It is located about 7 miles (11 km) south east of Newport city centre on the Caldicot Levels, a large area of coastal land reclaimed from the sea.

Sir Joseph Bradney, in his History of Monmouthshire (1922), is undecided on the derivation of the name of the manor and surrounding village, but notes early spellings such as Witston, Widson and Wyttston.

A main drainage ditch, with an origin near Llanwern, known as "Monksditch" or "Goldcliff Pill"[a] passes through the village on its way to the sea.

[citation needed] The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) describes the village as "a parish in the lower division of Caldicott Hundred, county Monmouth, 6 miles S.E.

Henry Morgan reports the story of Eve, daughter of the Whitson postmaster, who died at The Farmer's Arms in Goldcliff.

The church is built of stone, in the Early English style, with a chancel, nave, south porch and a tower, originally containing two bells.

There is a Norman font and a stained glass memorial east window erected in 1884 by the family of Reverend John Beynon.

In 1901 the living was a vicarage with a net income of £196, including 49 acres (20 ha) of glebe and residence, in the gift of Eton College and the Dean and Chapter of Llandaff alternately, and held from 1900 by the Reverend John Price.

Concerns were also raised over a stained glass window, dedicated to the memory of Herbert and Alice Stevens, paid for by their 14 children.

After the death of St. John Knox Rickards Phillips,[16] in 1901 ownership of the house passed to a distant relative, Fr Oliver Rodie Vassall-Phillips CSsR.

In consequence of the persecution of religious congregations in France, the Sacramentines of Bernay of the Perpetual Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament at the time of the expulsion in July 1903, were compelled to close their boarding-school and go into exile.

Thirteen of the sisters retired to Belgium, and founded a house at Hal, while the rest of their community settled at Whitson Court [17] – thanks to the generosity of Reverend Vassall-Phillips, who wrote: "This order of nuns existence is precarious, for they are not permitted to open a school.

In 1917, the Whitson Estate, encompassing most of the local farms and totalling some 1,050 acres (420 ha) and the Manorial Title, were sold at auction mainly to its existing tenant farmers.

In 1933 Whitson Court and its remaining 18 acres (7.3 ha) of gardens and parkland, were purchased from the then owner, Squire Oakley, by Mr Garroway Smith of Newport.

The house and grounds were subsequently sold by the family and were again left empty, being placed on Newport Council's "Buildings at Risk" register in 2009.

There is a large electricity sub-station, operated by the National Grid, adjacent to the former site of Llanwern steelworks near Whitson Arch.

The owner applied for retrospective planning permission to retain the facility with its concrete runway, but this was refused by the council.