THE mystery of the ornate lamppost which used to stand outside Pontypool’s Clarence Hotel may have been solved.

Pontypool community councillors have been trying to ascertain the whereabouts of the lights, which they believed had once stood outside the hotel.

There had been confusion because councillors were unsure as to whether or not there had been two similar lamps in both Pontypool and Pontymoile or whether the lights which now stand near the Esso garage in Pontymoile were the same set.

At a meeting of full council last on July 24 the clerk of the council Ruth Tucker said that following the story in our sister paper The Free Press a reader had come in to the council offices to give them the full background.

Gwyn Selway, from Griffithstown, provided the council with the story of the lamp, after digging out the details.

The lamp was regularlymoved, first from its original sighting in Pontymoile, because the newly introduced buses in the 1930s were clipping the kerb on it, then again from the entrance to Pontypool Park because it was blocking the gates and stopping the carnival floats getting in.

So it was moved again, ending up outside the Clarence Hotel, before making its final move back to Pontymoile where it currently stands.

Community councillors felt it was an important part of the town’s heritage and now want the Pontypool regeneration group to fund a working replica of the original lamp to stand outside the Clarence once more.