Demo at ideological vandalism as Newport Chartist mural demolished

[Tony Gosling]

Ideological vandalism under police protection in 
Newport, Gwent today - Demo pix as Chartist mural 
is demolished 
<https://www.facebook.com/http://t.co/HpP2dt2mij>http://t.co/HpP2dt2mij

In Pictures: Newport Chartist mural to come down
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-17276428

Demonstration as Newport Chartist mural demolished

  http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/gwentnews/10715541.Newport_Chartist_mural_being_demolished/

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The Newport Rising
On 3–4 November 1839, Frost led a Chartist march 
on the Westgate Hotel in Newport. The rationale 
for the set piece confrontation remains opaque, 
although it may have its origins in Frost's 
ambivalence towards the more violent attitudes of 
some of the Chartists, and the personal animus he 
bore towards some of the Newport establishment 
who were ensconced in the hotel along with sixty 
armed soldiers. The Chartist movement in south 
east Wales was chaotic in this period, after the 
arrest of Henry Vincent a leading agitator, who 
was imprisoned nearby in Monmouth gaol and the 
feelings of the workers were running extremely 
high, too high for Frost to reason with and 
control. One of his contemporaries, William Price 
described Frost's stance at the time of the 
Newport Rising as being akin to "putting a sword 
in my hand and a rope around my neck."
The march, which had been gathering momentum over 
the course of the whole weekend as Frost and his 
associates led the protestors down from the 
valley towns above Newport, numbered some 3,000 
when it entered the town. According to the plan, 
three columns from three directions were to march 
upon Newport and take the town before dawn. The 
contingent starting from Blackwood was commanded 
by Frost, the detachment coming from Nantyglo by 
Williams and the main body of Pontypool by Jones. 
The three columns were to meet at Risca, but this 
did not come to pass; owing to a storm raging in 
the night, all of them arrived late, and the 
worst trouble was that the delay gave the Newport 
authorities ample time to get wind of what was 
afoot and make ready to confront the coming armed 
Chartists. Special constables were sworn in 
hastily, the known Chartists of Newport were 
arrested and shut up in the Westgate Hotel where 
the mayor held thirty soldiers in reserve. The 
Chartist troops led by Frost, proceeding to the 
hotel at 9:30 am and demanding the surrender of 
the Chartist prisoners, advanced to the door. 
When the soldiers posted in the hotel started 
firing, ten to fifteen Charists died instantly, 
about fifty were wounded. The bloody event was 
over in twenty minutes. The Chartists miners were 
in a very bad strategic position, and the firing 
took them by surprise. When they withdrew, they 
met the contingent of Williams and outside the 
town, the column of Jones. The times estimated 
that the strength of the Chartists army at 8,000 and Gammage at 20,000.
Overall the battle of the Westgate lasted only 
about 25 minutes, but at its close some 22 people 
lay dead or dying and upwards of 50 had been 
injured. An eyewitness report spoke of one man, 
wounded with gunshot, lying on the ground, 
pleading for help until he died an hour later. 
Bullet holes remain in the masonry of the hotel entrance porch to this day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Frost_(Chartist)#The_Newport_Rising



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