Introducing MELINDA DROWLEY
Who grew up in Blackwood, where the Newport Rising was planned.
I was elected Chair of the Board of Trustees of Our Chartist Heritage (OCH) at the Annual General Meeting in April 2020.
My predecessor in the role was the inspirational Patrick Drewett, who for decades has been the driving force behind all things Chartist in Newport. At the time, we were in the middle of a UK-wide lockdown, at the peak of the first wave of the Coronavirus pandemic, so I can’t really pretend I didn’t know how challenging it was going to be or that I didn’t relish that challenge!
I grew up in Blackwood, where the Rising of 1839 was planned at the Coach and Horses Inn.
I cannot remember when I first heard the Chartist story but I remember very clearly the profound effect it had on me.
I experienced it as a story that belonged to me, that told me something important about who I was, where I came from and how it was possible for ordinary people like me to work together to change things for the better.
In 2016, when Newport Playgoers were performing at The Minack Theatre in Cornwall, I happened to mention this seminal influence on my life to another member of the support team. ‘You must meet my brother Pat!’ replied Gerald Drewett. Three weeks later I met Pat over coffee at Barnabas Arts House and my diary has been full of Chartist activity ever since.
A driving force behind the work of Our Chartist Heritage is the desire to enable people to make meaningful connections between the events that took place in Newport and the Gwent Valleys in 1839 and their lives today.
That work is never finished; each generation finds its own points of contact and inspiration. Today, the rights for which the Chartists fought are too often taken for granted by some, while others of us still feel disenfranchised, marginalised or silenced for a variety of reasons. OCH is committed to defending and promoting Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which affirms the right of all to participate in the government of their country and civic life.
Recently we have heard a great deal about how ‘fake news’, in the forms of misinformation, disinformation and malinformation, is making it much more difficult for individuals and groups of people to participate in civic life as reliably informed citizens. While Our Chartist Heritage does not see this as a new problem, we recognise that the ‘industrial’ scale and cynicism of the operations that have been exposed are unprecedented. Academic research, government reports, investigative journalism, documentaries, news headlines and public events are all signalling the serious threat fake news poses to our democratic processes.
In response to this issue, Our Chartist Heritage is embarking on a major new workstream designed to empower voters to discern and challenge fake news. In May 2021, 16-17-year-olds will be able to vote in Senedd elections in Wales for the first time and this cohort of future voters will be high on our list of priorities.
Our major educational project in media literacy will reach citizens through formal and informal channels, both face-to-face and digitally. It will be enriched by the wide range of skills represented by the three branches of OCH’s activities:
- the Convention Committee’s specialist expertise in historical research;
- the Education Committee’s professional knowledge and understanding of the new Welsh school curriculum;
- and Newport Rising Festival Committee’s ability to engage a diverse range of people in thought-provoking events and activities, through the arts and culture.
In 2016, when I first told my father about my involvement in Our Chartist Heritage, he was less than enthusiastic, sceptical that anyone could seriously think there was a threat to democracy in the 21st century. I wonder if he would have seen things differently had he lived to see the 2020 USA presidential election. I doubt it somehow. I think the real challenge we face in 2020 is that my father and I would have looked at the evidence available to us and used it to reinforce deeply embedded preconceptions that were poles apart. We would both have been unaware that our personal views might have been channelled and manipulated via targeted media communications, while suspecting that the other had been led astray in this way.
The Chartist story does not offer easy answers to uncomfortable issues but does provide a fascinating lens through which to consider them. I firmly believe that this story has never been more important and relevant than it is today and that it is vital we claim it as our Chartist heritage and inspiration for action today. “
Dr Melinda Drowley
Chair of the Board of Trustees
Our Chartist Heritage
November 2020
Plaque placed by the OAKDALE N.U.M. Lodge at the site of the Coach and Horses at the 150th Anniversary (1989)
Coach and Horses (c1960)
Pat Drewett and Melinda Drowley at Newport Market
Frost, Williams & Jones ‘revisit’ the site of the Coach and Horses
