AN EXHIBITION which captures the history of a 1950s Newport estate has been launched.

Crowds of Bettws residents flocked to Bettws Library on Monday for the launch of the Moving to Bettws project.

The project, which is run by the Bettws in Bloom community group, tells the “story of the first residents to move to the Bettws estate”.

Historian Dr Jess Hammett, who is managing the project, helped achieve funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to make the project possible.

She said: “We got a £15,000 grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to undertake this work.

“The concentration of the exhibition is primarily on the ‘60s and ‘70s. We undertook research of the history of the Bettws estate and investigated what it was like on the estate.

“The exhibition tells the story of Bettws through various billboards.”

Before the estate was built in the late 1950s, Bettws was a small farming community.

The Argus previously reported in June 1961 that residents would soon be moving onto the £8 million estate.

The article added: “During the next five years houses will spring up and cover the pleasant countryside until it becomes a township of about 3,000 dwellings.”

Resident Jean Cromwell, who lives on Dart Road, moved to the estate in 1962 and found the project to be “nostalgic”.

“It did make me feel nostalgic - I thought of past times.

“I am an original resident and back then there were no roads, no shops, not a lot here. Now we have all of these things. Bettws has changed a lot.”

“The project tells the story.”

Dr David Selway, 28, from Cwmbran, added: “I got involved with the project at a late stage. From what I heard, Bettws did have quite a negative image to it but once I got here I didn’t think that at all.

“It’s a lovely place to be.”

The project will be at Bettws Library until August 26, then it will move to Newport Central Library.