City of Newport Welsh Towns

The vibrant modern city of Newport can trace its roots

through 1,500 years of history.

A history centred on a muddy river with some of the biggest tides in the world.

The River Usk is the driving force in the story of Newport.

A story which saw it rise from a village of the Dark Ages to the biggest town in Wales.

I know Newport became a city in 2002 and so isn't a natural subject for a series on Welsh towns,

but you wouldn't want to miss out on one of the best stories in Welsh history.

And anyway, I was born here.

Newport hasn't always been a town by the river.

For its first 500 years, Newport centre was a ten minute walk away, here at the top of Stow Hill.

Legend has it that the town was founded by St Woolos,

who built a church here around 470 AD.

He was a colourful character, who went to war

with a neighbouring ruler to win the hand of a beautiful princess.

The original church was destroyed,

but the site has been a place of worship ever since.

The oldest parts of what is now St Woolos' Cathedral date back to Norman times.

The high point of any visit is the Norman arch.

It's covered up right now while they restore the roof.

But still, this is the oldest surviving building in Newport,

one which has expanded with the town.

As Newport developed, the town centre gradually moved towards the river.

It doesn't look much when the tide's out,

but just look what happens when the tide comes in.

No city on earth has a tide like this. On a big day, it can rise 45 feet.

These deep waters made the Usk a centre for trade.

After the Norman conquest, a new settlement or new port, grew up here.

Madeleine Grey has studied the early history of Newport.

Madeleine, how did Newport come from on top of a hill to down here by the river?

I think the key thing is the bridge because this is the lowest point

at which you can realistically

bridge the river with medieval technology.

It's also the point you can bring big ships up to.

You can offload the cargo, put it on to small boats, put it onto ponies.

Inevitably, you get a trading settlement.

If you think about what Newport high street would have been like

in the Middle Ages, it would have been a row of little shop fronts,

everybody wanting their shop fronting on the street.

Behind would have been workshops, living accommodation. Everybody would have had a long garden.

But there were less virtuous industries.

Well, this is a dockside settlement, you know.

There would have been squalid alehouses,

there would have been young women of negotiable affection, let's say.

There was this one main street, there were little lanes off it,

there's Cross Keys Lane, Griffin Lane, all named after pubs.

These would have been the pubs down on the waterfront.

The sailors in these dockside pubs came on trading vessels.

Some were abandoned and preserved in that famous Usk mud.

They included these timbers, the remains of the Newport Ship,

an ocean-going freighter from the 1460s,

which could have carried up to 300 tonnes of cargo.

This is an exact scale model of the ship, as it was found in 2002.

The model will be used as a guide to reassemble the ship,

should the money ever be found to build a museum for it.

It's thought the ship came in to Newport for repairs.

It was propped up by these giant timbers to stop it falling over at low tide.

But somehow, they did give way.

And the ship did fall over into the mud.

Then, in came the massive Newport tide, filling it with mud,

and there was no way it could ever be righted again.

And there it lay forgotten, until its accidental discovery in 2002.

The fact that such a large ship came to Newport shows it must have been

a centre of some local importance.

But Newport was about to take its place on the world stage.

200 years ago, Newport ceased to be just a regional centre.

It was thrust onto the global stage,

at the forefront of one of the greatest upheavals in human history.

It swept everything, including most of this castle, before it. Hail the revolution.

The Industrial Revolution.

If you're looking for a single point in history that transformed Newport, it was this canal,

opened in stages right at the end of the 18th century.

The Monmouthshire Canal linked the factories

and mines of the Valleys with Newport and the world.

It is an engineering masterpiece.

These locks on the edge of Newport

rise through 160 feet in just 800 yards.

It's one of the steepest of Britain's major canals.

The engineers weren't too fussy about what they used to build the canal.

Some of the stonework on the canal, the red sandstone there,

was taken from Newport Castle.

The engineers pulled down the most important medieval structure

in Newport to bring the Industrial Revolution to the banks of the Usk.

Coal and iron poured down the canal to the riverside wharfs in Newport.

The canal came down here, roughly where the road is.

The barges would be unloaded and their goods hauled over here.

This is Blaenavon Wharf.

And the ships would be tied up all the way down these wharfs.

Tied up securely, otherwise they'd topple over at low tide.

By 1820, thousands of ships took goods out of Newport each year,

some going as far as America.

As the trade grew, so did the town.

By the 1830s, it was the biggest town in Wales.

With all this trade, there were fortunes to be made in Newport.

But the big money was not made by people working here on the dockside.

It went to those who needed it least, the landowners.

If you want to tell the world how rich you are today,

you can...buy a Ferrari.

In the 17th century, you can build a house like this...

for your horses.

The family's house wasn't bad either.

It's fair to say the Morgans of Tredegar House were filthy rich,

even before the Industrial Revolution.

They'd been landowners around here since 1402,

thriving on royal patronage.

In the 17th century, they built one of the finest houses in Wales.

When the Industrial Revolution hit South Wales,

the family didn't just have a nice house, they controlled 40,000 acres, not just around here,

but right across the valleys.

In the 1790s, the new master of these estates realised that they gave him a golden opportunity

to become much, much richer.

These estates were taken over by a newcomer to the family, Sir Charles Gould Morgan.

He invested in the canal and raked in royalties from the mines and factories on his lands.

A horse drawn tramway also crossed his estate.

He charged half a penny for every ton of coal passing over it.

It was known as the Golden Mile.

In today's money, the family were raking in around £150,000 a year from their mile of track.

By 1885, £500,000.

It wasn't just the Morgans who were getting rich.

Thomas Powell started a coal mining business around 1810.

He became the world's first coal millionaire.

The house his family built at Coldra is now part of the Celtic Manor resort.

For the lucky few, it was party time in an industrial Newport.

But not everyone was doing quite so well.

The Industrial Revolution attracted people to Newport in their thousands,

like a gold rush in America or Australia.

Some came to make their fortune,

others were just desperate to make a living.

The poor lived in squalid slums.

One of the most notorious slums was here.

It's now the Newport Bus Station, but it was the Friars Field,

described as a den of rogues and bullies.

A place where a gentleman could expect to be robbed.

The rich may have worried about watches, but those living here had more important things on their mind.

This is a public health report of 1849,

describing the awful conditions here in early industrial Newport.

It described the streets in many working class areas as open sewers.

There had been outbreaks of cholera and in one year,

216 people died of fever, over half of them here in Friars Field.

But however bad the conditions, some people were desperate to come here.

Victims of the Irish potato famine.

Starving peasants faced a choice, emigrate or die.

Around 15,000 landed in Newport in just five years.

Many got a hostile reception.

So, some sea captains wouldn't take them all the way up to the dock.

Instead, they put the starving refugees into the small boats

and dropped them on the mud for them to find their own way into town.

They were called the mud crawlers and were probably the most desperate immigrants Newport has ever seen.

Newport was a town divided. While ordinary people toiled,

they could see the vast fortunes being made around them.

It's hardly surprising then that Newport became a centre of political protest.

This square in the heart of the city is named after its most famous radical leader.

John Frost wasn't a child of the slums,

he was a former mayor with a draper's shop on the high street.

But he was no champagne socialist.

Seduced by the radical ideas of the time,

he became a leader of the Chartist movement,

which wanted basic democratic reforms, like votes for all men.

Frost was on the militant wing.

On November 4th 1839, up to 7,000 Chartists descended on Newport,

determined to get the Charter enshrined in law.

The protesters came pouring down this street, Stow Hill,

and stopped outside this building, the Westgate Hotel,

where a group of Chartists were being held prisoner.

The demonstrators didn't know it,

but the hotel held some surprise guests, 30 soldiers

of the 45th Foot Regiment inside with the mayor, Thomas Phillips.

There was a bloodbath.

On that rainy Monday morning, 22 civilians lost their lives.

It was the worst massacre of civilians by troops

on the British mainland since the Civil War.

It wasn't just that the working classes were revolting, they meant business.

These are some of the weapons they were carrying to Newport

and these were the pistols that John Frost was reported to be carrying.

Why did the Chartists bring all these weapons to a pro-democracy rally?

They were expecting a fight and what was interesting about this

and so shocking to the authorities

was the level of planning and secrecy.

Many of the Chartists demonstrated a firm commitment

to securing a fairer, more equal society.

There's other evidence that there was a plan for a full-scale insurrection,

that the local authorities, the local ruling elites, would be toppled.

Frost and other Chartist leaders were sentenced to death.

But after a nationwide protest, they were transported to Australia.

It was the establishment 1, the workers 0.

And weren't the establishment chuffed with themselves!

They showered gifts on their hero, Mayor Phillips.

This is all that remains of an 800 piece silver service.

He was knighted, he was invited to dine with the Queen,

he was made a freeman of the city of London.

But in the long run, Phillips was the loser.

He's been forgotten.

John Frost is celebrated as a pioneer of British democracy.

This was the age of steam. It heralded a golden era for the coal town of Newport.

By 1842, a dock was needed for the ever-growing number of ships.

And this is it today, a wasteland.

The old town dock was closed in the 1930s and filled in.

But part of it remains. Look, the old dock wall of 1842.

But the 4.5 acre dock was never going to be big enough.

Just ten years after it opened,

plans were laid for an extension that almost trebled its size.

Standing here today, it looks enormous.

But local industrialists still couldn't get enough ships in and out of Newport.

Within ten years, work had started on this, the Alexandra Dock,

the size of 30 rugby pitches.

It opened in 1875 and it made Newport's dock capacity ten times what it had been in 1842.

But it still wasn't big enough to keep up with the coal boom.

So they built this, the 96 acre South Dock,

which finally opened at the peak of the Welsh coal industry in 1914.

The final phase of the development was this giant entrance lock.

It's thought it was the biggest in the world when it opened,

surpassed only by the Panama Canal, which opened a few months later.

Coal left here for the four corners of the world.

The docks were teeming with thousands of workers and sailors.

And after their shifts, they needed a drink.

Luckily, someone built this magnificent pub right across the road.

Oh, yes! What a place!

-Bob, hello.

-Eddie, how are you, mate?

-Very well. How are you?

-What a great place!

-Unbelievable, isn't it?

All I know is it's got the longest bar anywhere, isn't it?

It was the longest bar in England and Wales when it was built.

And the Empire, apparently.

But it used to go all the way round here.

It went through the two rooms, right the way up there to the pillar.

This was the original back fitting.

The bar used to run all the way along here to the pillar. And around the corner.

It needed to be that long because...?

All the boys from the docks.

Lunchtimes, apparently, just before they opened,

they'd have 200 pints of beer and 100 whiskies on the bar

and the doors used to open and they used to go like a flash.

Incredible.

But the party couldn't go on for ever.

100 years ago, this coal would have been heading abroad. Today, it's all imported.

The docks have found other ways to make a living.

Now, recycling's a growth industry.

The docks are home to the world's biggest car crusher.

But even at the end of the 19th century, it was clear Newport could not live by the docks alone.

In the 1890s, the first steelworks opened.

Lysaght's Orb Works relocated from Wolverhampton

and became the first development on the east banks of the Usk.

The only problem now, how were the workers going to get there? A new bridge was needed.

So they decided to build this, the Transporter Bridge,

or the Tranny, to locals.

Based on a bridge in France, it took just four years to build

and was opened in 1906.

It's a strange idea. Cars and pedestrians travel across the river in a gondola,

suspended from the giant frame of the bridge.

Here in Newport, though, it made sense.

The low banks and high tides would have made a regular bridge expensive.

Anyway, big ships still needed to travel upriver.

In the early years, it cost a penny to cross

and another penny for your horse.

But if you wanted to save a bit of cash, you could always walk over the top.

The bridge is nearly 250ft high

with a span of 650ft.

It certainly kept you fit.

Wow! It is worth the climb. Here we are, high above the Usk.

On a clear day, you can see the whole of Newport down there.

On such a day as this, all you can do is admire the true splendour of the city's signature landmark.

This fabulous bridge is here because of the steelworks, which expanded Newport east of the river.

The steelworkers from the Midlands left other legacies, and not just the street names.

They were football lovers and they wanted a team to watch.

They were the original fanbase for Newport County FC, a team they helped set up.

It's not entirely a coincidence that Newport shares the same colours as Wolverhampton Wanderers.

-'Prosser to Watkins...'

-There was plenty of sport in Newport before they arrived.

Newport Rugby Club was founded way back in 1874

and went unbeaten for four of their first five seasons.

'Right in front of their posts.'

They went on to beat South Africa twice and in 1963,

they claimed a famous victory against the All Blacks.

'Tries the drop goal.

'And is it there? Yes, it is!'

But what about a summer sport?

For the working classes in Newport, there wasn't anywhere to play cricket,

so they took to baseball, which could be played on waste ground.

It's now a 100-year-old tradition.

Speedway came to Newport in 1964 with a track around the football ground.

After a 20 year break, it returned at a new venue in 1997.

And Newport's got its own world class golf course at Celtic Manor,

which hosted the Ryder Cup in 2010.

Newport was transformed in the 20th century.

There were new white collar jobs,

with the arrival of the passport office

and, later, the patent office.

But this was an age when the white heat of technology promised new prosperity

and the Llanwern Steelworks brought it to Newport in 1962.

Stretching for three miles, it was the most modern steelworks in Britain.

It provided jobs for 6,000 people.

There was smart innovation too.

Not just this sculpture, the Steel Wave, but the mole grip.

It was invented and manufactured here.

It was such a success that I remember Newport being marketed as "The Home of the Mole Grip".

There's glamour(!)

Instead of loading ships, Newport made good business breaking them up.

More than 500 ships, including top liners, were scrapped by Cashmore's Yard, who sold off the fittings.

The interiors of the SS Empress of France ended up in the White Hart pub in Machen.

They included this mirror from the ship's lounge.

Newport's cultural mix changed too.

Welsh, English and Irish were joined by immigrants from the Commonwealth.

It became a truly multicultural town.

There was a growing Jamaican community in the Pill area

when Roy Grant arrived in 1962.

He found work at an engineering firm, but the weekends were reserved for Caribbean style partying.

Great time! It was fantastic.

After a really rough day at work,

where people were facing discrimination,

whether they get the worst job or whatever it is, they don't complain.

The weekend, they want to let it out, they want to have a drink, sit down,

they want to dance and get rid of it.

If it wasn't for music, us Jamaican, Caribbean people would just go mad.

They couldn't survive the restriction.

Eventually, a Jamaican restaurant and nightclub,

the Silver Sands, opened in Pill.

It was run by Eulah White, thought to be Newport's first black businesswoman.

It was a popular place.

As for Saturday nighttime, we had people from all over.

From London, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff. All around.

One of the regulars was rock star to be Woody Mellor,

who spent a year working as a gravedigger in Newport.

He loved the Silver Sands and learned about Jamaican music there.

Woody left Newport with a head full of Jamaican music

and a much-improved ability to play the guitar.

Within a couple of years, he was at the forefront of the punk revolution with a new name,

Joe Strummer, frontman of the Clash.

# Midnight to six man

# The first time from Jamaica... #

The Clash mixed hardcore guitar songs with the rhythms of the Caribbean.

It was a revolutionary sound, which owes something to the musical culture of Newport.

The town which grew up by the river had come a long way from its roots as a trading port.

As Newport evolved into a modern city, the river became all but irrelevant.

Roads were the route to prosperity and once again,

Newport was in the right place to benefit.

The Severn Bridge opened in 1966, bringing the motorway to Newport the following year.

It travelled through the first motorway tunnel in Britain.

Boring the tunnels damaged some local houses,

but Newport became the first Welsh town on the motorway network.

It's been the centrepiece of the local economy ever since.

It helped bring the Koreans to Newport.

For a while, learning Korean customs was all the rage.

Everyone was queuing up to welcome electronics giant LG to Newport.

After all, they said they'd bring 6,000 jobs.

But LG was a false dawn. Few of the jobs ever came.

And those that did vanished in a few years.

A chill economic wind was blowing through Newport.

Steelmaking ended at Llanwern in 2002, sending shockwaves through the local economy.

Now there are cuts at some big public sector employers.

City centre shop closures have added to a sense of gloom.

It's easy to dwell on the negatives,

but there are plenty of positives too.

This new university campus, Newport hosting the 2010 Ryder Cup,

there are housing and office developments springing up all around the centre.

Newport is a city at a crossroads,

needing to reinvent itself yet again for the 21st century.

If its history teaches us anything,

it's that that is, well, perfectly possible.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd