ARCHAELOGICAL ruins have been found where Newport’s Gipsy and Traveller site will be.

Newport City Council have said that the ruins in Hartridge Farm Road, Ringland, date back from the middle of the Iron Age and Roman periods and include roundhouses, uniform field divisions, stone-lined walls and drains.

The council has said that the findings won’t delay the Gipsy and traveller site. 

A spokeswoman for Newport City Council said: “Archaeology Wales is completing its fieldwork excavations at Ellen Ridge, Hartridge Farm Road, having excavated an area of about 20,000 square metre.


“It has revealed evidence of settlement activity dating from the middle of the Iron Age and Roman periods.


“This was not unexpected, and is in line with similar findings in other parts of Wales.The findings include roundhouses, uniform field divisions, stone-lined walls and drains, indicating a domestic site with the potential for some industrial activity. Much of the dating evidence so far has come from pottery recovered from the site.”


She said that post-excavation work will follow the fieldwork and that the finds from the excavation are being stored at a Newport City Council facility away from the Ellen Ridge site. Plans for a permanent Gipsy and traveller site in Newport were given the go-ahead last August, despite hundreds of objections over access to the site. 


The 4.78 hectare site on Hartridge Farm Road will be used by traveller families already living in Newport on illegal or unsuitable sites.


A Newport City Council spokeswoman said: “The findings will not delay the beginning of work to provide a residential site to accommodate local Gypsy and Traveller families, which is a legal requirement for all councils. The allocation of the Ellen Ridge (Hartridge Farm) land was included in the Local Development Plan (LDP) which was approved by an independent inspector, following an in-depth inquiry, and was formally adopted by the full council in 2015.”