SIR,

I was able to take advantage of the 'Open Doors' project this weekend and for the first time visited the hydro-electric system installed by Mr Kear at the Forge, Osbaston.

I was impressed by the direction signs, the information boards and the video presentation and it brought back some memories. The first was visiting the inside of the original generating plant and seeing the turbines in situ in the floor in the mid-30s.

At a much later date I happened to meet Mr Kegie, the county planning officer, on the site on a Sunday. He asked me if I knew Mr Bond, who owned the factory, and would he be amenable to the suggestion that that the tall chimney stack should be demolished.

It was later demolished, presumably to give the residents of Osbaston a less industrialised view.

For a time I had a Mrs Speak as a neighbour and she was very proud of the fact that she was the daughter of Mr Griffiths, the last owner of the original Forge Works.

She had married an engineer and travelled to South Africa and South America before the First World War. She is buried in Monmouth Cemetery and on her gravestone she is 'nee Griffiths'.

On one Sunday I photographed the Army using the broken weir near the Monnow Mill as a white-water canoeing course and the photograph appeared in the Beacon.

I had put a cat amongst the pigeons as George Haines and the Monmouth Angling Club strongly objected to such activities.

Derek Jones

(Monmouth)