St Julians, Newport

The Anglican parish church for St Julian's is dedicated to the martyred Saints of Julius and Aaron and sits mid-way along Heather Road and the Roman Catholic church on Beaufort Road is dedicated to St Julius. St Julian's Methodist Church is situated at the junction of Caerleon Road with St Julian's Avenue; St Julian's Baptist Church is in Beaufort Road. The roads in the post-war St Julian's estate are named after famous painters, where as the older inter-war estate streets are named after the members of the Firbank family who owned the land from 1869 to 1926. St Julian's itself is named after Saint Julius of Caerleon, the Roman martyr.

St Julians has two primary schools, namely Glan Usk Primary School (formerly Durham Road Infant School and Durham Road Junior School) and St Julian's Primary School.

St Julians School opened in 1953.[2]

Glan Usk Primary School opened in January 2010,[3] after receiving £9.7m in funding from the Welsh Government. The development is however controversial as it is situated on a former 1930s and 1960s industrial site [4] at the Glebelands in the western part of St Julians. The new school also provides nursery school places, following the closure of Rockfield Nursery.

St Julians is also the name of the coterminous electoral ward to Newport City Council. It has been represented by three councillors on Newport Council since 1995. The ward elected three Labour Party councillors in 1995 and 1999, then three Liberal Democrat councillors in 2004 and 2008.[5] Since 2012 the ward has elected a mixture of Labour and Lib Dem councillors.

In 2016 long serving Lib Dem councillor, Ed Townsend, died and his seat was won at a by-election by his widow, Carmel Townsend. Carmel Townsend had previously won a seat at the 2008 election..[6]

Built in 1480 on the site of a chapel that housed the mortal remains of Saint Julius, the house and estate was established by Sir George Herbert (c. 1462-1504). It was owned and lived in by the Herbert family until about 1720 when the Tudor mansion was downsized to a farmhouse and parts of the estate became derelict. St. Julian's was then passed onto the Duke of Beaufort who leased the farmhouse out in the early 19th century. In 1869, the estate was purchased at a Newport auction by Joseph Firbank (1819-1886), a railway contractor from Durham, for £38,000. In 1880 he rebuilds St. Julian's into a Victorian farmhouse, retaining the Tudor porch and the crucifix layout. He also builds a grander and more modern mansion south of Caerleon Road adjacent to Llanllecha Farm, called (Upper) St. Julians while the original house becomes Lower or Old St. Julians. This is then leased out again to farm tenants from 1892. In 1933, Upper St. Julian's is demolished for a new housing development on Heather Road and following the Second World War the older house is converted into a motor garage. The land surrounding the house has by this point been sold off and built on, leaving St. Julian's to become completely derelict by the 1970s. It was eventually demolished in 1980 and Marina Court is now situated on the site. [7] [8] [9]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to St Julians, Newport.

• St Julians and Beechwood Community Website
• Gwent Local History article on St Julians Parish Church