Many Newport based haulage and commercial business have in the midst of time long been forgotten, and many reminders have been swept away by new development of the sites.

Here are just a few that used to exist (scroll through the photos above).

At the junction of Mill Street and Crocker Street stood the early garages of Mews artificial stone company and J. Mews haulage carriers.

Although two differing companies, both had roots in the same family enterprises.

Mews' stone-produced pre-cast stone blocks for house building, and indeed one can see many Island houses that were built using its stone.

J. Mew haulage was a general carriers.

Across the road almost opposite in Crocker Street were the garages of Gubbins and Ball general haulage, one of the Island's largest hauliers, distinguished by its bright orange liveried wagons.

The wagons used both by Mews and Gubbins and Ball were old army cast offs from the Second World War, as during the 1950s new commercial vehicles were expensive and not readily available.

Another notable company was Buckinghams. It was involved solely in the collection of milk from local farms.

Its dark green wagons were regularly seen plying between the various farm collection points and the Island Dairy's milk processing plant in Newport, where it would offload the large metal churns.

Buckinghams had a garage and headquarters in Clifford Street, Newport.

Pan Mill near Coppins Bridge was the home of Leigh Thomas who produced milled cereal for farm animal feed. The old mill now serves as general offices.

Every working day the pale green wagons would be seen at the mill, collecting the full grain sacks for delivery.

Due to changing working practices these companies slowly started to wind down, and by the late '70s most had closed.

One of the last to vanish from the roads of the Island was British Road Services.

It was not an independent Island company, it was a heavy goods and parcel delivery organisation, with red wagons (heavy haulage) and green wagons (lighter haulage and parcels).

Its history is an interesting one, as following the Second World War, much of the independent road haulage industry was nationalised by the government under a corporate banner of The British Road Services, and stayed as such for many years until denationalisation.

On the Island the haulage company of J. Mew stayed independent throughout.

There are many other business from the '50s to the late '70s that I have failed to mention due to limitation of space, all of whom have interesting histories.

If one were to look around at some of the new housing developments around the area of Newport it is a sure bet that the sites possibly will have an interesting commercial past.

The commercial businesses have now mostly moved to the industrial complexes, whereupon unlike the past, various forms of commerce are segregated from the domestic housing areas.