MANY of us walk past the Westgate Hotel in the centre of Newport every day without giving it a second glance, despite the building's historic past at the heart of the Chartist movement.

With the Newport Rising festival returning this weekend - including this evening's spectacular torchlit match following in the footsteps of the Chartists themselves - what better time to take a closer look at a famous Newport landmark and its role in history.

Who were the Chartists?

Chartism was a working-class movement of the 1830s, which called for the right to vote to be extended beyond those who owned property.

They made the following six demands:

  • All men to have the vote;
  • Voting should take place by secret ballot;
  • Parliamentary elections to be held every year;
  • Constituencies should be of equal size;
  • Members of Parliament should be paid;
  • The requirement for an MP to own property should be abolished.

But their demands were met with resistance, and unrest broke out.

On Monday, November 4, 1839 - exactly 183 years ago - thousands of men marched to Newport’s Westgate Hotel in an attempt to secure the release of five of their number who were being held under arrest at the hotel.

Records show that the march was led by John Frost, Zephaniah Williams and William Jones, and when the Chartists arrived at the Westgate Hotel, they were faced with 500 special constables and soldiers from the 45th Regiment on foot.

A short, bloody battle broke out resulting in roughly 22 deaths and more than 50 injured. The three men named as leading the march were all found guilty of high treason and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered.

Who owned the Westgate Hotel?

Back in 2019, Peter Strong investigated the name on the door of the Westgate Hotel – S.T.Hallen – and had a look at those famous bullet holes in the pillar of the hotel.

The engraving of the Chartist Rising by Newport artist James Flewitt Mullock clearly shows a name above the door of the Westgate Hotel – the name of S.T. Hallen, proprietor of the hotel.

The building itself had been erected 60 years earlier, in 1779, on the site of a 15th century house, but Samuel Hallen had been there for less than a year when the fateful events of Monday, November 4, 1839 took place.

He was to remain proprietor for 45 years, in the process becoming one of the most well-known characters in the town.

He was a man with many sidelines, being described in a directory in 1848 as "Innkeeper, Livery Stable Keeper, Postmaster and Patent Hearse Proprietor".

It was one of these side lines that was to lead to his death.

On July 5, 1883, after eating lunch at the Westgate as usual, he travelled to Maindee to show a potential tenant over a property he owned. While standing in the garden he fell down a short flight of steps and died within minutes from his injuries.

Sale and demolition

Following the death of her husband, Mrs Hallen moved away to London, living for another 35 years.

The building was bought by The Newport Hotel Company, led by Sam Dean, proprietor of the Castle Hotel in Newport.

The company decided to demolish it and build a new hotel "more in consonance with the requirements of modern, social and commercial life".

In March 1884 a special luncheon was held to mark the closure of the old building, after which it was "shorn of everything it contains".

The new hotel, with Sam Dean as proprietor, opened in May 1886 with a banquet for 150 local notables.

Demolition and sale

Many of the contents of the old building were auctioned.

Newport Free Library decided to bid for two items relating to the Chartist Rising.

It failed in its bid for a pike, said to be used by one of the Chartists, which was sold to a relative of Thomas Phillips, the mayor at the time of the Rising, for ten guineas.

The Library was successful, however, in buying an oil painting of Basil Gray, the lieutenant who commanded the troops in the Westgate in 1839, for 21 guineas.

The purchase raised some hackles on the town council, with two councillors accusing the Free Library Committee of extravagance and calling for the committee members to pay for the painting out of their own pockets.

Either way, the painting remained in the collections of the Free Library and is now held by Newport Museum and Art Gallery.

Bullet holes - are they real?

It has been argued that the famous holes in the pillars of the old hotel were made by bullets or musket balls in the clash of 1839.

Others have suggested that the holes were in reality drilled into the pillars to make fixings for doors or railings.

There is, however, evidence to suggest that the bullet holes are real.

The new owners decided that, due to their iconic status, the pillars would be preserved in the new hotel.

When the old portico was demolished in September 1884, the Monmouthshire Merlin newspaper reported that the workers had come across ‘several roughly made bullets, one with a nail driven through the centre of it’ in the hollow timber pillars.

It commented, "The bullets have doubtless lain where they were found ever since the memorable attack on the hotel 45 years ago".

It has been pointed out that the holes are irregular, and therefore not what would be expected for railings and that the pillars were originally outside the doors and so could have been in the line of fire for troops and Chartists.

In any case, the pillars may have been rotated when being re-erected in the new building.

To prove the point a formal endoscopy investigation would need to be carried out, in which a tiny camera would be placed through the holes to check markings on the inside of the pillars.

Perhaps one day we will know for sure.