Local History

Newport - 2000 years of Local History

Newport's 14th century castle built between 1327 and 1386 by Hugh d'Audele or his son-in-law Ralph, Earl of Stafford, originally to protect the settlement and the river crossing. Later it was strengthened and extended by Humphrey Stafford the first Earl of Buckingham after the sacking of the area by Owain Glyndwr. It replaced an earlier motte and bailey castle on Stow Hill. The castle now fits snuggly between the Railway and Town bridges. Owain Glyndwr and his mauraders burned the town of Newport, most of the buildings were made of wood with thatched roofs, however they were easily rebuilt and the town soon recovered from the devastation.

The City has five magnificaent bridges it originally had a wooden bridge which crossed the Usk at the Castle, many early paintings and engravings show the old wooden bridge. It was replace by a stone built 5 span arch bridge, built in 1801 which still stands today. The wooden railway bridge running along the opposite side of the castle which burnt down in 1845 it was replaced by the one which is still in use today, it was opened in 1853. The Transporter Bridge which was built to link the west to the east side of Newport and it expanding industrial area opened in September 1906. The George Street Bridge a cable stayed bridge which carries the A48 across the Usk almost mid way between the previous two bridges, it was opened in April 1964 and is now grade II listed. In 2002 the CIty Bridge a bow string arch bridge was built to carry the southern distributor road over the Usk linking the Maesglas and Ringland areas of Newport as an alternative road link to lighten the traffic on both the Town and George Street bridges. The last bridge to be built over the Usk was a foot bridge, also a cable stayed bridge which is situated between the Town and George Street bridges it was opened on the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Transporter Bridge 16th September 2006

Mediaeval Newport
Between 1088 and 1093 the Normans arrived and settled in the new town beside the river Usk, during the time of the first Norman Lord of Newport Robert Fitzhamon work began building a river crossing. In the 12^th century they built a mott and bailey castle close to the crossing. The town received its first Charter in 1385 from Hugh, Earl of Stafford. A second Charter giving the town the right to run a market and its own commerce was given by Humphrey Stafford, First Duke of Buckingham in 1426. Towns often appeared by castles as the garrisons provided a ready market for the townspeople's goods. Soon a weekly market began in the town and people would come from the surrounding countryside to buy and sell. A third Charter was granted to Newport in 1623 by King James 1st. Given in recognition of the town's growing importance. From then on the townspeople could hold 2 fairs each year.

Growth & expansion
Newport expanded rapidly and changed from a small sea-port town to one of the most important places in the country for coal export helped by the Navigation Act of 1792 which authorised the building of a canal between Newport and Pontypool, with a branch from Malpas to Crumlin. The Act also authorised the building of several tramroads to link various iron works in the two valleys to the canal. The Pontypool section of the Monmouthshire canal was opened in early 1792, it was 10.5 miles long had 42 locks and 3 tunnels and could take barges 64ft x 9ft. The Crumlin section of the Monmouthsire canal opened in the spring of 1799 , was 11 miles long and had 32 locks, the 14 locks at Rogerstone are a local tourist attraction. The Canal Act of 1802 gave permission for the building of the Sirhowy dual tramroad, to a 9 mile point between Wattsville and Cwmfelinfach linking with the single tramroad from Nine Mile Point to Tredegar making it possible to get their iron down the full length of the Sirhowy valley from the works in Tredegar to the expanding docks. In 1823 Newport became the most important coal port in Wales. In 50 years, from 1801 - 1851 the population of Newport increased for 1,000 to 19,000 and in 1823 steam ships ran from Newport to Bristol. 1850 saw the arrival of the railway.

The town became known for its accessible modern docks, trade flourished and further extension of the docks added to Newport’s reputation a new inland dock called the Town Dock opened in 1842 to accomodate the increasing vessels coming into the port. Work began on digging Alexandra Dock in 1875. In addition to the port there was a flourishing shipbuilding industry and potteries in the town. 1914 Newport shipped over 6 million tons of coal per year.
More information can be found here: Newport Docks

Set in a beautiful 90 acre park, Tredegar House is one of the best examples of a 17th century Charles II mansion in Britain. The earliest surviving part of the building dates back to the early 1500’s. The house, belonged to the Morgans - later Lords of Tredegar for over 500 years . There are many legends about the Morgans, they are one of the oldest Welsh dynasties and still fascinate to this day. Captain Henry Morgan [1635 - 1688], the well known buccaneer/privateer was one of this dynasty and a son of Monmouthshire. He played an important part in Welsh and British history over many centuries. At the age of 45 althtough a privateer had made a name for himself he was acting Governor of Jamaica, Vice Admiral, Commandant of the Port Royal Regiment, Judge of the Admiralty and Justice of the Peace. A brand of well known rum also carries his name.
More information can be found here: Tredegar House and Morgans of Tredegar House

John
Frost

Zephaniah
Williams

William
Jones

St Woolos Cathedral its full title - Woolos, King & Confessor. A religious site has been situated here since the 5th century. St. Woolos church was founded by St. Gwynllyw the patron saint of Newport and King of Gwynllwg. In the 9th century the wooden structure on the site was replaced by a stone built one, today some of the cathedral pre dates the normans. Badly damaged during the sacking of the town it underwent major work in 1402 which also included the building of the tower.

It was also damaged during the civil war although nothing as severe as before. The cathedral dominates the Newport skyline and is still a place of pilgrimage. There is also a plaque in the church yard commemorating the bloodshed and containment of Newport 's Chartist uprising of 1839.

The St. Woolos Cemetery is the oldest public cemetery in Britain, having opened in 1850. It is a little known fact that two veterans of the 1879 Zulu war are buried in the cemetery. Both John Jeremiah Lyons and Alfred Saxty were Corporals in the 2nd/24th Regiment of Foot 'B' Company. Both men are described and rightly so as 'Heros' defending Rorke's Drift South Africa on 22nd/23rd January 1879.The two men were among some 150 who defended a supply station against 4,000 Zulus.
At Rorke's Drift eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded. Seven of which were made to the 2nd Battalion, 24th Regiment of Foot.
More infomation can be found here: Rorke's Drift

"Terra Marique"
"By land and sea"

The river Usk has been the all important and continuous thread running through what is a beautiful and rich tapestry called Newport. The name Newport derives from the fact that Caerleon was the "old" port on the river Usk, but as ships became bigger they could no longer naviagate the river to Caerleon so a new port/dock was built closer to the mouth of the estuary. The City's name in welsh - Casnewydd, although it is also written that the welsh language name for the City is Casnewydd-ar-Wysg which means New Castle on the Usk, this is a shortened from Castell Newydd-ar-Wysg and relates to its 12th century motte and bailey castle. Newport also has a Latin name Novus Burgus, meaning new borough or new town.

Today Newport can boast City status after winning a competition to mark the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002, the Queen visited the city as part of her Jubilee tour of Wales in June of that year. It is a bustling multi-cultural society covering 73.5 square miles where old and new stand along side each other. Newport is the third largest city in Wales. It is steeped in a rich industrial heritage reaching back to the beginning of the industrial revolution and beyond. Newport's location at the mouth of the river Usk has attracted visitors for centuries.

The City's coat of arms is unusual, it has a cherub above the shield and one of the supporters is a winged sea lion, which is a rare heraldic device. The Authority was given a grant to use the amorial bearings in 1926 although they had been in use for some time and can be traced back to 1835. A gold shield with a reversed red chevron, the shield is ensigned by a cherub. The shield belongs to the Staffords, Earls and Dukes of Buckingham - Lords of the Manor of Newport in the 14th and 15th centuries. It is the reversed chevron which separates the Borough Arms and those of the family.

The City’s history dates back to a Celtic settlement 2000 years ago. Hundreds of years before the Romans arrived, another huge influx of humanity from Europe had occupied Britain. By the time that BC had turned to AD, the Celts had split into dozens of individually named tribes, totally independent of each other and fiercely protective of their own territories.

Although documents survived from this period, little evidence had come to light to confirm the importance of Newport during the later middle ages, until the discovery of a near complete ship in 2002. The discovery of the ship It shows that Newport was an important trading centre Although not all the facts are clear at the moment, it would seem to be the first hard evidence for Newport being a centre of industry and trade in the mediaeval period.

In 2007 Archaeologists from TV's Time Team came for a three day dig to nearby Harold's Field in Portskewett next to where St. Mary's Church stands today. No one had ever excavated the earthworks in the field and the site had been scheduled as an ancient monument back in the early 1920s. They believe they located the long-lost site where King Harold built a hunting lodge on the English border just a year before he was killed at the Battle of Hastings.

Also during the 14th century friars arrived in Newport. The friars, unlike monks of the time who withdrew from the world they went out to preach. In Newport they built a hospital for people with infectious diseases. Although they were unable to treat the patients they were caring for they did isolate them from the population at large. After the friary was closed the hospital lived on in the place name Spitty Fields (Spitty is a corruption of hospital). In 1538 Henry VIII closed the friary and confiscated its property.

In the early 1520s the following was written about Newport "The said town of Newport is a borough and a proper town and has a good haven coming into it, well occupied with small crays where a great ship may resort and have good harbour" - Good Haven meaning the river was easy too navigate and crays were ships. With its geographical position Newport was well placed to trade with Bristol and the inland port of Bridgewater.

More information can be found here: Castle, Medieval Ship, Medieval Newport and Harold's Lodge

Industries in Newport at the time included leather tanning, soap making and starch making. There were also the same craftsmen found in any town such as bakers, butchers, brewers, carpenters and blacksmiths. However Newport was still a very small town, with a population of less than a thousand.
In 1585 a guildhall was built in Newport for the first time. In 1587 the wooden bridge over the Usk collapsed and had to be rebuilt.

As Newport expanded more houses were built. Cardiff Road and Commercial Road were built in 1812. Some of the new houses were refined dwellings but many were dreadful slums. Newport like most other victorian towns and cities was dirty and unsanitary. An outbreak of cholera in 1849 killed 69 people. Afterwards the council built a network of sewers. They were completed in 1859. From 1847 a water company provided piped water for those who could afford it, many people still continued to rely on wells for many years afterwards. A typhus outbreak in 1856 casued the death of 59 people the disease is spread by lice) in 1856. However, despite the dirty conditions there were some improvements in Newport during the 19th century. From 1825 the streets were lit by gas. A modern police force was formed in 1836. The first cemetery was opened in 1842, as church burial grounds were becoming overcrowded.

Newport flourished and prospered during the Victorian age. A town hall was built in 1842 and in 1844 a cattle market was built. 1839 saw a dispensary opening where the poor could obtain free medicines. It began taking in patients and turned into an infirmary. Gwent hospital was founded in 1901. Newport's first public library opened in 1871. From 1875 horse drawn trams ran in the streets. The provisions market was built in 1887. Belle Vue Park opened in 1894. The first electricity generating station opened in 1895.
In the late 19th century the population of Newport continued to grow rapidly. It reached 35,000 in 1881 and 67,000 in 1901. In 1889 the boundaries of Newport were extended to include the area east of the river.

Those who settled in Gwent and South Glamorgan - Gwynllwg and Morgannwg being early but not exclusive, precursive translations - were known as the Silures. They were pretty thick on the ground but although the precise sites of their many camps remain unspecified, their capital and seat of many generations of their kings of Gwent is known to have been Caerwent. This busy Silurian market town was probably the largest town in Gwent.

On the very edge of the Roman empire, Caerleon was the chosen site for a strategic legionary fortress of the 2nd (Augustan) legion from the latter part of the 1st century AD primarily to defend the river crossing. The remains of the barracks, bath house and amphitheatre are among the best preserved Roman military sites in Britain.
More information can be found here: Roman Caerleon

The Freedom of the City is a ceremonial honour granted to those who have served in the Borough in some exceptional way, or upon those whom the City wishes to bestow the honour. Some of those who have recieved the honour are:
* Rt. Hon. Godfrey Charles Morgan,
1st Viscount Tredegar Lord Lieutenant of Monmouthshire

* Bernard Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein
* Corps of the South Wales Borderers (24th Foot)
* Royal Regiment of Wales (24th/41st Foot)
* 104th Regiment Royal Artillery (Volunteers)
* Royal Welch Fusiliers
* British Merchant Navy Association
* HMS Severn

Soldiers and special constables gathered in the town to meet them. Some of the leaders of the chartist movement were being held prisoner in the basement of the Westgate Hotel. Anticipating that their followers would try to free them the troops gathered there. The chartists then marched on the hotel and some of them forced their way in. The mayor commanded them to disperse to no avail. Then one of the chartists fired a shot.

The Chartists
One of Newport’s most significant events was the Chartist Uprising of 1839. In the early 19th century only a small minority of men had the right to vote. The chartists wanted all men to have that right and in 1839, their demands included a vote for all men over 21 years, secret ballots, wages for Members of Parliament and the abolition of the property qualifications for Mps, and they attempted an armed uprising.

The main Chartist leader in South Wales in 1839 was Henry Vincent, he was a very popular man with workers. He said that the only way to get the vote was by force. The authorities frightened by his stand arrested Vincent, hoping that it would defuse the problem. Sadly it had the very opposite effect. It angered other Chartist leaders and John Frost, their leader, decided to force the authorities to free Vincent.
They decided upon a plan that three groups of men some armed with guns but most armed with pikes, axes and iron bars would march down from the mining valleys and meet at Cefn, north of Newport. The groups would be led by John Frost from Blackwood, Zephaniah Williams from Ebbw Vale met at the Welsh Oak Public House in Risca, before marching on and meeting up with William Jones from Pontypool. After which over 3,000 men marched on Newport

All of the rights demanded by the Chartists were incorporated within the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. Over 20 were shot dead and their leaders were transported for life although they were later pardoned. These men suffered for principles which we now take for granted and indeed form the basis of modern parliamentary democracy.
More information can be found here:
Newport Chartists , Newport's Rebellion, and the Story of the Chartists

John Frost said to be the most important figure in the Newport Uprising, was a son of the town. He was born in 1789, the son of John and Sarah Frost who kept the Royal Oak Tavern, Mill Street. He married Mary Geach a widow with whom he had seven children - 5 daughters and two sons. He became a proserous woollen draper, and became Mayor of Newport and a Magistrate in the town. Sentenced to be hung, drawn and quartered for Treason, after fears by Queen Victoria and the Home Secretary of a French style revolution as a back lash there was a plea to "calm things down" and the sentence was changed to one of transportation for life. After fourteen years John Frost recieved a pardon and returned home where his faithful wife waited for him, they moved to Stapleton in Bristol . Sadly there was happy ending, she died in 1856 on short year after his return from hard labour and exile in Tasmania. John Frost died in 1877 in his 93th year, he is buried at Horfield Parish Church in Bristol. Newport finally honoured John Frost, naming a town square after him and erecting a statue to him outside of the West Gate Hotel.

The soldiers and special constables retreated upstairs but the mayor stood his ground. He was shot and wounded. The mayor then ordered his men to fire into the crowd outside from upstairs in the hotel.
Once they were fired upon the chartists fled and the uprising collapsed. (Perhaps the chartists believed that the soldiers would side with them and were alarmed when they didn't). It is said that 22 chartists died. The ringleaders were sentenced to death. Instead they were transported but they were all eventually pardoned. All the demands of the chartists were eventually met.

Tredegar House

Newport_ChartistsCave_BlaenauGwentWebsite

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