Loud music in the early hours of Sunday morning could be heard in woods in the Maryland area of the Narth as residents were woken up to the sounds of an illegal rave.

Resident Branwen Griffiths who lives in Maryland said she heard it starting sometime “between midnight and 1 am and could hear a sound system playing rave/dance music. “It's difficult to be totally sure of where it is, but I think in one of the car parks on Beacons Road.”

A resident who went to investigate said he saw two pick ups and a Volkswagen van parked up at one of the car parks.

Another resident rang the police twice at 1am and 4am while it was still ongoing. But apparently the police “couldn’t hear anything”.

Another resident went to investigate in the early hours of Sunday morning and said there was something happening “at the top of Beacon” and spotted “lots of cars there”.

As he began to take pictures, the revellers began to leave at around 7am.

Speaking to some of them, he said they had “travelled from Oxford for the occasion”.

One man said it was no worse than a lawnmower on a Sunday morning and they had left less mess after some recent tree felling in the woods.

But others responded saying that it's not just the noise, it is the “drug paraphernalia and human faeces that they leave behind, without any respect for anyone else and the wildlife they disturb”, while another pointed out that people don’t mow their lawn in the middle of the night.

A spokesman for Gwent Police said: “We received a report of a large gathering taking place at Manor Brook Woods near Monmouth at around 12:45 am on Sunday 22nd of February.

Officers attended the scene and facilitated the eventual dispersal of all persons present.