Lower Machen holds an annual festival of chamber music concerts in the 12th-century church of St. Michael and All Angels.

[1] Lower Machen was formerly served by Church Road railway station, which closed in 1957.

The Conservative politician, Peter Thorneycroft, lived at Machen House in the hamlet, during his time as Member of Parliament for Monmouth from 1945-1966.

[2] Plas Machen, to the south-east of the village on the other side of the A468, is an Elizabethan manor house, the ancestral home of the Morgans of Tredegar.

The church has connections with the Morgan family of the nearby Tredegar House in Newport.