Bassaleg (St. Basil)

BASSALEG (St. Basil), a parish, in the union and division of Newport, hundred of Wentlloog, county of Monmouth, 2¾ miles (W.) from Newport; containing, with the hamlets of Duffryn, Graig, and Rogerstone, 1731 inhabitants. The parish is partly bounded by the river Severn, and comprises about 6500 acres, of which 2633 are arable, 3146 meadow and pasture, and 722 woodland; it is intersected by the river Ebn and the Monmouthshire canal, and the Rumney railway joins the Sirhowey railway here, at a place called Pye Corner. The living is a discharged vicarage, valued in the king's books at £14. 13. 6½., and in the gift of the Bishop of Llandaff: the glebe consists of about one acre; and the tithes have been commuted for £864. 18., of which £509. 19. belong to the bishop. There is a place of worship for Particular Baptists; and a free school, endowed with £20 per annum, is conducted on the national plan. On the brow of a hill a mile from the village, is a circular intrenchment called Craeg-y-Saesson, supposed to have been a Saxon camp; a mile from which is one named Pen-y-Park Newydd, probably a fortress of the Britons. A priory was founded in 1101, which became a cell to the abbey of Glastonbury.