River Gavenny

The River Gavenny or sometimes the Gavenny River (Welsh: Afon Gafenni) is a short river in Monmouthshire in south Wales. It rises 1 mile (1.6 km) southwest of the village of Llanvihangel Crucorney from springs near Penyclawdd Court, supplemented by springs in Blaen-Gavenny Wood and tributary streams there and within the Woodland Trust-owned Great Triley Wood.^[1] It flows south for about 4 miles (6.4 km) to its confluence with the River Usk towards the eastern end of Castle Meadows at Abergavenny. The town derives its English-language name from the Gavenny's confluence ('aber' in Welsh) with the River Usk. Of the buildings on the banks of the river, the Gothic Decorated style church of St Teilo at Llantilio Pertholey (OS grid ref SO 3114 1633) is especially notable. Parts of the church date from the thirteenth century with multiple additions since.^[2] Blaengavenny Farm, the name of which signifies the 'head of the Gavenny', is a sixteenth-century farmhouse near the river's source.^[3]

The diminutive Gavenny is something of a misfit stream in its broad valley. This is due to the deposition of a spectacular terminal moraine at Llanvihangel Crucorney which has diverted the former headwaters of the river eastwards into the Wye catchment. It is believed that the River Honddu which rises in the Black Mountains and possibly also the upper River Monnow formerly flowed in the valley of the Gavenny to join the Usk.^[4]