One Sketch #11 - Chartist Commemorative Sculpture, Newport

I like Newport. There we are, I've said it. Sue me. Newport has only been a city for a few years, but it's a city I like, and so when I was at a bit of a loss where to go today, I thought I could do a lot worse.

Newport is rightly proud of its connection with the Chartists. Chartism was a very serious working class movement in Britain from the late 1830s, which called for, amongst other social improvements, universal male suffrage. Needless to say, the 'ruling classes' were a) scared witless by Chartism, and b) determined to oppose the Chartists at all costs.

In November 1839 up to ten thousand Chartists marched on Newport. Their purpose was to free fellow Chartists who were believed to have been imprisoned in the town. Troops were called, and opened fire, killing over 20 demonstrators.

Today I sketched a part of the Chartist Commemorative Sculpture by Christopher Kelly, which was erected in the early 1990s.

The law don't help poor working folk
But it taught us, if we rise
That the rich don't take no prisoners
And they don't apologise
It's blood of honest working men
That stained the gutters red
And the ruling classes slept more sound
For the twenty who lay dead.