Nash

(A description written in 1891)

A parish at the mouth of the Usk river and on the coast of the Bristol Channel, 5 miles south-east from Newport, on the Great Western railway [Llanwern station]; in the Southern division of the county, Hundred of Caldicot, Newport Petty Sessional division, Union and County Court district; western division of Netherwent rural deanery, Monmouth archdeaconry and diocese of Llandaff.

The church of St. Mary is an ancient structure of stone, in the Early English style, consisting of chancel, nave and a tower with fine spire, containing 5 bells: there are 200 sittings. The register dates from the year 1733. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £82, which included £26 tithe rent-charge, 1.3/4 acres of glebe land let at £4, £42 from Queen Anne's Bounty and £15 9s. yearly payment from Eton College, to which the living belongs: it has been held since 1876 by the Rev. Wilmer Mackett Willett M.A. of St John's College, Oxford, who resides at Maindee. Parish Clerk: John Waters.

There is a Baptist Chapel at Pye Corner.

Post: Letters through Newport are delivered by messenger from Whitson at 9 a.m. Maindee is the nearest money order & telegraph office; nearest Post Office at Liswerry.

Schools:

National School (mixed), built in 1877, for 48 children; average attendance, 31; Mrs Rhoda Reese, mistress.

Lord Tredegar, who is lord of the manor, Eton College and St. John Knox Rickards Phillips Esq. J.P., are the chief landowners. The soil is gravelly; subsoil, rock. The land is chiefly grass. The area is 2,738 acres of land and 825 of water; rateable value, £4,858.

The population is 1881 was 239

(extracts from Kelly's 1891 Directory of Monmouthshire, transcribed by J. Doe)