Full Report for Listed Buildings
Summary Description of a Listed Buildings
Reference Number
87805
Building Number
Grade
II
Status
Designated
Date of Designation
26/08/2020
Date of Amendment
Name of Property
Memorial Gates and Gate-piers to north-west entrance to Newport Rugby Club Sports Ground
Address
Location
Unitary Authority
Newport
Community
Victoria
Town
Newport
Locality
Rodney Parade
Easting
331416
Northing
188322
Street Side
E
Location
Situated at the corner of Rodney Road and Grafton Street, set back from the junction. They are at the north-west corner of the Newport Rugby Club sports ground.
Description
Broad Class
Period
History
The Memorial Gates at the Rodney Parade entrance were erected 1923/4 as a memorial to those members of the Newport Athletic Club who had given their lives in WWI. They were unveiled by Lord Tredegar on 5 September 1923.
The club was founded in 1874 and originally they played at the Marshes. A new ground was leased in 1877 and a pavilion built. The club won so many matches that it is described in One Hundred Years of Newport Rugby (Jack Davies, 1974) as being so successful that “no other club in the world can boast of achievements anywhere approaching this”.
A new grandstand was opened in 1923 designed by F C Parfitt and in 1961 a new Social Centre was begun. Davies says “it was thought to be finest social centre in the United Kingdom in a club catering for so many different sporting activities without any grants of any kind”.
The memorial gates entrance is no longer used and instead access to the ground is a short way along Grafton Street.
Exterior
The neo-classical Portland stone gate piers have stepped bases and dentil cornices. These are topped by curiously designed stepped acroteria with a fluted drum cap. The cap to the right-hand pier had been dislodged and was in need of resetting on inspection in March 2020. The side faces have advanced panels from which the gates are hung and these have Greek fret ornament to the top. The outward faces of the piers have bronze panels commemorating members of the Newport Athletic Club who died in WWI.
The pair of steel gates have simple detail with Greek fret panels to the dog bar, and foliate panels to the four corners of each gate. They display the dates 1914 1918 and the gates are topped by spearhead finials.
Modern overhead signage is hung from brackets fixed to the rear faces of the piers.
Interior
Reason for designation
Included as a good example of First World War Memorial Gates and as a formal entrance to one of Wales’s most important sporting venues.
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