12 Apr 2021

I used the Archi online mapping service to look at the location of Full Moon cottages near Risca. This is where various members of Louisa Hemmings lived over the years. Jeff and I attempted to locate it back in the 1980s. Now it seems it is the start of the Sirhowy Valley Country Park which is formed from part of the former railway track that ran from Tredegar in the north to Newport docks in the south.

The map coordinates of Full Moon cottages is now given as 51°36'53.2"N 3°08'30.6"W (ST 21183 91278)¹

Here’s the old map overlaid on the modern road layout:

I also found a photo of full moon cottage:

I believe this photo was taken from the north looking south west, just across from the old route of Islywn Road (the B4251). The plume of steam on the right hand side marks the Tredegar end of the railway which runs towards the left of the picture towards Newport. The white cottages beyond the railway at the left of the picture and the row set into the hill just in front of the railway are full moon cottages. The building with the white end facing down the winding road is the Full Moon Inn. The white house in the foreground is Rhyd-fraith. The ordnance survey map of 1888-1913 marks a signal box (S.B.) and signal point (S.P.).

The Industrial Gwent website where I found the picture included this reminiscence:

The Full Moon Inn was a pub that stood beside the level crossing where the parish road crossed the Sirhowy Tramroad and GWR / LNWR Sirhowy Valley line from Risca. It’s now the start of the Sirhowy Valley Country Park. Merlin Astley-Jones remembers “my Da was the last signalman in Nine Mile Point box No1, as we lived in Full Moon Cottage, what is now the Sirhowy Valley Country Park interoperation centre. My first memories are of the 63 winter and being marooned there - and of moving away, with all our belongings going into a coal truck parked besides the cottage and taken to Risca parcels - us as well! " ²

While searching Google for full moon I came across a memorial to Frank Hemmings on the Risca Past & Present Facebook group:

Risca Branch The Royal British Legion

2 December 2018 ·

In memory of Frank Hemmings who died December 2nd 1916.

Born in Cross Keys in 1873, Frank, was the son of Joseph and Bridget Hemmings.

Joseph died in the disaster at North Risca Colliery on July 15th 1880, when 120 men and boys perished in a devastating explosion.

Bridget married John Jones in 1889; she was later recorded as living in Full Moon Cottages, Wattsville.

Frank enlisted in Newport into the Royal Welsh Fusiliers on April 24th 1894. He was described as 5’ 4” tall, weighed 8 stone 7 lbs and had a fresh complexion, with brown eyes and brown hair.

He went abroad with the Fusiliers to India, Malta, Crete and Egypt between 1895 and 1898. On December 26th 1898 they went to China until December 1902.

Returning home Frank transferred to the Army Reserve in February 1903. In April 1906 he re-engaged for a further period of 4 years until his discharge on April 23rd 1910.

Frank married Emily Davies on July 8th 1908, having two children, John and Jane. They lived at 28 Church Road, Risca in 1911, later moving to the Albert Hotel, Risca.

He enlisted in Newport in the 11th Battalion South Wales Borderers, serving as Sergeant 21883.

The 10th Battalion (1st Gwent) and 11th Battalion (2nd Gwent) were both raised in October 1914, as part of the 115th Brigade of the 38th (Welsh) Division. In December 1915, they went to France, where their Division was to remain until the end of the War, winning much glory for Wales.

After spells in the Line at Givenchy in the spring of 1916 the Division moved to the River Ancre on 3rd July at the opening of the Battle of the Somme, and both battalions had their first real action in the attack on Mametz Wood. Here they had five days’ hard fighting in a thick wood flanked by machine guns.

It required skill and determination on the part of all ranks to turn the Germans out, and fine work was done with bomb and bayonet by the courage and initiative of junior leaders. The 10th Battalion lost 180 men and the 11th Battalion, 220.

The Western Mail, dated October 12th 1916, reported that he had been wounded. Frank returned to England for treatment but died in hospital at Chatham of his wounds on December 2nd 1916.

He is buried in Risca Old Cemetery, Cromwell Road and also commemorated on the memorial in St Mary’s Church, Risca.³

I also found some historical information about the New Pit

The Risca Colliery Company was bankrupted by the explosion [of 1860] and the cost of a lost legal battle over encroachment on other coal of Lord Tredegar not in their lease, and was eventually taken over by T.W. Rhodes. It was eventually repaired and put back in work. Edmund Hannay Watts, William Milburn and Edward Stout, trading as the London and South Wales Coal Company, purchased Rhodes’ interests in 1872. By then the workings extended far from the shaft and it was decided to sink new shafts. Work on the new pit started in 1875, and the Black Vein coal was finally met at a depth of 280 yards. Full production started in July 1878 and the old Blackvein shaft was used only for ventilation.

The new pit was actually in the parish of Mynyddislwyn and was eventually known as North Risca Colliery. A new town was built near this pit for the miners who were to work there, Newtown, and now part of Crosskeys. Wattsville grew to provide more housing. Just two years later, in July 1880, a gas explosion killed 120 men and boys, the entire night repairing shift. ⁴

This means that Joseph Hemmings could only have been working in the pit since 1878. Perhaps he was working on the Blackvein pit between 1872 and 1878.

I found an interesting book titled Franciscan Missions among the Colliers and Ironworkers of Monmouthshire published in 1876 which includes a chapter on Risca. It mentions 30 Irish familes scattered across Risca and describes how two stranger boys came to Cwmbran one Sunday and told the gathered worshippers how they were not taught catechism in Risca. A mission was undertaken to perform regular mass in a cottage belonging to one catholics family before a church was finally established in 1868. I saved a PDF of the book in my research folder.

We received the death certificate of George Robert Lay:

Death at Northampton General Hospital on 11 Jun 1930 of George Robert Lay, male, 83 years, of St. James’ Square, Northampton, a Jobbing Gardener. Cause of death was (a) Uraemia (b) Retention of Urine (c) Enlarged prostate. The informant was the house surgeon at the hospital.

We wanted this certificate to see if there was any mention of one of Annie Tew’s children (she had died in 1927).

Ancestry have some interesting new databases to search:

UK, Calendar of Prisoners, 1868-1929 http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=61808

UK, After-Trial Calendar of Prisoners, 1855-1931 http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=61809

UK, Registers of Habitual Criminals and Police Gazettes, 1834-1934 http://search.ancestry.co.uk/search/db.aspx?dbid=61812