-
Welcome to the Blog of the Friends of Newport Museum and Art Gallery. We are aware that not everyone uses social media and so, although we have an active social media presence we have decided to produce a blog.
We would like any members who feel inclined to write items for this blog. If you want to highlight a favourite exhbit we might be able to obtain a picture that you can use. 

 To make contact:

 email, membership@fonmag.org.uk 
For the webpage see  https://fonmag.org.uk/contact-us.html

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What happened to the Roman mosaics in the old Dock Street Museum?

-
Image
What happened to the Roman mosaics in the old Dock Street Museum? by Oliver Blackmore Newport’s old Dock Street Museum displayed two fine Roman mosaics from Caerwent. The black and white photograph below shows them grandly flanking the museum stairway. The Dock Street Museum was demolished in 1967. However, many Newportonians still remember the mosaics from their childhood. One such person recently asked what had happened to the mosaics? This presented the ideal opportunity to tell their story. The Caerwent mosaics displayed on the stairs of the Dock Street Museum c. 1906 . Both mosaics date to the third century AD – often called the ‘golden age of mosaics’ in Britain. Discovered in a Roman house in Caerwent, the mosaics are from and associated with, a room called a ‘triclinium’. A triclinium (named after the Greek ‘triklinion’) was a formal oblong-shaped dining room, composed of three (‘tri’) couches (‘ klinon’). Triclinia were where middle and upper class
Read more

Musket Balls and Misconceptions

-
Image
Musket balls and misconceptions by Ray Stroud Artist unknown ©  Newport Museum and Art Gallery         Many youngsters through the years have found it difficult to resist the temptation of squeezing their fingers into the holes in the pillars of the Westgate Hotel.   We had all, probably, been regaled with stories of the Chartist attack on the Westgate, and of the musket balls that had penetrated the building during the battle.   But were these tales based on truth or myth?   In recent years, many in Newport have adopted the ‘myth’ position, arguing that they had been drilled into the pillars at a later date, possibly to attach gates or some other structure.   But does that theory line up with the historical evidence? The holes found in the pillars as they look today.  © Ray Stroud         The portico, which today sadly stands concealed behind sheets of chipboard, is the only remaining feature of a building that was constructed in 1799.   Interestingly, it is actual
Read more

Richard Frame and John Frost's Grave Stone

-
Image
  Richard Frame and  John Frost's Grave Stone  On Richard Frame's regular trips to Newport Museum and Art gallery he would always pause at the cabinet that housed the Chartist Collection. It  included a photograph of John Frost’s house in Stapleton, near Bristol, where he went to live with his wife and daughter when he was finally allowed to return to Britain in 1856. John Frost was  born on 25th May 25 1784,  in  Newport , Monmouthshire, and died on  27  July 1877, near   Bristol .  He was a hero of  Chartism  which was  the first mass political reform movement and was leader of the Newport rising of November 4, 1839, in which about 20 Chartists were killed by troops.  He was a prosperous draper and tailor in Newport and served as a member of Newport’s first elected town council from 1835, and as a magistrate from 1836–39 and mayor from 1836–37. He was a   delegate   from Monmouthshire to the Chartist convention in London between February to September 1839 and occasionally was
Read more