to the best of my knowledge the Certs are only available as copies from General Register Office ( unless another family member / researcher has a copy)

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentcitizensandrights/Registeringlifeevents/Familyhis...

For the date you are interested the Chepstow district covered parts of Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire -

the Monmouthshire records "should be" held :-

http://www.torfaen.gov.uk/CommunityAndLiving/GwentRecordsOffice/Home.aspx

and the Lydney / Gloucestershire records from the old Chepstow district

may now have moved to the "Forest of Dean"
The Register Office, Belle Vue Centre, 6 Belle Vue Road, Cinderford, GL14 2AB.
Tel: 01594 822113. Fax: 01594 826352.
E-mail: forestofdean.ro AT gloucestershire.gov.uk

--
Ἀριστοτέλης A Gloster & Hereford Boy in the Forest of Dean ><((((*>

Hi Julie
You can usually obtain birth or death certificates from the local Register Office covering the area where the event occurred.
Better to get marriage certificates from GRO direct unless you know the precise building; most RO's have their churches indexed individually rather than a composite index for the whole area, and indeed some churches still have their 1837 marriage registers in current use in which case they would provide you with one (The local RO will advise you as to who holds the register for a particular church).
Good hunting!
Celia

Hi again, Julie et al
I hope this will clarify the certificate queries.

The original completed registers for entries of births and deaths for a district are held by the local Register Office in the custody of the Superintendent Registrar along with the original civil marriage registers for their district plus completed registers from churches within the district. The Registrars for the district hold the registers in current use, which are passed to the SR one month after they are completed.

Every quarter, ending 31st March, 30th June, 30th September and 31st December of each year, the Registrars are required by statute to send returns of the births deaths and marriages they have recorded during this period to the General Register Office, along with similar marriage returns from clergy, authorized persons for other denominations, Secretaries of synagogues, and Quakers. A good proportion of these were (and from the churches, still are) handwritten or typed, as this was their only method of copying.

All certificates, whether from the local Register Office (even those issued at the time of the event), GRO, or the local church are certified copies of either the original Register or the “Quarterly copy” sent to GRO, and will bear the prescribed words “Certified to be a true copy….” whichever source it comes from. Copies produced by GRO are taken from photographic film of the Quarterly copy returns.

There are different methods of reproducing register entries onto the certificates depending on the facilities available locally and whether or not the entries will produce a photographic copy.

Computerisation of birth, death, and civil partnership registrations in recent years has made a difference to the method of sending Quarterly copies to GRO, but the statutory Quarterly copy process still stands.
Lots more I could write, but this is getting rather long!

Cheers, Celia