A day event to commemorate the Anniversary of the Newport Chartist Rising of 4 November 1839
Saturday November 3rd 2007, St. Mary’s Institute, Newport
Summary by Les James, 12 November 2007
The Chartist Ancestors - Pioneers of Democracy event was organised in response to the great interest generated earlier this year by the ‘Meet the Descendants’ event, held at Newport Museum and Art Gallery on April 30th. Chartist Ancestors provided opportunities for:
people with Chartist ancestors to share their family stories with the public,
the story of Chartism and the people of the Chartist era to be understood and appreciated by a wider audience
and for recognition of the struggle and sacrifice made by past generations for the democratic rights enjoyed today.
A Chartist Tour | 4 November 2007 On Sunday 4 November 2007 I participated in a guided coach tour of chartist sites across south Wales, in commemoration of the 4 November 1839 Newport Chartist Rising.
The Sunday tour of Chartist sites followed the Chartist Ancestors event of Saturday, and many of the participants attended both days of Chartist Anniversary celebration. The presence of a number of Chartist descendants gave the Sunday tour a special poignancy therefore, as we visited sites such as the Nantyglo Roundtowers - built as a fortification by rutheless iron-master Crawshay Bailey - in the heart of the Hills of Monmouthshire iron district; and, most dramatically, we filled the Court Room of the Shire Hall. Monmouthsire, where the mass treason trial of John Frost and his fellow defendants was held.
Our full days' coach tour tour re-traced sections of the route taken on the Chartists March to Newport; we passed through the landscapes of power of the landowner-capitalists and the Chartists of the industrial frontier; we filled the Court Room of Monmouthsire Shire Hall where the Chartist Trial proceedings took place; and returned to Newport for a commemoration event at St Woolos Cathedral.
The day's journey had transformed the fractured geography and spaces of the everyday into a coherent story and landscape of Chartism, a network of Chartist and anti-Chartist activity, charged with human narrative and historical detail to produce unique insights into some of the places and individual actors of Chartism.
Read more | Sunday 4 November 2007 Chartist Tour here.
The Trial of John Frost | Terry Frost Jones, descendant of Newport Mayor and Chartist Leader John Frost, outside the Shire Hall, Monmouth, where the Court Room held the trial of John Frost and his fellow Chartist defendants for mass treason.
The Chartist Trial | The popular judgement of history - 4 November 2007 - Chartist descendants stand in the Judge's benches at the Court Room, Shire Hall, Monmouth, to provide a testimony of their ancestor's role in the Newport Chartist Insurrection of 4 November 1839, and celebrate the ultimate prevailing of the Chartist's cause of Democracy.
Read more | Sunday 4 November 2007 Chartist Tour here.
