For five hundred years until 1850, Caldicot was a sleepy village dominated by a church and ruined castle. The village was was well established after a turbulent past of Bronze Age shipping, Iron Age forts, a Roman town, Norman invasion and the Black Death. It even has an entry in the Domesday Book:

"Durand the Sheriff holds of the King one land in Caerwent called Caldicot. He has in the demesne three ploughs and fifteen villeins, four serfs and one man-at-arms. All these have twelve ploughs. Here is a mill of 10 shillings."

The tranquility of 1850 was shattered by the coming of the Iron Horse. By the end of the century, a rail tunnel had been built under the River Severn and marshalling yards were situated nearby. The Caldicot area had become an important link between South Wales and England.

The establishment of a wireworks followed by a tinplate works brought in a little industry, and Caldicot's population doubled to over 1,000 - and no longer were all the men engaged in agricultural pursuits.

Still a village, albeit a rather large one, a further upheaval occurred in 1962 - a steelworks was opened in Llanwern. Caldicot was designated as a dormitory town for the workers. Within the intervening years, its population has risen to 11,000, with a spillover of 3,000 in neighbouring villages.

Now one of the biggest towns in Monmouthshire, Caldicot lacks some of the quaintness associated with the older market towns of Chepstow, Abergavenny and Monmouth.

Industry is fickle - and much of the Llanwern steelworks have now closed. However, with the opening of a motorway, the Severn Bridge and the second bridge crossing, Caldicot is now part of the M4 corridor. Other industries have sprung up in the region, such as Mitel Telecom and the brewery at Magor.

The de Bohun family, which produced successive Lords of Caldicot in the 13th and 14th century, had the image of a swan on their coat of arms. The swan is also depicted on Caldicot's official crest together with the church, castle and industry - thus creating a link between the past and present.

This year for the first time in thirty years, a pair of swans (see main image above) successfully reared a brood of six cygnets in the pond behind the castle - a living link to the town's history.