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Tours > Wales > Newport
Newport (Casnewydd: Kas-New-Ith)
 The city of Newport is the ideal stopping place to tour nearby Caerleon. As Wales's third largest city, it has much to offer the visitor, including the ruins of an ancient castle, smart modern shopping centers, St. Woolos Cathedral and Westgate Square. At the corner of High Street and Commercial Street is the imposing Westgate Hotel (rebuilt in 1886, but now no longer serving as a hotel). This is a most revered spot to anyone interested in the industrial history of Britain and the story of the Chartists.
It was here in 1839 that British troops (hastily shipped in from Bristol, and armed and waiting in the hotel) bloodily suppressed a Chartist uprising led by Robert Frost and others in the tumultuous days before Parliamentary reform. Frost was found guilty of high treason along with William Jones and Rees (Jack the Fifer). All three leaders were sentenced to hanging and quartering, their bodies to be thrown on the town's rubbish dump, but mainly due to the Government's fear of massive uprisings, the sentence was later commuted to one of life imprisonment.
The Great Reform Bill of 1867 finally ended the Chartist Movement, for in that year nearly one million voters were added to the register, almost doubling the electorate. Forty-five new seats were created and the vote given to many working. men. Frost died in 1877 at the age of ninety-three, having returned home to a hero's welcome after many years as a convict in Australia.
 In Westgate Square, a statue commemorates Sir Charles Morgan, a local contributor to the agricultural, economic and industrial development of the town in the first half of the 19th century, but of far greater interest are the Chartist sculptures, designed to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the great uprising. The sculptures are titled Union, Prudence, and Energy, the motto of the Chartist convention. Energy consists of three recumbent figures that lie seemingly crushed and lifeless, but which form the foundation from which the spirit of Chartism sprang to life.
Also located in the square is Newport's controversial clock, brought from a Garden Festival at Ebbw Vale. Named "In the Nick of Time," it is made of six tons of stainless steel and described by its sculptor as "a cross between a cuckoo clock and an expresso machine." On the hour, it shudders and creaks into life, splitting open to reveal skeletons, angels and devils, no doubt frightening those children who see it for the first time.
Not too far from the Westgate Hotel, rebuilt in 1886, in Commercial Street, is the statue Stand and Stare commemorating the Newport-born poet and tramp W.H. Davies, whose most famous poem begins: "What is this life if full of care? We have no time to stand and stare?" and of which framed copies are found in so many Welsh bedrooms. Near the statue is the Visitor's Center where you can find all kinds of useful information about the town.
 Situated on Stow Hill, overlooking the city center is the least-known of the Welsh cathedrals and probably the least visited: St. Woolos. This is the most modern of the six cathedrals of Wales, having been a Parish church until 1921. It did not receive the status of a full cathedral until 1949, following the formation of the Diocese of Monmouth. The church is named after a fifth-century Welsh nobleman, Gwynllyw, lord of Gwynllwg, who converted to Christianity after the fulfillment of his dream that he would find a white ox with a black spot on a nearby hill.
The hill was Stow Hill; Gwynllyw built the first church there. In a heavily anglicized area that was also one of the first provinces of Wales to be controlled by the Normans, the name Gwynllyw, or Wentlooge, was quickly corrupted to Woolos. Gwynlliw and his wife Gwladys have the reputation of practicing cold water bathing in the Usk all year-round, preceded and followed at night by a mile long walk in the nude!
In the latter part of the 12th century, another church was erected on Stow Hill by Robert Fitzhamon. This lasted until mid-15th century, when fighting involving Welsh patriot Owain Glyndwr against the Norman rulers of Wales led to its almost total destruction. The north and south aisles were then rebuilt and the tall tower was added. The columns of the fine Norman arch that remains are believed to have come from the Roman fortress at nearby Caerleon.
Before leaving Newport, one should also visit the Transporter Bridge, built in 1906 as a "suspended ferry." Similar to the only other one in Britain (at Middlesboro), this bridge has recently been restored and is now operating again after many years of resting idly above the river. It is a vivid reminder of Newport's industrial past.
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