ABSTRACT
An anti-chartist meeting was called for 12 April and Christchurch, near Newport, was chosen as its location. Its purpose became apparent when Thomas Phillips moved an address to the Lord Lieutenant of Monmouthshire. On 29 April the ironmasters of Blaina and its neighbourhood held their own anti-chartist meeting at Coalbrookvale. The strength of the middle-class reaction in south Wales undoubtedly took the workers’ leaders by surprise. The fact of the matter was that they had no access to information available to the local authorities and could not know that Home Office policy towards the working-class movements was in process of reformulation. The volunteers in the Newport area had apparently formed a West Monmouthshire Association after the Christchurch meeting. News that the Newport magistrates had issued warrants for the arrest of Henry Vincent, William Edwards and others reached the delegates at the General Convention in London.
