Argoed Memories
In 1978 we advertised the Church Fête in the Newsletter: 3pm in the grounds of the Argoed, by kind invitation of Mrs M Brown and Miss F Hunt. We think this was the year it rained and everything had to be transferred to the ancient stables – a stall for each stall. It had the air of a middle-eastern souk! Mrs Brown and her sister Miss Hunt, who cared for the Argoed in the absence of Mrs Brown’s daughter and son-in-law, now live in Monmouth. At the Argoed they occupied two very pleasant rooms (with George Bernard Shaw’s view) over the old tack room which had been converted into a kitchen. They remember, like Major Probert, struggles with plumbing and flooding – not easy for two ladies to deal with – and with the grounds, nice as it was to have a gazebo and ha-ha!
A year or so later at the Argoed Coach House (by kind invitation of Mr and Mrs Godfrey Pudge) we were again driven in by rain, this time to the modern stables…they were more the style of up-to-date boutiques! We have memories of the Pudges’ sojourn at the Argoed Coach House, with the building of the stables and the extremely well tended look of the grounds.
How good it is that so many newcomers to the parish are helping to conserve the old, and those in newer homes too are willing to help with the fête and the conservation of our churches and all they stand for.
[from: Penallt – A Village Miscellany]