THE remains of 62 adults and children have been removed from a chapel graveyard in Gilwern.

The process of removing the remains and memorials from the former Lion Terrace Chapel was carried out under strict guidelines set by the government and the supervision of Monmouthshire council and archaeologists.

The remains were removed and the Primitive Methodist Chapel demolished, along with eight other buildings, to make way for the scheme to dual the Heads of the Valleys Road between Gilwern and Brynmawr.

The sensitive process, carried out by construction firm Costain Ltd, finished on Friday.

Five headstones bearing the name of six children and four adults were originally recorded at the cemetery but it was not known until now how many people were buried there.

Among the children buried there were Thomas Watkins, who died at just ten months-old on March 1, 1847 and Benjamin Watkins, who was one year and two months old when he died on October 14, 1870.

A service was held on the site in September to remember those who were laid to rest in the graveyard before the remains were removed by experts.

Wessex Archaeology carried out the exhumations by hand, for each and every grave. The remains were then taken by private ambulance to a nearby Chapel of Rest.

The records will now be given to the General Register Office.

The former chapel was built in 1838 and may have gone out of use as early as 1900. It has not belonged to or been the responsibility of The Methodist church in Great Britain for many years.

Phil Baker, Costain Ltd’s community relations manager said that the Methodist Minister and congregation have been kept information of the process and are now planning the reburial at the county council cemetery next to St Elli Church in Gilwern.

He added: “A service will be organised at the cemetery for the first reburial and a prayer service when all have been reinterred.”

The 8.1 km stretch is expected to be finished in 2018 and will link up with the Abergavenny to Gilwern stretch that was completed in 2008 and the Brynmawr to Tredegar stretch which is finished and will provide a continuous dual carriageway between Abergavenny and Merthyr Tydfil.