Chapel-Hill
CHAPEL-HILL, a parish, in the union and division of Chepstow, hundred of Raglan, county of Monmouth, 5 miles (N.) from Chepstow; containing 521 inhabitants, several of whom are employed in the manufacture of iron wire. This parish, consisting of 820 acres, is romantically situated on the right bank of the Wye, in a district abounding with richly varied and beautiful scenery. It contains the venerable and stately remains of Tintern Abbey, founded for Cistercian monks by Walter de Clare, in 1141, and dedicated to St. Mary: at the Dissolution, the revenue was estimated at £256. 11. 6., and the site was granted to the Earl of Worcester, from whom it has descended to the Duke of Beaufort. The remains consist principally of the walls of the abbey church, which are almost entire, and richly mantled with ivy; and the exterior of the building, though defaced by mean cottages built with the materials of the abbey, forms a striking object as seen from the opposite bank of the river. The clustered columns, of light and graceful proportion, which separated the south aisle from the nave, and the sharply pointed arches that supported the roof, are yet entire; and those of loftier elevation which sustained the central tower, though dilapidated, still retain their grandeur of effect. The ranges of pillars and arches in the transepts are also in good preservation. The east window, which occupies nearly the whole of the end of the choir, is beautifully enriched with tracery; and the interior generally, from the beauty of the style (the early English in its richest state, merging into the decorated), the symmetry of its parts, the harmony of its arrangement, and the richness and elegance of its details, is unsurpassed by any specimen in the kingdom. The living is a perpetual curacy; net income, £60; patron and impropriator, the Duke of Beaufort.
Transcribed from A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858.