City in Wales
Newport
A medieval ship buried in the mud, a bridge that carries cars on a hanging platform, and a rebellion that shook Victorian Britain: Newport packs in a lot.
Key information
- Nation
- Wales
- Population
- About 159,600 (2021 Census)
- Known for
- Transporter Bridge, Chartist Rising of 1839, Roman Caerleon, 2010 Ryder Cup, medieval ship
- Famous people
- W. H. Davies, John Frost, Goldie Lookin Chain
- Football clubs
- Newport County AFC (the Exiles)
About Newport
The ship in the mud
In June 2002, builders digging the foundations of a new arts centre on the Usk riverbank hit something extraordinary: the timbers of a 15th-century ship, preserved in the thick riverside mud. It turned out to be one of the best-preserved medieval vessels ever found in Britain. Archaeologists, and a good number of locals, rallied to save it. The timbers were lifted, recorded and conserved piece by piece, so one of Newport's biggest finds came from a building site. The discovery fits a city that has always lived by its river. The Usk has a huge tidal range, among the biggest in the world, and Newport grew up around it as a crossing point and a port.
The bridge that hangs a car-ferry from the sky
The Newport Transporter Bridge opened in 1906 and is the city's best-known landmark. It doesn't open or swing. Instead, a suspended gondola glides across the Usk on cables, carrying cars and passengers just above the water. The design was needed because the river was too wide and too busy for a low bridge, but ships still had to pass beneath. Newport's is one of a handful of surviving transporter bridges in the world. Its great steel frame towers over the docks and the riverbank, and it has become the city's unofficial emblem. The bridge closed in 2021 for a major restoration.
The day Newport took on the government
On 4 November 1839, thousands of Chartists marched on Newport. They were miners and ironworkers from the Valleys, and they wanted votes for working men. Their leader was John Frost, a former mayor of the town. The march ended outside the Westgate Hotel, where soldiers fired on the crowd. At least 22 people were killed, and it was one of the bloodiest confrontations of the Chartist movement. Frost and two other leaders were sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered. The sentence was later commuted to transportation to Australia. Many of the Chartists' demands, such as the secret ballot and votes for all men, later became law. Newport remembers the Rising with murals and memorials and in its city-centre street names.
Romans, Camelot and a dock town
Part of Newport's story is far older than the docks. At Caerleon, now part of the city, the Romans built Isca, a fortress for the Second Augustan Legion. You can still see the amphitheatre, the barracks and the remains of the baths. Later legend tied Caerleon to King Arthur's court, and Tennyson stayed there while working on his Arthurian poems. Then came coal. In the 19th century, coal and iron from the Valleys were hauled down to Newport and shipped out through its docks. The town swelled, and the grand Tredegar House, home of the Morgan family, was the country seat of the wealth the trade brought in. Newport was granted city status in 2002, as part of the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations.
Rugby, football and a famous Monday
Newport is a sporting town. Newport RFC, the Black and Ambers, beat the touring All Blacks in 1963. The city's rugby ground, Rodney Parade, is also home to the Dragons and to Newport County. Newport County AFC, known as the Exiles, had a golden spell in 1980–81, when they reached the quarter-finals of the European Cup Winners' Cup before losing to Carl Zeiss Jena. In 2019 they took the FA Cup giant-killing route, beating Leicester City and Middlesbrough before losing 4–1 to Manchester City in the fifth round, the last 16. In 2010 the Celtic Manor Resort hosted the Ryder Cup. Rain wrecked the schedule and the contest ran into an unprecedented Monday finish, with Europe beating the USA 14½–13½.
Poets, rappers and wetlands
Newport produced one of Britain's best-loved vagabond poets, W. H. Davies, born here in 1871. He spent years tramping and riding trains in America, and wrote The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp. His poem Leisure opens with the line "What is this life if, full of care". The city's modern cultural export is the comic rap group Goldie Lookin Chain, whose cheerfully rude songs put Newport on the national map in the 2000s. And on the Severn Estuary shoreline, the Newport Wetlands reserve turns old industrial land into a home for birds and reedbeds, only minutes from the steelworks and docks.