History
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There was considerable activity in the area during the Bronze Age. Excavations near the Nedern Brook beside the castle revealed a plank from a boat and complex wooden structures in the former river bed. The boat probably traded across the Severn with the farmers and traders of Somerset. Later, in Roman times, it is likely that trading vessels sailed up the Nedern Brook to Caerwent. The discovery of kilns also shows that coarse pottery was produced in the village during Roman times.
The name 'Caldicot' is usually stated to derive from the Old English phrase calde cot meaning 'cold hut'. A cold hut is an exposed shelter used by either humans or animals. The modern Welsh name, Cil-y-coed, meaning "corner of the wood", referring to Wentwood, was proposed by the 19th-century lexicographer William Owen Pughe as the origin of the English name, but his hypothesis has been discredited. The modern use of this form has been described as a "very recent innovation".
In 1074, following the Norman Conquest, the manor of Caldicot was given to Durand, the Sheriff of Gloucester. Caldicot was recorded in Gloucestershire by the Domesday Book in 1086. Its entry reads, Durand the Sheriff holds of the King, one land, in Caerwent, called Caldicot. He has in demesne there 3 ploughs, and 15 half villeins, and 4 bondmen, and one knight. All these have twelve ploughs. There is a mill worth ten shillings.
One of the oldest buildings in Caldicot, Llanthony Secunda Manor, was built around 1120 as a grange for monks from Llanthony Secunda Priory in Gloucester.
Caldicot Castle
In 1158 the manor of Caldicot passed to Humphrey II de Bohun, who was responsible for building the stone keep and curtain walls of the present-day castle. In 1376 it passed to Thomas of Woodstock, fifth son of King Edward III, when he married Eleanor de Bohun. It began to fall into ruins around the 16th century.
Caldicot is one of the few villages to appear on the Cambriae Typus map of 1573.
By the mid-19th century, Caldicot was a small farming village. However, the opening of the South Wales Railway brought London and Cardiff within relatively easy reach (although Caldicot station itself was not opened until 1936). The railway attracted industry, and 1862 Henry Hughes of Tintern opened a wireworks next to the railway, becoming the village's major employer and attracting many new workers. In 1880 it became a tinplate works for the canning industry. In 1879 work began on the Severn Tunnel, which was opened in 1886. Its construction brought hundreds of workers to Caldicot, roughly doubling its population.
Court House was the home of the baker Henry Jones, the inventor of self-raising flour, from 1864 until his death in 1891. He is buried in the churchyard.
During the first half of the 20th century, Caldicot continued to grow steadily, but unspectacularly, reaching a population of 1,770 in 1951. Early in the 1950s, however, Chepstow Rural District Council decided that the village should be allowed to expand to approximately 3,000. Shortly after this decision, the government decided to build a new steelworks at Llanwern. Caldicot was designated as a suitable home for the thousands of steelworkers, and expansion plans were revised upwards. Llanwern steelworks opened in 1962, and by the end of the decade Caldicot had over 7,000 residents.
The growth of the community was furthered by the opening of the Severn Bridge in 1966. With Caldicot now being part of the "M4 corridor" new businesses, such as the telecommunication company Mitel, came to the town, compensating for the contraction of the steel industry and the railways.
