The SeaWall (Gold Cliff)

Goldcliff (Welsh: Allteuryn) is a village and community parish to the south east of the city of Newport in Wales. It lies within the Newport city boundaries in the historic county of Monmouthshire and the preserved county

Origin of the English name
The name is said to have originated from the silicious limestone cliff, standing about 60 feet high, at Hill Farm, rising over a great bed of yellow mica which breaks the level at the shore and has a glittering appearance in sunshine, especially to ships passing in the Bristol Channel. Giraldus Cambrensis, who toured Wales in 1188 refers to it as "Gouldclyffe" and describes it in Latin as "...glittering with a wonderful brightness".

Character
Together with the neighbouring parishes of Nash and Whitson, it is one of "The Three Parishes" which have long been a unit - geographical, socially, economically and ecclesiastically. All three parishes are typical of the Caldicot Levels. At the highest tides the village lies below sea-level. The entire area is drained by a vast network of inter-linking ditches or 'reens'. A main drainage ditch, with an origin near Llanwern, known as "Monksditch" or "Goldcliff Pill" passes through the village on its way to the sea. Local folklore maintains that the sides of the Monksditch are laced with smuggler's brandy.

Fields are drained by low depressions running the width of the fields, known locally as grips. The field area between grips is termed a span or spain. The grips drain into the reens which are slow-moving and in Summer months are often stagnant. Reens run towards the sea where they empty between tides at a gout. The level of reens is controlled by means of a series of sluices or stanks; separate boards in which may be raised or lowered to keep water levels high enough for livestock to drink. The faster flowing Monksditch carries water from more distant higher ground, above the level of the reens, some of which pass underneath the ditch by means of culverts.

The south of the village is bounded by the foreshore of the Severn Estuary, which lies behind a tall concrete-faced sea wall. A number of groynes can be seen at low tide.