St Dials was designated as one of the seven residential areas in the 1951 Master Plan for Cwmbran New Town with a proposed area of 188 acres. Covering the centre of the new Town, it included most of the historic settlement of old Cwmbran with an existing population in 1951 of 1,420. With a proposed population of 4,300 it was decided that the existing shopping centre on Commercial Road would need to be supplemented by a new, smaller shopping centre at the centre of the neighbourhood. This was located at Pen-y-waun Road with a new primary school just to the north of this.

s Fielding, RCAHMW, April 2018