Cross Ash

Cross Ash is a village in Monmouthshire, south east Wales. It is located on the B4521 road between Abergavenny and Skenfrith, some six miles north east of Abergavenny. The Welsh name for Cross Ash is Croesonnen, although it is not currently in official use.

Cross Ash
Old Post Office in Cross Ash
Cross Ash Location within Monmouthshire
OS grid reference	SO407197
Principal area	Monmouthshire
Preserved county	Gwent
Country	Wales
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	ABERGAVENNY
Postcode district	NP7
Dialling code	01873
Police	Gwent
Fire	South Wales
Ambulance	Welsh
UK Parliament	Monmouth
List of places UK Wales Monmouthshire 51.872994°N 2.863312°W / 51.872994; -2.863312

Setting

Cross Ash is situated in a rural part of north-east Monmouthshire. The village is located on the southern foothills of Graig Syfyrddin, where several country lanes converge on the B4521 road. It is virtually equidistant between the 'three castles of Gwent', White Castle, Skenfrith Castle and Grosmont Castle.^[1]

History and amenities

Cross Ash has a primary school which serves an expansive rural area.^[2] Next door to the school is a village hall which serves as the venue for the annual Cross Ash Show and Fun Day.^[3] There was formerly a post office and petrol station in the village however both are now closed.

Welsh name

The Welsh name is recorded in the form Croesonen on Charles Bugden's 1813 map of the area, referring to what is now Cross Ash Farm.^[4] It contains the common Welsh words croes 'cross' and onnen 'ash tree' and, like Cross Ash, means 'the cross of the ash tree'.

In 2004 the name, in the form Croes Onnen,^[5] was added to the road signs for the village. This was opposed by campaigners who suggested it had no historical basis and who claimed there had been no consultation with local people.^[6] The Welsh name was removed from the local road signs in 2011.^[7][8]

Cross Ash Primary school uses 'Ysgol Gynradd Croes Onnen' as its Welsh name, as seen on signage erected in 2021.^[9]

References

1. David Walker, Medieval Wales, Cambridge University Press, 1990, p.144
2. "Cross Ash School". Crossash.monmouthshire.sch.uk. Archived from the original on 2 February 2012. Retrieved 7 September 2012.
3. "Cross Ash Show and Fun Day". www.grosmont.org.
4. Bugden, Charles (1813). "1st ed OS 1" to mile Usk". British Library. Retrieved 3 February 2024.
5. In normal Welsh usage, the names of settlements are written as one word in order to differentiate between them and topographical features. So a village name would normally be one word (e.g. Croesonnen) while the name of a feature such as a junction of roads would be two words (e.g. Croes Onnen). Welsh Language Commissioner. "Guidelines for Standardising Place-names in Wales". Retrieved 2 February 2024.
6. Brendan Hughes (1 June 2011). "Villages' Welsh names painted out by council". Western Mail. Retrieved 1 June 2011.
7. "Rockfield and Cross Ash signs have Welsh names removed". 1 June 2011. BBC News. 1 June 2011. Retrieved 1 June 2011.
8. James, Eleri Hedd (2022). "Sign of the Times: Onomastics and Language Policy in Wales". In McLeod, Wilson; Dunbar, Robert; Jones, Kathryn; Walsh, John (eds.). Language, Policy and Territory: A Festschrift for Colin H. Williams. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 190. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-94346-2. ISBN 978-3-030-94345-5. OCLC 1336402969.
9. Cross Ash Primary School (6 September 2021). "@CrossAshPrimary". Twitter.

External links

• the Village Alive Trust - details of the locality including Cross Ash
• Map sources for Cross Ash