<P> An 1844 Act of Parliament later abolished several enclaves . One of these, Welsh Bicknor, was an exclave of Monmouthshire between Gloucestershire and Herefordshire . </P> <P> Although Monmouthshire was included in the 16th century legislation, it was treated anomalously, with the result that its legal status as a Welsh county fell into some ambiguity and doubt until the 20th century . It was omitted from the second Act of Union, which established the Court of Great Sessions, and like English shires it was given two Knights of the Shire, rather than one as elsewhere in Wales . However, in ecclesiastical terms, almost all of the county remained within the Diocese of Llandaff, and most of its residents at the time spoke Welsh . In the late 17th century under Charles II it was added to the Oxford circuit of the English Assizes, following which, according to the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, it gradually "came to be regarded as an English county". Under that interpretation, the boundary between England and Wales passed down the Rhymney valley, along Monmouthshire's western borders with Brecknockshire and Glamorgan, so including Newport, and other industrialised parts of what would now generally be considered to be South Wales, within England . </P> <P> The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica unambiguously described the county as part of England, but noted that "whenever an act (...) is intended to apply to (Wales) alone, then Wales is always coupled with Monmouthshire". Some legislation and UK government decisions, such as the establishment of a "Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments in Wales and Monmouthshire" in 1908, referred to "Wales and Monmouthshire", so that it was treated as one with Wales rather than as a legal part of Wales . The county's status continued to be a matter of debate in Parliament, especially as Welsh nationalism and devolution climbed the political agenda in the 20th century . In 1921 the area was included within the Church in Wales . The Welsh Office, established in 1966, included Monmouthshire within its remit, and in 1969 George Thomas, Secretary of State for Wales, proposed to fully incorporate Monmouthshire into Wales . The issue was finally clarified in law by the Local Government Act 1972, which provided that "in every act passed on or after 1 April 1974, and in every instrument made on or after that date under any enactment (whether before, on or after that date) "Wales", subject to any alterations of boundaries ..." included "the administrative county of Monmouthshire and the county borough of Newport". The legal boundary between England and Wales therefore passes along Monmouthshire's eastern boundaries with Herefordshire and Gloucestershire, essentially along the River Monnow and River Wye . </P> <P> The first legislation applying solely to Wales since the 16th century was passed in 1881 . Subsequently, the border between England and Wales has taken on increasing legal and political significance . In 1964 a separate department of state was established for Wales--the Welsh Office--which assumed an increasing range of administrative responsibilities from Whitehall . By 1992, the Welsh Office oversaw housing, local government, roads, historic buildings, health, education, economic development, agriculture, fisheries and urban regeneration, although the extent to which it was able to be autonomous from England in public policy is a matter of debate . </P>

What is the border area called between england and wales