For whom the bell tolls

This Church is on the road to Newport Docks, its in a triangular space surrounded by three roads, and fencing.
St Stephens.
The Parish of S. Stephen comprises largely of the district of Newport known as Pillgwenlly. This is a corruption of Pill Gwynllyw or Gwynllyw’s Harbour. Gwynllyw is said to have been the son of Glywys, Lord of Glewiseg (Wentllwch), who was a Prince of the district and died 20th March AD 500.

The word Pill (spelt with one L) is a Welsh word meaning ‘a sea ditch or trench filled at high water.’

The neighbourhood at that time was meadow land, leading to the mouth of the River Usk.

The river mouth was known to regions far beyond our Island home, for many hundreds of years, and is very likely to have been used by Roman Galleys transporting members of the Second Legion to and from the Fort of Isca Silurum known today as Caerleon.

Later the Danes must have visited the local shores, because during the excavations for the present Alexandra Docks, the remains of a vessel of approximately seventy feet in length was discovered and this was believed to have been of Danish construction.

The entrance to the River Usk from the Bristol Channel was also a hunting ground for pirates and smugglers.

During the whole of this period and in fact, up to the early 1800’s, the area was part of the Ancient Parish of St. Gwynllyw, now known as St. Woolos, the church of which at the time, stood outside the Newport Borough boundary.

At a public meeting held on 7th November 1834, it was agreed that there was an urgent need for another church for the use of the inhabitants of the Borough of Newport and the Parish of St. Woolos. Consequently, in September 1835, the foundation stone of St. Paul’s Church was laid, and the new church was consecrated on 3rd November 1836 and so, the first of the modern parishes was formed.
Within six years of the formation of the Parish of St. Paul, the Alexandra Docks were opened with great ceremony. This period of activity witnessed a corresponding period of development in church life in the area, with the need to erect a permanent stone church to replace the small Mission Church in Pillgwenlly, built in 1824 for the purpose of the elementary education of the children of the area, as well as for public worship.

The building of the church was completed in under twelve months, for on 16th October 1884, the service of consecration took place, and was fully reported in the Monmouthshire Merlin.