1839-2008 Newport Chartist Rising | Sun 2 Nov - Chartist coach tour

[Chartist Newport]

"We have already mentioned that there was scarcely any town of importance in the manufacturing districts whose tranquility was not compromised by the chartists in the course of the year. | We have, however, now to relate the particulars of an insurrection even more alarming than the Birmingham outrage, which broke out at Newport in Monmouthire at the close of 1839. | This town is the capital of a tract of country called the Hill district, which forms a sort of triangle, the apex of which may be placed at Risca, five miles from Newport, the base at about a distance of fifteen or twenty miles. | The whole region is intersected by glens watered by streams, and maintains a mining population of nearly forty thousand persons in regions which fifty years ago exhibited nothing but the scattered dwellings of a few shepherds.| The Annual Register, Or, A View of the History and Politics of the Year 1839 (1840)

Sunday 2nd Nov | CHARTIST COACH TOUR | Organised by Herian
Knowledgeable guides will take us around sites in south east Wales connected with the Chartist Movement – such as Blaenavon, Bedwellty House and Blackwood. | Departs St Woolos Cathedral 9.30am. Returns 5.30pm. | Tickets £7 per person. Contact HERIAN to book 01685 723968.


Last year's coach tour in commemoration of the Chartist Rising of 4 November 1839 was followed by another fascinating route this year through the South Wales landscape of industrialism and Chartism. The tour was organised by Herian and we were accompanied by expert tour guides who helped to bring our journey alive; sharing new insights and connections between the places and protagonists of the South Wales Chartist Rising. :

The focus of this year's tour was upon the frontier iron townships of the "Hill district" of the Monmouthsire valleys, with walks around Blaenavon and Tredegar, and once again our tour route overlapped in many places with the route taken by Chartist contingents on their march to Newport.

Blaenavon ironworks is featured in the following photographs (click on thumbnail to view larger size):










Itinerary

From Newport ...

* from St Woolos Cathedral, Newport we commenced with a visit to the Ridgeway with its extensive views of the valleys landscape to the north

* we then proceeded to view Malpas Court, the residence built by Thomas Prothero, agent to the Tredegar Estate and a major protagonist of the Newport Chartists; the building has recently renovated for use as a community facility.


... to the iron districts

* proceeding north via Pontypool, we then entered the iron districts proper - travelling via Varteg - site of the British iron works - to Blaenavon, through the rugged mining landscape in which iron-stone and coal were extracted through the scouring method, leaving a scarred industrial landscape, featured in the novels of Alexander Cordell, and now forming a part of the Blaenavon World Heritage Landscape.
* we enjoyed a full tour of the Blaenavon iron works, appreciating the true scale of the furnaces with a walk around the site; followed by a walk around the town.

* Tredegar was our next destination - travelling west across the Heads of the Valleys iron townships of Brynmawr, Beaufort and Ebbw Vale. We did not have time for a full visit to the remains of the SIrhowy ironworks furnace bank. We passed through Dukestown and the Twyn Star common - site of a major Chartist rally prior to the 4 November march on Newport, when 40,000 people gathered from across the South Wales iron districts, in what was the largest public gathering of the nineteenth century!
* We visited Bedwellty Park, Tredegar and the residence built by iron master Samuel Homfray, who came to the Tredegar iron works from the Penydarren iron works at Merthyr Tydfil. Homfray, who had married into the family of Lord Tredegar, was a man of formiddable entreprenurship: it was Homfray who employed Trevithick to experiment with steam power in the Penydarren works, out of which came the historic world's first steam locomotive demonstration run along the Penydarren (Merthyr) tramroad; he also developed the Sirhowy tramroad and pioneered the local sale-coal trade; and he planned Tredegar town centre around a circular spatial lay-out, making it the first planned new industrial town in Britain.
* The clebrated Tredegar iron clock was later added as a landmark to The Circle; and it may be claimed that this was an anti-Chartist landmark in its dedication to the Duke of Wellington ( see notes here).




Chartist meeting at Dukestown - "they were men enough in Dukes Town to take the Charter by force"

"Afterwards saw them at another meeting held ad Dukes Town above Sirhowy - it was after the meeting at the Blackwood - Frost and Jones were both present and addressed the meetings at Dukes Town on the subject of the Charter - they urged the people to obtain the Charter to have it in a quiet way if they could and if they could not have it in a quiet way have it they would - they say they will have it - they told the meeting that they were men enough in Dukes Town to take the Charter by force - there were present at Dukes Town a good many thousand . I know the men had come in every direction to the meeting- I saw them marching in different directions, some from Tredegar, some from Ebbw Vale, some from Blackwood, some from Pontypool, from Merthyr and different other places - the men were going there from all parts- I heard them tell the men to be ready and lend their hands when they were called - this was said by Frost and Jones (...)" | Chartist Trial Records: Examination of Morgan James of Pillgwenlly: see notes here


... and south through Blackwood - a Chartist armed with a pike and marching en route to Newport.

* heading back south to Newport, we travelled down the Sirhowy valley - noting the coal mining communities en route; the birth place of "the Blackwood Infidel" and Chartist contingent leader Zephaniah Williams at Argoed; and the recent memorialization of Chartism in the new Blackwood Chartist bridge and sculpture - a Chartist armed with a pike and marching en route to Newport.


Posted by - John Wilson