Maesglas

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Maesglas
Monmouthshire
Cardiff Road at Maesglas - geograph.org.uk - 911027.jpg
Cardiff Road, Maesglas
Location
Location: 51°34’10"N, 3°-0’58"W
Data
Post town: Newport
Postcode: NP20
Dialling code: 01633
Local Government
Council: Newport
Parliamentary
constituency:
Newport West

Maesglas is a neighbourhood in the south-west of the city of Newport, Monmouthshire. In the 16th century it was known as Greenfield but in later years the Welsh-language Maesglas has come to be more widely used.

The Newport-born author Leslie Thomas wrote of Maesglas:

Maesglas was a penniless place everybody called Moscow. When it was built in the thirties the winter was of such Soviet severity that the frost-bound workmen gave it the name. Poor though it was, nobody who ever lived there can today mention its name or its Russian nickname without breaking into a grin.

Housing

The main housing estate was first built in the 1930s, then many newer houses were added between the 1970s and 1990s in the Bideford Road area, next to the Great Western Main Line. Homes on the Maesglas estate are fairly compact but all have front and back gardens. Most of the houses are terraced but are arranged in all sorts of different rows and shapes of street, due to being built in the suburbs and having more room to build wider roads. A significant percentage of the houses are council-owned.

In the centre of the estate, there are two schools: Maesglas primary school and Maes-Ebbw School for older students with severe learning difficulties. The nearest High schools in the area are St Josephs (Roman Catholic) and Duffryn High School which is attended by most teenagers of the estate.

Semi-detached houses either side of Cardiff Road, St Bride's Gardens next to the Ebbw River and the small estate (St David's Crescent) next to St David's R.C. primary school, are also considered to be part of Maesglas.

Facilities

Maesglas is surrounded by several retail parks[1] including the Harlech Retail Park, Maesglas Retail Park and 28 East Retail Park.

Maesglas is also home to the headquarters of Monmouthshire's local newspaper: the South Wales Argus.

South-east of the railway line lies the Maesglas Industrial Estate, although this is geographically in the adjacent Pill.

Maesglas school is built over a castle and grounds.

References