KELLY'S DIRECTORY OF MONMOUTHSHIRE, 1901

KELLY'S DIRECTORY OF MONMOUTHSHIRE 1901

Kelly's Directory of Monmouthshire,1901 The proprietors trust that the present Edition of Kelly's Directory of Monmouthshire may be found at least equal in accuracy to the previous ones. Every place in Monmouthshire, and every parish will again be found to be included in the book. The Letters M.O.O. and S.B. are abbreviations adopted by H.M. Post Office to represent Money Order Office and Savings Bank.

St. PIERRE and RUNSTON
including
CRICK

St. PIERRE is situated between the Bristol Channel and the road from Newport to Chepstow, 1� miles northeast from Portskewett station on the Severn Tunnel Junction and Chepstow branch of the Great Western railway, and 3 south-west-by-south from Chepstow, in the Southern division of the county, hundred, petty sessional division, union and county court district of Chepstow, rural deanery of Chepstow, archdeaconry of Monmouth and diocese of Llandaff.

The church of St. Peter is a small stone edifice of considerable antiquity, consisting of chancel, nave, north porch and a western bell turret containing one bell: in the chancel are two ancient slabs, recovered in 1764 from the churchyard, and bearing an inscription in Norman French to Urian de St. Pierre, who was lord of this place and died in 1239; there are also two incised slabs to members of the Lewis family, dating from the 16th century, and some more modern monuments. The church was restored in 1874, at a cost of �1,000, and affords 50 sittings. The registers seem formerly to have been kept with those of Portskewett. The living is a rectory annexed to that of Portskewett, joint net yearly income �413, in the gift of C. E. Lewis esq. and held since 1880 by the Rev. William Henry Williams M.A., of Jesus College, Oxford, and rural dean of Netherwent, who resides at Portskewett.

St. Pierre Park is the property of Chas. Edward Lewis esq. D.L., J.P., lord of the manor and sole landowner: the fine old mansion, which has been the seat of the Lewis family since the 14th century, is of various,periods, the Tudor style predominating; the deer park has some grand old timber and a lake of about 11 acres in extent. The soil is gravel. The chief crops are wheat, barley and oats. The area of Mathern and St. Pierre is 3,466 acres of land, 16 of water, 337 of tidal water and 162 of foreshore; rateable value, Mathern and St. Pierre, �6,022; the population in 1891 was 585.

RUNSTON is a hamlet adjoining to the north-west, and, was once a distinct and separate parish. All that is left of the village consists of a few irregular heaps of fallen masonry and the roofless walls of a small Norman church, which appears to have been in use up to the early part of the 18th century, and occupies a remarkably picturesque though solitary position.

CRICK is at the junction of the roads from Chepstow and Portskewett to Newport, where there are the remains of a very fine old mansion, formerly the seat of the More family, but which has long been unoccupied. Charles I visited this house several times in 1654. Close by, among the farm buildings, stands the old chapel of St. Nevyn, in use up to the 17th century, but now desecrated and turned into a barn. Here are the kennels of the Chepstow hounds, of which W. E. Curre esq. of Itton Court is master. Chepstow, Usk and Monmouth are convenient places for hunting visitors.

For ecclesiastical purposes, St. Pierre is consolidated with Portskewett and Runston with Mathern.

For civil purposes, St. Pierre and Runston were amalgamated with Mathern, by Local Government Order No. 17,581, dated March 25, 1886;

Letters through Chepstow arrive at 7.45 a.m.; box cleared at 7.50 p.m. The nearest post, money order & telegraph office is at Portskewett, about 2 miles distant.

This parish is included in the United School Board district of Mathern, formed 10 December 1875. F. Evans, solicitor, Chepstow, clerk to the board, William Williams, Chepstow, attendance officer.

COMMERCIAL
Hunt William, farmer, Broadwell Farm, Runston
Williams John, farm bailiff to C. E. Lewis esq. D.L., J.P

Family Notes, April 1999

In the early years of the 20th century my Great Grandfather Sam Wood moved from his home in Gratton Staffordshire (the ownership of which he retained) and bought The Elms Farm at Caerwent, which proved a temporary base, as a few years later he acquired Runston Farm, in the acreage of which the old Runston village and Church stands, and access to the ruins is through the farmyard.

Sam Wood died in 1940, and the farm was occupied by his daughter, my Aunt Alice (Mrs Alice Jones) and my unmarried uncle James Wood ("Runston Jim"). Other members of the Wood family also lived there at various times.

Alice and Jim died in the late seventies, and the other members of the family having dispersed, Runston was sold.

Before he died, Sam Wood (in the days before colour photography!) commissioned a large oil painting of Runston Farm, reproduced here, which has passed down through various members of the family and is now in the possession of my Mother.