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Welcome to
Llanvair Discoed
The Winter Solstice brought a fresh look to the
village with an unexpected snowfall! Some hardy villagers climbed to
the top of Gray Hill to see in the sunrise
and were rewarded with spectacular views. Since then it has, of course snowed much
more and to see all the pictures, please click on the
pictures below or visit the Gallery
.
 
If you have any photographs you would like to share
with everyone, please email
- all contributions are welcome.
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Llanvair Discoed (Welsh: Llanfair Is Coed) is a small
village in Monmouthshire,
south-east Wales, between Chepstow and Newport.
The village is mentioned in the Domesday
Book of 1086 as 'Lamecare'. The name
means Mary's (Mair > Fair)
church (llan) under (is) the wood (coed). The
'd' at the start of Discoed only appears in more recent versions of
the name. The correct Welsh language name is Llanfair Is Coed or
Llanfair-iscoed. The wood refers to Wentwood, which at the time
of the Kingdom of
Gwent separated the cantref of Gwent Is Coed ("this side of the
wood", as envisaged from Caerwent), from that of Gwent Uwch Coed
("beyond the wood").
The village contains a small ruined castle, believed to have been built by the FitzPayn
family, as lords of Llanvair Discoed, in the 13th century. The ruins
of the castle are now situated within the boundaries of a private
property. The last resident of the castle was a member of the Kemeys family who died
defending Chepstow Castle. The Kemeys family owned and managed a lot of
the land around the area, explaining why so many places have 'Kemeys' in
the name. If you would like to know more about Llanvair
Castle and other Welsh castles click here.
Llanvair Discoed is a popular village and most residents
have lived here for many years. The centre of
village life is St Mary's Church
and The Woodlands
Tavern.
Immediately to the north of the village is Gray
Hill
with its standing stones
and medieval village. From the 900ft (273m) summit there are
wonderful views of the Severn Estuary, Wentwood Reservoir and
the surrounding countryside.
Thank you
to Gwyn Lewis, a former resident of the village for much of the
information listed on the History
page.
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