Evans' painting shows the quayside below Wye bridge at some time in the late nineteenth century. The large warehouse on the quayside to the left of the picture is the bark house, where local oak bark was processed and stored before being carried downriver.

Evans was born in 1854, and he undoubtedly witnessed the declining years of Monmouth's river trade. Whether he personally saw all the things he includes in his paintings is doubtful: he may have used information from earlier pictures, or from the descriptions of older people. Nevertheless, this painting includes fascinating detail about the bridge. The bowhauliers are just visible on the bank and in the shallows beyond the vessel.