Risca
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Risca | ||
|---|---|---|
| Statistics | ||
| Population: | 20,219 | |
| Ordnance Survey | ||
| OS grid reference: | Maps for ST245905 | |
| Administration | ||
| Principal area: | Caerphilly | |
| Constituent country: | Wales | |
| Sovereign state: | United Kingdom | |
| Other | ||
| Police force: | Gwent Police | |
| Ceremonial county: | Gwent | |
| Historic county: | Monmouthshire | |
| Post office and telephone | ||
| Post town: | NEWPORT | |
| Postal district: | NP11 | |
| Dialling code: | +44-1633 | |
| Politics | ||
| UK Parliament: | Islwyn | |
| European Parliament: | Wales | |
 |
||
Alternate meanings: see Risca (disambiguation).
Risca (Welsh: Rhisga) is a town of approximately 20,000 people in South Wales, UK. It is part of the Newport conurbation with a population of 160,000. It lies at the south-eastern edge of the South Wales Coalfield, and a mine used to operate in the town. It has a rural aspect, and is surrounded to the east and west by several extensively-wooded hills including Mynydd Machen (1,188ft/362m) and Twmbarlwm (1,375ft/419m).
Twmbarlwm has the remains of an iron age hill fort near its summit, and this is believed to have been built by the Silures, the Celtic tribe that inhabited the area before and during Roman times.
Risca has an award-winning male voice choir (male voice choirs are traditional in the South Wales valleys).
There are some extensive mountain bike trails on the wooded hills just to the north of the town, at Cwmcarn, which are receiving increasing popularity.
The Welsh Oak, a pub on the outskirts of Pontymister, was the meeting place for the Chartists before marching on Newport
