Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2008/January 2009 | Page 30

life

Church
Litten
ISLAND HISTORY

By June Elford

Photo: Newport's famous 16th century Elizabethan gateway

Church Litten, an oasis of green in
the centre of Newport, is famous
for its 16th century Elizabethan
gateway. It was built in 1582 when
the park was used as a cemetery for
the victims of the bubonic plague
because Newport’s church had no
burial ground.
The arch is made of Bembridge or
Dodd Pitts limestone and it recently
underwent a major refurbishment
as over the centuries it has suffered
from weathering and lack of
maintenance. The structure was
first steam cleaned and the carbon
staining removed with ammonium
carbonate poultice, then the
stonework was repointed using
moderately hydraulic lime mortar
instead of the old dense cement
which had previously damaged the
arch by trapping moisture in the
stone.
A plaque on one side of the
gateway wall reads, “Borough
of Newport Litten Park lay-out
inspired by Mrs. Elizabeth Ruby
Chandler OBE Mayor 1930 Hon.
Freeman of the Borough” and on
the other side an intriguing small
metal plaque commemorates,
“Martha, The wife of Doctor Poor
died 10th of June 1780 aged 58
years”.
Another interesting feature in
Church Litten park is the four
sided stone pillar erected in 1822
to the memory of a boy called

30

Valentine Gray who was brought
to the Island from Alverstoke in
Hampshire to work as a climbing
boy for a local sweep.
In the 18th century, small
underfed boys (and girls) were
the right size to climb naked up
narrow chimneys and often they
were sold by their families to the
highest bidder for as little as one
guinea or, like Valentine, they
came from a parish workhouse.
The children frequently got stuck
up chimneys, suffocated or lost
their way in the maze of shafts and
it was quite a common practice for
the sweeps to light the straw under
the youngsters to force them to go
up the chimney.
Valentine Gray died as a result of
his employer’s cruelty and when the
people of Newport learned he had
been starved and severely beaten
before he died, there was such a
public outcry that a collection of
1,600 penny subscriptions was
raised to pay for a monument
to be erected in his memory.
The inscription on it reads, “In
Testimony of the general feeling
For suffering Innocence This
Monument Is erected By Public
Subscription”.
But it was the story of Tom in
‘The Water Babies’, written by
Charles Kingsley and published
in 1863, that really created public
sympathy for the climbing boys.

Kingsley stayed with Alfred, Lord
Tennyson, at Farringford on the
Island and the poet may have told
him Valentine’s story but it’s more
likely that Kingsley based his book
on a boy called James Seaward who
cleaned the chimneys at Eversley
in Hampshire where Kingsley was
rector.
Valentine’s obelisk is made of
Portland stone and until recently
was heavily covered in moss, lichen
and algae but it has been cleaned
and the damaged Purbeck stone
steps
around
it have been
replaced
with
new ones. The
urn on the top
of the memorial
has been mended
and Island Stone
Conservation
who also carried
out the work on
the Elizabethan
gateway
think
it’s likely that
a carved flame
originally came
out of the top
of the urn. They
Photo:
hope to find some
Valentine’s
photographic
obelisk
evidence so that
they can replace
it, the idea being
that the flame

still burns for Valentine Gray.
In 1875 Lord Shaftesbury
succeeded in persuading Parliament
to pass a Bill abolishing the use of
climbing boys and his memorial, a
statue of Eros, stands in Piccadilly
Circus with the London traffic
roaring past. So different to the
simple one in Newport’s quiet
park but linked by two people, a
little boy who worked “in pitchy
darkness” and the man who fought
to make life better for the climbing
boys.

The Island's new funky radio station www.wightfm.com