672774
Angela Bowyer Events Secretary Tel: 01633 430919
Stella Collard Membership Secretary; Penywrwlod, Llantrisant, Usk.  01291 673655