A NEW book marking the ill-fated attempt to make Chepstow a centre for ship-building has been published – some 100 years after the scandal that made national headlines.

The book, Shipyards, Scandal and Pigstyes has been written by Guy Hamilton for the Chepstow Society.

It chronicles the establishment in 1915 of a shipyard to help the war-effort, its nationalisation two years later and the scandal over the costs involved.

The book also describes the construction of the houses for shipyard workers in Garden City and Bulwark which were the ‘pig-styes’, as a councillor described them, of the title.

Mr Hamilton said: “The local newspaper had a headline predicting Chepstow would be ‘A City of Ships’ but the project became a national scandal.

“The war ended before the initiative could succeed.”

The 28-page book is available from Chepstow Bookshop in St Mary Street and Chepstow Tourist Information Centre in Bridge Street.