Memorials & Monuments
on the Isle of Wight
- Newport : Church Litten -
- Valentine Gray -

Location

In Church Litten, Newport, Isle of Wight
 
Description

A stone obelisk in the former churchyard, now Church Litten recreation area.

The passageway between Pyle Street and Scarrot's lane in Newport was named Gray's Walk in his memory.
Memorial

Newport : Valentine Gray
 
Newport : Valentine Gray
 
Inscription


To the Memory
OF
VALENTINE GRAY
The Little Sweep

Interred January the 5th
AD 1822
In the 10th Year
of
His Age


In Testimony
of
The general Feeling
For suffering Innocence
This Monument
Is erected
By Public Subscription.


 
GRAY'S WALK
THIS WALKWAY IS NAMED IN MEMORY OF
VALENTINE GRAY
'THE LITTLE SWEEP'
AGED 10 YEARS
------
THE BODY OF VALENTINE GRAY WAS FOUND IN AN OUTHOUSE
IN PYLE STREET IN JANUARY, 1822. PUBLIC INDIGNATION TO
THE CIRCUMSTANCES LEADING TO HIS DEATH RESULTED IN
THE PASSING OF 'THE CLIMBING BOYS ACT', WHICH
PREVENTED YOUNG SWEEPS EVER AGAIN BEING
SENT UP THE INSIDE OF CHIMNEYS, AND
ENSURED THEM OF MORE HUMANE
TREATMENT



Further Information

The Valentine Gray monument in Church Litten, Newport, is included in the official list of buildings of special architectural or historic interest.

John Valentine Gray was apprenticed to chimney sweep Benjamin Davies in Newport but in 1822, at the age of only ten, he died at the hands of his master, who was later convicted of manslaughter.

A plaque in Gray's Walk also commemorates the boy.


 

 
Newport Gray's Walk : Valentine Gray


 
 

 
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