Life in the quaint market town named the best place to live in Wales
Abergavenny is a thriving town with a thriving food scene aided by its varied and relatively wealthy population. Jonathon Hill reports
WHEN Erin and James Gaitskell decided to cash in on their Hampshire home, they could have downsized to hundreds of towns across the UK. Erin, who left work to teach and look after her three children, and James, a sales director who was based in London but has been able to predominantly work from home since Covid, could be forgiven for feeling rather smug now, because they have not only saved a lot of money but they settled on a thriving rural town just named the best place to live in Wales.
Speaking to the young couple from their home on Clifton Road in Abergavenny in Monmouthshire, it feels silly to ask why they moved here. The town, which won the accolade in the Sunday Times Best Places to Live Guide last weekend, is famed for its food – the worldrenowned food festival has been going for 26 years – and scenery. Erin points to the imposing Blorenge mountain, one of Abergavenny’s three peaks.
“When you can take the kids out to play in the snow on that, it’s a no-brainer,” she smiles.
Their children are nine, seven and five and are all flexi-schooled – attending a nearby private school two days a week with the money saved from their move. For the other three days Erin takes them out exploring. James travels to London for meetings once or twice a fortnight.
“The children love being outdoors in the mountains and that was the big thing,” says Erin, explaining the attraction of the area, which also boasts two other impressive mountains – the Skirrid and the Sugar Loaf. “They love the water here. We go down to the stream and you can see straight to the bottom. In the summer we take the inflatables and have a great time down there.”
The couple are one of hundreds of families who have poured into the area in recent years, including Connie and David Orbach, who run
Shepherds Ice Cream Parlour in the town using milk from their farm. It is one of an embarrassment of riches of independent gems that fill the high street.
“It’s really convenient having everything within walking distance and it’s so easy to get to Cardiff and Bristol,” Connie says. “I love being able to walk straight out of my house and on to the Sugar Loaf. But I also love the fact this is a place where it’s easy to meet people and make connections. There are a lot of nice people here who are up for doing things.”
Taking your children out of school and moving to a different country seems a huge step.
Erin responds: “Yeah, but my eldest hadn’t been coping well with school for some time. We’d already decided we were taking them out of school. They were in school until Covid and my eldest daughter wasn’t enjoying it at all. She was fine with it academically but it was the whole structure of school. When Covid happened it was like we got our little girl back. We decided we just couldn’t put her back in that situation and she’s been developing brilliantly ever since.”
Brychan Todd, of local estate agents Christie’s Residential, says the town has seen an influx of young families since the pandemic – although the average age according to the latest census was still one of Wales’ highest at 49.
“In many ways Abergavenny presents a better balance for some and that balance is appealing to more and more people now,” says Brychan on why so many people want to move here despite a relatively high average house price of £318,000.
“When you come to Abergavenny and you drive down the A44, suddenly everything opens up and you can see those three peaks, it’s fantastic. It’s a beautiful part of the world but it’s also incredibly well-connected with the M4 and the train station. That means people can work a couple of days a week in the office in London or Bristol or wherever. The home-working age has been huge for Abergavenny.”
The town also has its own hospital and a local comprehensive school that is getting ready to expand into a 3-19 all-through school in September.
Erin and her children have not long returned from a day out at the old station at Tintern, a 45-minute drive away, where the children have learned about Second World War evacuees as part of a local flexi and homeschooling group Erin recently joined and which is growing. In Wales more than 5,300 children are now not being taught in school – the highest number on record.
“Every day is different,” Erin adds. “Everyone is nicer here – that is actually a thing. People are more chilled and it’s much more child-friendly than where we’ve been before. We go to the market and the kids are curious and asking questions and running around and no-one is fazed by it. We’ve got an allotment too which we’re teaching them how to clear and grow on.”
In nearby Llanvapley, 99-year-old Doris Evans knows all about evacuees. She was one in the early 1940s.
“I’ve gone through it all,” Doris, the village’s oldest person who puts her longevity down to an afternoon nap and a glass of red a day, tells Leah Tod, landlady at the recently reopened Red Hart Llanvapley pub, which had been closed since 2004 and had 200 people attend its reopening night.
“There are still worries all over the world, and we’re lucky that here we have peace and quiet and we can carry on and get on with our lives the best we can. People in Abergavenny are very friendly people.”
Looking out on to her two acres where her ponies graze at the back of the pub, which dates back to the 19th century, Leah explains how she ended up here. “I wanted a quiet spot where we could enjoy the scenery and have space for the horses and our Jack Russells, and I wanted to turn it back into a pub. Within 10 days of moving in, we’d managed to get a special licence and transformed what was the lounge into a bar area. We were open very quickly for the Christmas period, although we were a bit nervous no-one would turn up. It turned out 200 people crammed in here. Doris came to our opening night and was one of our special guests. She’s known the pub all her life. We didn’t know anyone in the village, so it was emotional to see that many people turned out for us and we’ve had tremendous support ever since.”
“The town works brilliantly because it isn’t a picture-perfect chocolate box like other market towns in the UK,” Brychan explains. “It’s got a very healthy mix of housing stock. It has allowed for a small but varied population with different interests and that makes for a thriving town centre.”
In the town’s heart is the popular and diverse market that first opened here in the 13th century. It’s open four days most weeks and has a flea market on a Wednesday and a night market – wellliked by younger folk – on the last Thursday of the month.
Greengrocers June and Steve Phillips have been lugging their Danish trolleys to Market Hall at dawn here for more than 40 years. It takes them a couple of hours to set up before customers come pouring in.
Once full of spuds and carrots, their trolleys are now packed with produce from chard and kale to grow-your-own plants partly grown in Steve’s
polytunnel and on his one-and-a-half acres in nearby Pandy. June says they’re now in demand more than ever, partly thanks to an obsession with superfoods which has caught them by surprise.
She explains: “Particularly on a Saturday, probably 30% of our customers are the younger generation. They aren’t coming to us because they always have, they’re coming because they’re more aware of where their food comes from now and they want quality, nutritious choices, and many of them want to grow their own food. We do a lot of chard, kale, spinach – there’s a huge appetite for it. They are all things I don’t ever remember people really wanting, but now they’ve got into it a lot.”
The thriving market is accompanied by a high street packed with coffee shops and eateries. It’s a town which has adapted effectively to what its locals and visitors want. “It’s cafe culture done right,” June says. “People come here to enjoy eating out and getting together. Coming to Abergavenny is an experience.”
Husband and wife Jon Mahoney and Suanlian Goh aren’t frustrated by the competition – they are grateful for it. “It keeps you on your toes,” Jon says from the couple’s Little Singapore In Abergavenny truck situated in the market’s far corner. “It keeps you on your toes. We keep each other’s quality high and we help each other wherever we can. That’s what makes Abergavenny what it is. People come here from across the UK because it’s the best place to come for food and drink.”
The couple quit their old careers as a plumber and an acupuncturist to sell meals inspired by Suanlian’s homeland of Singapore. Their leap of faith has paid off and then some. “Suanlian had a practice in Cardiff that did herbal medicine and acupuncture and I went there for treatment. Then we ended up getting married,” Jon recalls with a laugh while preparing for the pending rush at lunchtime. “She’s always liked cooking and she had grown bored. We’d moved away from Cardiff and she was no longer practising acupuncture. We first started cooking meals and selling them to neighbours at the start of lockdown and it’s grown from there. At our age it was a bit of a risk, but we’re used to taking risks and it’s gone really well. It’s a new chapter in our lives we’re enjoying very much because the market is brilliant, as is Abergavenny. It’s a very diverse market with lots of different traders that change most days. There’s live music and Djing usually on the last Thursday of the month, which attracts a younger crowd, and that’s helped us a lot. We’re fortunate here because Abergavenny does have a younger crowd too, and we rely on younger people because they’re more inclined to try our food. They’re also very interested in buying out-of-the-ordinary things from the shelf.”
Emma Lewis moved her vinyls here from Monmouth to save on her overheads. A year on, she says it’s the best decision she’s ever made.
“I’m pleased I did it. This is the best market in Wales to me and is the best town in Wales. I’ve got limited overheads, I’m selling the records – especially on Wednesdays during the flea market and it’s predominantly antiques and vintage. The summers are especially good because it’s the sort of thing tourists are more likely to buy, and we get a lot of tourists here.”
The town might also win recognition for most nosey neighbours, because it boasts what is surely one of the busiest Facebook community groups in the UK. Abergavenny Voice has almost three times as many members as the town’s 13,500-strong population. It was created by Craig Titchener and his friend in 2014, ironically in the hope it would prove the locals’ keenness for a Mcdonald’s, which was eventually approved.
“In 2016 the Abergavenny branch opened its doors and as our group had grown to more than 2,000 members it seemed a shame to close it just because it had succeeded in what it set out to achieve,” Craig says. “Through the growth of the group I’ve met some amazing people, which I think if it wasn’t for Abergavenny Voice our paths wouldn’t have crossed. From local tradesmen and business owners to volunteers, councillors and even the mayor, I’ve met amazing people who have restored my faith in human kindness.
“I have learned so much about Abergavenny from the group. This led me to becoming part of Abergavenny Lido Group [a community group which has long campaigned for the reopening of an open-air lido in Bailey Park], as well as delving into the rumoured maze of tunnels under Abergavenny. Over the years I’ve been asked to share someone’s good news as well as sad news. On these occasions the community has come together sharing congratulations and condolences. They are times when I’m reminded how important the group is.”
Julian Edwards, known locally as the spud detective because his baked potato stall doubles up as Abergavenny’s informal lost property point, knows all about the power of community spirit.
“The other day someone handed in a wallet and it had two and a half grand in it,” he laughs.
With the help of his own strong following on social media, he has raised £30,000 worth of medical aid for Ukrainians following Russia’s invasion in 2022, as well as for Turks following the Turkey-syria earthquake last year.
Previously owned by Pete the Spud for more than 30 years, the business has always been known as Tasty Tatoes and has used the same supplier – a local farmer – for 43 years.
“I wanted an easier life, to be honest,” says Julian, explaining why he gave up his old career, predominantly in logistics, which took him around the world. “I hit a wall where I realised I wanted something less stressful and I haven’t looked back.”
By 12pm there’s usually a long queue. “You get people travelling from all over, I even had a couple from Australia who had Abergavenny on their bucket list. That’s what it’s all about. Thousands of people walk past me every day and I try and say, ‘Hello’ and ‘How are you?’ to every one of them. You’d be surprised how many stop for a chat and share their happiness or their problems. I’ll have a chat with people and try and point them in the right direction. That’s what we do here.”
The other day someone handed in a wallet and it had two and a half grand in it