River Wye William Sandys in the early 1660s with locks to enable vessels to pass weirs. According to Herefordshire Council Archaeology, these were flash locks. The work proved to be insufficiently substantial and in 1696 a further Act of Parliament authorised the County of Hereford to buy up and demolish the mills on the Wye and Lugg. All locks and weirs were removed, except that at New Weir forge below Goodrich, which survived until about 1815. This was paid for by a tax on the county. Weirs were removed all along the Wye in Herefordshire, making the river passable to the western
Newbridge-on-Wye to areas in the south. Newbridge-on-Wye was historically a stop off point for drovers, who moved livestock from place to place. Newbridge-on-Wye proved to be an ideal location for drovers to stop and rest because it afforded a safe crossing-point on the river Wye. This led to a settlement forming, including a large number of pubs. This fact is celebrated by the statue of a drover on the village green. Newbridge-on-Wye also sited a railway station on the Mid-Wales Railway, until its closure on December 31, 1962. The site of the station is now occupied by a housing estate, although