Bassaleg ( cy, Basaleg) is a

suburb A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

on the west side of Newport,

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. It is in the Graig

electoral ward A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected to t ...

and

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, village, tow ...

Bassaleg is located two miles northwest of

Newport city centre Newport city centre is traditionally regarded as the area of Newport, Wales bounded by the west bank of the River Usk, the George Street Bridge, the eastern flank of Stow Hill and the South Wales Main Line. Most of the city centre is containe ...

. Bassaleg is bounded by the

A467 road List of A roads in zone 4 in Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European isla ...

(A4072) to the east, the railway spur to

Lower Machen Lower Machen ( cy, Machen Isaf) is a small hamlet of 19 houses on the A468 road at the very western edge of the city of Newport, South Wales. Machen itself lies further west in the county borough of Caerphilly, although both lie within the h ...

(the former Brecon and Merthyr Railway) to the north, the

St Mellons St Mellons ( cy, Llaneirwg) is a district and suburb of southeastern Cardiff, the capital city of Wales. Prior to 1996 St Mellons was the name given to the community largely north of Newport Road (B4487) which included the old St Mellons village. ...

Road (B4288) to the south and

Rhiwderin Rhiwderin ( cy, Rhiwderyn) is a small village in the west of the city of Newport, South Wales. It lies in the community parish and electoral district (ward) of Graig. The original village lies across a level crossing alongside the Ebbw Valle ...

to the east. The

Ebbw River The Ebbw River (; cy, Afon Ebwy) is a river in South Wales which gives its name to the town of Ebbw Vale. The Ebbw River is joined by the Ebbw Fach River ( Welsh: Afon Ebwy Fach meaning 'little Ebbw river') at Aberbeeg. The Ebbw Fach is itself ...

runs through the area. The

A468 road The A468 is a principal road from Newport to Nantgarw. The current route begins at the A467 in Bassaleg then passes through Rhiwderin, Machen, Trethomas, Bedwas and Caerphilly, terminating on the A470. History Originally the A468 began at th ...

passes through towards

Caerphilly Caerphilly (, ; cy, Caerffili, ) is a town and community in Wales. It is situated at the southern end of the Rhymney Valley. It is north of Cardiff and northwest of Newport. It is the largest town in Caerphilly County Borough, and lies wit ...

and junction 28 of the

M4 motorway The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is a motorway in the United Kingdom running from west London to southwest Wales. The English section to the Severn Bridge was constructed between 1961 and 1971; the Welsh element was largely ...

is less than a mile to the south.

St Basil's Church

The parish church of St. Basil's is a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. It has been suggested that site of the church was originally dedicated to Saint Gwladys. Historians have suggested that Bassaleg is the only British place whose name derives from the word ''

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...

'', a term used in

early Christianity Early Christianity (up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325) spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and beyond. Originally, this progression was closely connected to already established Jewish centers in the Holy Land and the Jewish ...

for a church containing the body of a saint. Until the mid-19th century, a grave chapel for St. Gwladys survived close to the church.

Miranda Aldhouse-Green Miranda Jane Aldhouse-Green, (''née'' Aldhouse; born 24 July 1947) is a British archaeologist and academic, known for her research on the Iron Age and the Celts. She was Professor of Archaeology at Cardiff University from 2006 to 2013. Unti ...

and Ray Howell (eds.), ''Gwent In Prehistory and Early History: The Gwent County History Vol.1'', 2004, The church is part of the Rectorial Benefice of Bassaleg.

Communications

Bassaleg Junction Station 1769026 46feab79

Bassaleg lies near the junction of the Brecon and Merthyr Railway and

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

and used to have two stations (Bassaleg and Bassaleg Junction). Both were victims of the

Beeching Axe The Beeching cuts (also Beeching Axe) was a plan to increase the efficiency of the nationalised railway system in Great Britain. The plan was outlined in two reports: ''The Reshaping of British Railways'' (1963) and ''The Development of the ...

in the 1960s. Pye Corner station, built close to the site of Bassaleg Junction station on the former GWR line, opened on 14 December 2014. Served by the existing

Ebbw Valley Railway The Ebbw Valley Railway ( cy, Rheilffordd Cwm Ebwy) is a branch line of the South Wales Main Line in South Wales. Transport for Wales Rail provides an hourly passenger service each way between Ebbw Vale Town and Cardiff Central, and an hourl ...

service between Cardiff Central and Ebbw Vale Town, the station is operated by

Transport for Wales Transport for Wales (TfW; cy, Trafnidiaeth Cymru; cy, TrC, label=none) is a not-for-profit company owned by the Welsh Government and managed at arms length by its appointed board. TfW oversees the Transport for Wales Group (TfW Group) consi ...

. Trains run hourly Monday-Saturday and 2-hourly on Sundays. The journey time to Cardiff Central is 19–22 minutes, and is around 38 minutes to Ebbw Vale Town.

Bassaleg Viaduct

Bassaleg Viaduct is Wales's oldest operational railway bridge or viaduct and was built over the

for the

Rumney Railway The Rumney Railway in Wales was a plateway built to connect the ironworks at Rhymney to the Monmouthshire Canal Company's tramroad near Newport, Wales providing a connection the wharves at the Newport Docks. The line was opened in 1826. I ...

in 1826. It is also the second oldest world-wide, after the

Skerne Bridge The Skerne Bridge is a railway bridge over the River Skerne in Darlington, County Durham. Built in 1825 for the Stockton and Darlington Railway, it carried the first train on the opening day, . It is still in use, being the oldest railway brid ...

, in

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...

, County Durham, which opened in 1825.

Schools

Bassaleg School Bassaleg School ( cy, Ysgol Basaleg) is a comprehensive secondary school for pupils aged 11 to 18 years, situated in the suburb of Bassaleg on the western side of the city of Newport, South Wales. The present buildings of the school range in age ...

is one of the most notable local educational institutions in the South East Wales education consortia and in particular the Newport local authority. Known for its sporting and academic prowess, past students include: *

Ryan Jones Ryan Paul Jones (born 13 March 1981) is a Wales former international rugby union player who played at number eight, blindside flanker or second row. He was involved in three Grand Slam wins, in 2005, as captain in 2008, and 2012. He is one ...

and Aaron Wainwright, current Wales and Lions rugby players *

Alix Popham Alix Jon Popham (born 17 October 1979) is a Welsh former rugby union player who played as a number eight or flanker. Born in Newport, he began his career with Newport RFC in 1998, before moving to Leeds Tykes in 2002. He spent three years in E ...

, former Wales and Lions rugby player * Stuart Barnes, former England and Lions rugby player and current Sky Sports rugby commentator * Stephen Jones, current ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'' rugby correspondent * John Davies, current

Archbishop of Wales The post of Archbishop of Wales was created in 1920 when the Church in Wales was separated from the Church of England and disestablished. The four historic Welsh dioceses had previously formed part of the Province of Canterbury, and so came unde ...

History

Best Kept Village sign, Bassaleg - geograph

Bassaleg's earliest known inhabitant is Saint Gwladys, a

hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Ch ...

and wife of St.

Gwynllyw Gwynllyw Filwr or Gwynllyw Farfog (), known in English in a corrupted form as Woolos the Warrior or Woolos the Bearded ( la, Gundleus, Gundleius or Gwenleue; 450 – 500 AD) was a Welsh king and religious figure. He was King of Gwynllwg in South ...

or Woolos, who founded her own hermitage at Pencarnu, supposedly the site is at Pont Ebbw. While there she bathed in the

and the Lady's Well at

Tredegar Tredegar (pronounced , ) is a town and community situated on the banks of the Sirhowy River in the county borough of Blaenau Gwent, in the southeast of Wales. Within the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire, it became an early centre of the In ...

may have been dedicated to her. It has been suggested that site of St. Basil's church was originally dedicated to her. In the 14th century (fl. c. 1320 - 1360/1380), a Welsh lord, Ifor Hael (real name, Ifor ap Llywelyn) lived in Gwernyclepa manor near Bassaleg. He was a well known promoter of

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

, and he was a friend to the famous Welsh bard,

Dafydd ap Gwilym Dafydd ap Gwilym ( 1315/1320 – 1350/1370) is regarded as one of the leading Welsh poets and amongst the great poets of Europe in the Middle Ages. Life R. Geraint Gruffydd suggests 1315- 1350 as the poet's dates; others place him a little ...

. There have been many poems written about him, and for the sadness of the state of his manor now. One such poem is an

englyn (; plural ) is a traditional Welsh and Cornish short poem form. It uses quantitative metres, involving the counting of syllables, and rigid patterns of rhyme and half rhyme. Each line contains a repeating pattern of consonants and accent ...

, written by Evan Evans (Ieuan Fardd)- :: Llys Ifor hael, gwael yw'r gwedd, - yn garnau :: mewn gwerni mae'n gorwedd; :: drain ac ysgall mall a'i medd, :: mieri lle bu mawredd. A direct translation from the englyn form is unavailable as due to the differences between the English and Welsh languages. - :: The hall of Ivor the generous, poor it looks :: A cairn, it lies amongst alders :: Thorns and the blight of the thistle own it :: Briars, where once there was greatness The englyn is a part of a longer poem, which was traditionally sung. The most important local influences was the local estate of the Morgans, Lords Tredegar, at

Tredegar House Tredegar House (Welsh: ''Tŷ Tredegar'') is a 17th-century Charles II-era mansion on the southwestern edge of Newport, Wales. For over five hundred years it was home to the Morgan family, later Lords Tredegar; one of the most powerful and influe ...

many of whom are buried in the churchyard. During the

Newport Rising The Newport Rising was the last large-scale armed rising in Wales, by Chartists whose demands included democracy and the right to vote with a secret ballot. On Monday 4 November 1839, approximately 4,000 Chartism, Chartist sympathisers, under ...

of 1839 the Chartist marchers passed through this area heading into Newport.

Notes

External links

*
Photos of Bassaleg and surrounding area on geograph.org.uk
{{Authority control Districts of Newport, Wales