AN APPEAL to find descendants of ten people buried in the graveyard of a former chapel has been unsuccessful.

Costain Ltd, the construction firm behind the scheme to dual the Heads of the Valleys Road launched the appeal back in July to trace any descendants of six children and four adults buried in the graveyard of the Lion Terrace Chapel in Gilwern.

The firm which is working to widen the A465 between Gilwern and Brynmawr was hoping that any relatives would come forward before the remains and memorial are removed and reinterred at the nearby Llanelly Cemetery on Church Road.

Among the children buried in the graveyard are Thomas Watkins, who died at just ten months-old on March 1, 1847 and Benjamin Watkins, who was one year and two months-old when he died on October 14, 1870.

They have to be removed from the graveyard as work to widen the 8.1kilometre stretch of road progresses.

The scheme requires 122 hectares of land as well as the demolition of eight buildings that include the former Drum and Monkey and Lion Hotel public houses and a former Methodist Chapel and burial ground that was partially cleared during the construction of the current A465 road.

The chapel, which was recently demolished, was built in 1838 and may have gone out of use as early as 1900.

Costain Ltd published a disused burial grounds notice in July giving two months warning of its intention to remove the remains and memorials but say it is possible that some remains are buried there that don't have memorials.

A plan of the present place of burial and a list of names of those buried was available in Clydach Village Hall, Clydach, until last Thursday.

Phil Baker, Costain Ltd's community relations manager, said: “We have not had any family responses to the Public Notices.”

He said that a date has yet to be set for the removal of the remains and memorial and that Costain is waiting for a Ministry of Justice Licence. This gives permission to remove human remains from the ground in Wales and England.

The firm will now arrange for all remains to be removed and reinterred or cremated following conditions set by the Welsh Secretary of State that include taking due care and attention to decency, screening the area from the public during removal and placing any items buried with the deceased in containers.

Those remains will be removed before any building work takes place and reinterred at Llanelly Cemetery on Church Road in Gilwern within two years. Costain will re-erect any unclaimed memorials and cover the expense.