NEWPORT schoolchildren are painstakingly rebuilding the Chartist Mural piece by intricate piece after it was demolished to make way for the building of Friars Walk Shopping Centre.
Pupils at Newport’s St Woolos Primary School, which is located on the route the Chartist protest marchers took 180 years ago on their way to the Westgate Hotel, are recreating the famous mural.
But, unlike the original 35m long, 3.5m high plaster and stone mural, built by the late artist Kenneth Budd in 1978 at the entrance to John Frost Square, the pupils’ mural is in seven jigsaw sections.
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The Chartists Mural puzzles have been created by Newport cobbler Kelvin Reddicliffe of Timpson’s Shoe Repairers, Austin Friars, a stone’s throw from where the original mural stood.
Mr Reddicliffe, who has a display of Chartists memorabilia on a wall in his shop, sells prints of the mural which he witnessed being built, to raise funds for Newport-based St David’s Hospice care.
He handed the jigsaw puzzles to Year 4 St Woolos pupils and the first of the 25 limited edition puzzle, to St Woolos head Heather Vaughan.
A further two sets of jigsaw puzzles and limited editions are to be donated to Langstone Primary, which Mr Reddicliffe attended as a boy and Mount Pleasant primary at Rogerstone, also on the route of the Chartist march.
Mr Reddicliffe said: “The jigsaw puzzles, which depict the entire mural, are a fun way for school pupils to learn about their own history, the history of the Chartists.”
“We have got to embrace the future but should never forget the past. The Chartist Mural jigsaw is an educational tool which I hope pupils and teachers will find useful.
Headteacher Heather Vaughan said: “Our school is on the original route the Chartist's took on their way into Newport. We learn about the Chartists in our lessons in year five and six. A lot of our pupils go on to John Frost School.
“These jigsaw puzzles are really wonderful. They are a valuable resource which allows us to bring the Chartist March to life, to help the pupils to imagine what it was really like.
“Kelvin is a great supporter of the school and the Chartists movement and we really can’t thank him enough for these wonderful jigsaw puzzles.”
Miss Vaughan said the limited edition Chartist jigsaw puzzle would be raffled off to raise funds for the the breast care unit at Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr at Ystrad Mynach, run by Aneurin Bevan University Health Board.
The limited edition Chartists Mural jigsaw, priced at £35, is being sold in aid of St David’s Hospice Care. The puzzles can be obtained from Timpson's, Austin Friars, or at Arnold’s Electrical, Skinner Street, Newport.
A new chartist mural, created by Kenneth Budd's son Oliver, was unveiled in Rogerstone last month.
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