The mountain top of Twmbarlwm , dominating Risca, has a magnificent Iron Age fort. On the opposite side of the valley on a flat plateau beneath Machen mountain an Iron Age farm was measured and surveyed . An earlier dedication of the church was recorded in 1733 when it carried the name of St. Peter. Documentary evidence suggests that the first church in Risca was built between 1146 and 1230 when the tithes of the church were recorded as having passed as a gift to the Benedictine monastery of Glastonbury. At that time the Church was a chapel of Bassaleg.
Daughter churches The district supported only a few hill farms.
With the discovery and exploitation of coal and steel, the population grew very quickly . In 1910 Lord Tredegar gave the land for a new daughter church to be built at Crosskeys. It was dedicated to St. Catherine of Alexandria. It has been extensively modernised in recent years. One year later divine services were held in a new daughter church of St. Margaret of Antioch in Pontymister to cater for the people who lived around the rapidly developing iron works.