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Between Caldicot and Uskmouth and
then again between Duffryn and eastern Cardiff the landscape is
more akin to the Netherlands than most people's perception of
south Wales. The Caldicot and Wentloog Levels comprise
two areas of low-lying
alluvial
wetland and
intertidal
mudflats either side of the
River
Usk
estuary at
Newport.
The Caldicot Level lies to the southeast of Newport between the River Usk and River Wye and consists of 17,500 acres. It is home to Newport Wetlands Reserve.The Wentloog Level lies to the southwest between the River Usk and River Rhymney and consists of 8,500 acres.
The levels are extremely rich
archaeologically, with finds from the
Mesolithic,
Bronze
Age and
Iron
Age periods. One of the most significant finds
was of a 3rd century
Romano-British boat found near
Magor.
A large number of
Anglo-Norman sites including
castles, churches, court houses,
manor
houses, moated sites and
watermills show near-continuous occupation
throughout the
Middle
Ages.
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The levels are entirely man-made, having
been reclaimed from the
Severn Estuary
since
Roman
times. As such, the levels are criss-crossed by artificial drainage
channels, known locally as 'reens'
managed by the Caldicot and Wentlooge Levels
Internal Drainage
Board. Spelt RHYNE in England and REEN in Wales, a more
common description would be a ditch. Reens have several purposes. In
addition to their primary function of conveying water, they also act as
storage for a dual purpose.
The reen system on the Caldicot & Wentlooge
levels (or any other level) has the primary function of moving water "from
field to sea" during the wettest months of the year. Without this system,
thousands of acres of prime agricultural land, homes and business would be
flooded on a yearly basis.
The extensive saltmarshes that fringe the south coast of Newport were first
drained during Roman times, probably by legionaries based at the fortress at
Caerleon, to increase the area of good agricultural land. The remarkable
pattern of long narrow fields created by drainage ditches on the Levels near
Newport was first recognised in the 1980s, but it was only through recent
excavations that a Roman date was firmly established. The ditches were found
to extend into the inter-tidal zone of the Severn Estuary, where they
contained stratified Roman pottery and animal bones, dating the system as a
whole. What makes this landscape of great importance is that it is still in
use today, probably the only example of an intact Roman drainage system in
Britain. during the post-Roman period most of the Levels were flooded, apart
from the area near Cardiff where the Roman drainage system remained in use.
However, because of the potential fertility of the soil, the Levels were
soon re-enclosed by sea walls to prevent further tidal flooding.
Following the Norman conquest of southern Wales, the `Marcher' lords started
settling their newly acquired estates, including the Levels, with English
tenants. In south-west Wales, the English often made use of Flemish
entrepreneurs to create new villages. In the Levels, there is no direct
evidence for Dutch or Flemish involvement, but one planned village, Whitson,
does show similarities with a system of reclamation used in Holland, known
as the `cope'. In this system, farms were laid out in a single line on
slightly elevated land, with the tenement plots stretching out, in a
distinctive manner, in long strips towards the lower ground.
A 1995 CADW study has shown that different landlords exploited their estates
in different ways. In the east, towards Chepstow, there was a pattern of
nucleated settlements around small village greens, surrounded by open
fields, as at Redwick. This area was in English hands; and it contrasts
sharply with the dispersed settlements and enclosed fields seen to the west,
south of Newport, which was held by Welsh lords. Large areas were granted to
monastic houses, such as Goldcliff Priory and Tintern Abbey; and they too
managed their estates in ways that can still be discerned in the landscape.
Goldcliff established two planned villages, but largely seems to have
allowed its existing tenants to manage their land as they pleased. Tintern,
on the other hand, managed its estates directly, with each block of land
containing a single farm. The Black Death hit south-east Wales hard, with
certain manors almost totally depopulated. From the 14th century, the
coastline also suffered severe erosion, leading to the sea wall having to be
set back several hundred metres - the present wall cuts through earlier
fields which must once have extended further out to sea. The increasingly
wet climate would have made the heavy soils more difficult to plough, but
with some of the most fertile agricultural land in the region, the Levels
were not abandoned. The communities there specialised in pastoralism, taking
advantage of their proximity to the expanding market and port of Bristol.
Thus, while many settlements on the adjacent uplands were deserted,
communities on the Levels continued to flourish.
The last major phase in the creation of the present landscape was the
enclosure of the commons and open fields in the 19th century. However, by
that time, more destructive processes had begun, as the industrial and urban
areas of Newport and Cardiff spread onto the Levels.