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2008 Tours - Wednesday 4th June
Godfrey Morgan Joint Walking Tour
of Newport with The Widders
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This week we ventured in to the heart of the newest Welsh City of Newport with a local tour before we headed off to Belgium for a dancing weekend festival. We were delighted to be joined tonight by our friends the Widders, a local border side started in the last couple of years. We started tonight in the High Street at . . .
 
8.30 p.m. Old Murenger House, High Street, Newport 
The Murenger House is thought to have been named after the Murenger who was responsible for collecting taxes or murages for the upkeep of the town walls - a not very successful job since the town was destroyed four times between 1294 and 1402 . The original Murenger’s House was a stone structure situated elsewhere in High Street which was demolished in the 19th Century although the first mention of the current building was in 1533 when it was the town house of the Herberts of St Julians Manor, the local landowners.
 
The traditional date of this Tudor building is 1530 but it may well be earlier. In the Tudor room upstairs there are plaster mouldings on the ceiling showing intertwined Tudor roses and Spanish pineapples which symbolised the marriage of Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon. Although the union lasted from 1509 until 1533, the last eight years were seen as the remnants of a collapsed marriage, so a date in the earlier part of the marriage should be attributed to the building.
In 1541 Sir Charles Herbert as the High Sheriff of Monmouthshire was living and entertaining in this large, solidly built Tudor town house. By the 17th Century the building had become a pub, the Fleur-de-Lys, a name by which it was known until the 19th Century when it changed to the present name. By the 1970s the building was in serious danger of total collapse as every traffic vibration in the street outside brought further damage; luckily it was bought and extensively refurbished by the Sam Smiths brewery from 1980 to 1983 before re-opening.
 
The Murenger was again refurbished in 2003 when the the bar was moved and more nooks and crannies were opened up to drinkers. Sam Smiths still own the pub with Old Brewery Bitter served from a wooden barrel, one of the last pubs in Wales to do so. As you would expect in a building of this great age, the pub is reputed to be haunted by a variety of ghosts including a serving wench, an elderly man and a ghostly figure of a woman who appears in the top upstairs window.
9.30 p.m. The John Wallace Linton, Cambrian Road, Newport
We now travelled around the corner to Cambrian Road and visited The John Wallace Linton, a Weatherspoons Pub with fine real ales on tap. Like a number of other Weatherspoons pubs, this one is named after a local hero, John (Tubby) Wallace Linton who was born in Malpas and has a memorial to his memory on the banks of the River Usk.
 
Commander Tubby Linton had a distinguished career and was awarded the DSO, DSC and the Victoria Cross. He was constantly in command of submarines during the second world war and had many brilliant successes, being personally responsible for sinking approximately 100,000 tons of enemy shipping, including a cruiser, a destroyer, a U-boat, 28 other ships and even three trains! His last Triton Class Submarine HMS Turbulent did not survive the war, being sunk with all hands in 1943 during her 13th patrol, but due to the amount of damage inflicted, the submarine was awarded the battle honour 'Mediterranean 1942'.
 
Do come and see us at some stage and if you have a liking for tradition then you will be made very welcome. For those males amongst you who enjoy a pint or two and would like to keep fit then you will be ideal as a dancer.
 
If you are a musician of either sex who enjoys folk music, then again you will be well received, so whatever instrument you play, provided that it is portable, come and join us and learn our music. Come along and we'll ensure that you enjoy yourself and hopefully come back for more as we tour our area over the summer months.
If you require any more information then please check our Contact and Feedback page for our current officers telephone numbers or email us at our address: Enquiries 'at' Isca-Morrismen.com. We are a lively bunch and travel a fair bit with our activities, both in the UK and Overseas, so come on - contact us today and join in the fun, you'll not regret it!
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This year we are delighted that our traditional dancing programme is being sponsored by local Welsh Breweries, producers of excellent real ale to whom we are grateful for their wholehearted support.
Please enjoy their real ales and visit their websites to learn more by clicking on the pictures.
We also acknowledge the support and encouragement of The Mount Pleasant in Old Cwmbran, our after-practice venue during the winter.
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