VIDEO | Newport Chartist Mural

31 October 2007 | As the Chartist Anniversay weekend approaches, in commemoration of the Newport Chartist Rising of 4 November 1839, we are pleased to present the first video clip of the Newport Chartist Mural (John Frost Square, Newport):




More | Newport Chartist Mural Documentation Project

Chartist insurrrection at 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 Monmouthshire 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 [ Published 1840 J.G. & F. Rivington. Available as a public domain book in Google Books ]

Newport Chartist Mural ( Video v1.0 )

Newport Chartist Mural Documentation Project

23 October 2007 | Today we recorded the Newport Chartist Mural in situ in the pedestrian tunnel, John Frost Square, Newport.

We were blessed with an exceptionally sunny day, enhancing the normally poor lighting conditions in the tunnel in order to record the 120 ft long mosaic mural.

We are grateful for the patience shown by members of the public during our filming in the tunnel, many of whom expressed their enthusiastic views on the Chartist Mural.

We look forward to making the Newport Chartist Mural photographic and film archive available online over the coming weeks.

Mapping Chartist Newport

Chartist landmarks

Mapping Chartist Newport

Some selected Chartist landmarks - highlighting the geography of Chartism in Newport, the industrial valleys and iron-districts of Monmouthsire and the "Hills", plus some wider South Wales connections. [Work in progress]

[1] A geography of Chartism: From Westgate Square to the Chartist Caves

v_0.1 | 10 Oct 2007

Visualization:

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• flickr map
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[2] The signs on the street: Chartist prism

Defamiliarizing the landmark

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Walking the street - we tend to pass by everyday familiar landmarks; despite their size they dissolve from our very sight. Public statues and other forms of public art are no exception - the noble becomes a traffic island, we do not enquire into his past deeds.

Chartism - the signs on the street of a memorialized past - in public statues, memorials, plaques and other forms of public art. The signs on the street. Fragmented signs and space; or, heroic narrative and place of Chartism? Sites of memory and forgetting, sedition and freedom, power and struggle.

Chartist Anniversary Events

Announcing two forthcoming Chartist Anniversary events in commemoration of the Newport Chartist Rising of 4 November 1839 :

CHARTIST TOUR | Anniversary of the Newport Chartist Rising, 1839

Sunday 4 November 2007 | A guided coach tour around Chartism sites across South East Wales | Organised by HERIAN – Heritage in Action | Itinerary and booking information here

CHARTIST ANCESTORS | Pioneers of democracy

Saturday 3 November 2007 | St. Mary’s Institute, Stow Hill, Newport | | A day event to commemorate the Anniversary of the Newport Chartist Rising of 4 November 1839 | 11 am - 5 pm, Free Entrance | Programme details here