Risca (Welsh: Rhisga) is a town of approximately 11,500 people in South Wales, within the Caerphilly County Borough and the historic boundaries of Monmouthshire. It is today part of the Newport conurbation (which as a whole has a population of 140,200), though it is not a Ward of Newport City Council. Risca had a railway station opened on the Ebbw Valley Railway in February 2008, after a gap of 46 years.
The town lies at the south-eastern edge of the South Wales Coalfield, and a coal mine used to operate in the town with terraced housing nearby for workers. On 1 December 1860, an explosion at the Black Vein Colliery at Risca killed more than 140 men and boys as well as 28 pit ponies.
Risca is home to Ty-Sign, which is a large housing estate; built in the early sixties as a satellite village for the (then) new steel works at Llanwern. It has a rural aspect, and is surrounded to the east and west by several extensively wooded hills including Mynydd Machen (1,188 ft/362m) and Twmbarlwm (1,375 ft/419m) which attract tourists for the hillwalking and mountain bikers to Cwmcarn Forest Drive.
Read more about Risca: Governance, Notable Landmarks and Buildings, Culture and Education, Sport and Leisure, Notable People