Newtown Memorial 2005 David Mackie Tyndall Street, Cardiff. Newtown, an area of Cardiff that housed the hundreds of men and women who came over from Ireland 160 years ago to complete the building of the Bute Dock by the Marquis of Bute, was demolished in 1966 to make way for industrial units. Thirty years later, the Newtown Association was formed to record the history of the community and keep its memory alive.
CBAT has been working with the Newtown Association since 1996 to assist the Association in its aim. The result of this collaboration is The Newtown Memorial Garden on Tyndall Street, one of the streets that made up Newtown. Designed by Cardiff based artist David Mackie, the Memorial is fabricated from a variety of traditional materials including blue pennant stone, which was once abundant in the area. Bronze disks have been designed with schoolchildren from 5 Primary schools across Cardiff. The written word is a major element within the work and includes both Gaelic and Welsh texts, pointing to the integration of the original Irish community into Wales. Over 200 names spanning four generations have been inscribed in the stone paving to record Newtown family names for future generations.