Situated on a attractive stretch of the Wye, Redbrook was an important industrial centre thanks to an ample supply of water power which ran down the valley and surrounding hills to the river. From Swan Pool down to the Wye, a number of leats, dams and reservoir ponds were created with many industrial sites including mills, an iron furnace, tinplate works and copper works. The oldest site is the King's Mill, which was a corn mill fist recorded in 1434 and remained in use until 1925. Though destroyed by fire some ruins and the wheel pit can still be seen by the road leading up the valley (following the track of the 812 Monmouth & Coleford Tramway).

The Redbrook Copper Works was established c1960 using ore brought from Cornwall via Chepstow and worked until 1740 when it closed down and the buildings leased for the manufacturer of tinplate. The tinplate factory, run by the Redbrook Tinplate Co., was world famous for the high quality product it made and did not close until 1962. Today the manager's residence, dating from c1700, still survives (as private houses) but of the other buildings little now remains. Redbrook was also a port where the various products of the local industries were shipped out and the quay, though overgrown, still survives, along with a stone warehouse and a tram-road which linked the industrial works to this building can still be made out.

The most obvious feature at Redbrook is the wooden pedestrian bridge which once carried the Wye Valley railway across the river and now forms part of the Wye Valley Path.The railway was opened in 1876 to connect Monmouth to the South Wales line and did not close until 1964. On the opposite side of the river by the bridge is The Boat Inn, which originated as a hostelry for river watermen and is now an attractive little unspoilt real ale pub.