ABERGAVENNY is a town full of Mayors present, past, and in the making. In fact we produce so many of the first citizen stock, we’ve even exported them to other towns and cities.

Take Mike Kidley for example. Mike was a native son of Abergavenny but has ended up wearing the ceremonial robe as Mayor of another market town across the border.

Mike left Abergavenny to join the RAF in 1961 and when he left the service in 1966, he settled down in Oxfordshire and married a local lass called Christine.

He’s been there ever since, And after eight years as an independent on Wallingford Council, he was asked this May to step up and become the Mayor of Wallingford - which he did with honour.

The 75-year-old explained, “Although I no longer live there, I visit Abergavenny all the time. The area will always have a special place in my heart. My parents are buried in Llanvihangel Crucorney, and my sister Mary Williams still lives in the Mardy.

“The old town has changed a lot over the years but it remains very special and completely unique.”

Of course, Mike is following in a proud local tradition. In 1846 a 15-year-old local lad called Walter Morgan left sleepy Abergavenny for the big smoke, and in 1905 became Lord Mayor of London.

As Mike and Walter have poignantly proved, it’s not where you’re from it’s where you’re at.