Evidence for a pre-Norman structure at Monmouth

The Norman new town of Monmouth was laid out in the eleventh century over a layer of plough soil similar to the `dark earth' found elsewhere. A large wooden structure lying a little way distant also stands on top of this layer but, it is argued, to be pre-Norman in date. The building, aligned to the Roman rather than to the Norman, street plan could have been part of a previously unrecognised Saxon burgh or alternatively it may have a Celtic origin.