Maesglas

Maesglas or Maes-glas^[1] is a neighbourhood in the south west of the city of Newport, South Wales. In the 16th century it was recorded as Greenfield but the Welsh language name Maesglas has remained the more widely used, among English speakers.

It lies in the Gaer ward directly north of the A48 Southern Distributor Road, south of Cardiff Road and south-west of the South Wales Main Line railway.

The Newport-born author Leslie Thomas wrote of Maesglas:

Maesglas was a penniless place everybody called Moscow. When it was built in the thirties the winter was of such Soviet severity that the frost-bound workmen gave it the name. Poor though it was, nobody who ever lived there can today mention its name or its Russian nickname without breaking into a grin.

This quote is incorporated into a mural telling the history of the estate, painted on the side of the Maesglas shops.^[2]