Newport Through Time

Newport Through Time highlights the journey of a city that began over 700 years ago when the first mayor took office in AD 1314. Often struggling with an identity that is confused by its close proximity to the Welsh borders it has been claimed alternatively by England, Wales and Monmouthshire. Now it sits as a gateway city, an entrance portal to the principality via the Gwent levels that border the Bristol Channel and the River Severn. This book explores Newport from the start of the Industrial Revolution, when the Welsh coalfields spilt their rich black harvest into the ever-expanding port, with its adjoining canal and myriad of railway lines that punctuated the streets, criss-crossing the busy thoroughfares as they gravitated towards the sea and the Alexandra Docks. The author examines the family firms that became both household and international names, and as the city begins a new era we examine in pictures how it was and how it is now.