Newport, Shropshire
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Newport is a market town in the borough of Telford and Wrekin and ceremonial county of Shropshire, England. It lies some 6 miles (9.7 km) north of Telford, near the border with Staffordshire. The 2001 census recorded 10,814 people living in the town's parish, making it the second largest town in Telford and Wrekin, not including the Telford urban area, and the fifth in the ceremonial county of Shropshire. The villages of Church Aston, Chetwynd and Longford are adjoined to the south of Newport, though they remain in a separate parish. The village of Edgmond is located just to the west, separated by Cheney Hill, Chetwynd Park and the Shrewsbury and Newport Canal.
History
Newport is a market town in the centre of a rural farming area. Situated 10 miles north-northeast of the new town of Telford, Newport was itself planned as a new town of the 12th century, placed here next to the older settlement of Edgmond during the reign of Henry I. The wide main street was designed for its market and the narrow burgage plots running at right angles to it is typical of the Norman architecture and planning. In 1665 many buildings were damaged in the Great fire of Newport and only a few of the medieval structures remain, but there remain many fine Regency and Georgian frontages which were built on the site of the former Norman plots. Newport is located in the historic country of Mercia, near where the Wreocensæte capital the Wrekin was situated and there has been activity in the area, even before the creation of the town.
The town is mentioned once by Leland in a list of castles. Though there are now no visible remains of the castle here. The most probable location for this would be the tradition site of a manor house at Upper Bar where a fragment of a square and broad moat or on the higher ground along the Forton road where the Castle house school stands. A moat, nearly square, forming by measurement an area of 60 sq yds. Two sides have been filled with rubbish. Nothing is known about the occupants of the moated site. It could have predated the town or, perhaps more likely, been the manor house of the Audleys, who were granted the manor in 1227. In 1421 the manor house was ruinous
Newport is not mentioned in the Domesday Survey, but at the time of the Conquest formed part of the manor of Edgmond, which William I gave with the rest of the county of Shropshire to Roger, Earl of Shrewsbury. Henry I supposedly founded the borough, at first called New Borough, after the manor had come into his hands through the forfeiture of Robert de Belesme.
Naming
The Normans planned a New Town called Novo Burgo beside the older settlement of Edgmond. The first market charter was granted by Henry I.
Medieval Newport flourished with trade in leather, wool and fish. Novoportans possessed the right to provide fish for the Royal table. The many half-timbered buildings surviving from the Late Medieval and Tudor periods confirm Newport's success, thus the towns name over time became Newport.
Location
The site was probably chosen partly on account of the fisheries, which are mentioned in the Domesday Survey, one of the chief services of the burgesses being that of taking fish to the Royal court wherever it might be. This custom was continued after Henry III had granted the borough with the manor of Edgmond, to Henry de Audley, but in the middle of the 13th century James, son of Henry de Audley, granted that the burgesses need not take the fish anywhere except within the county of Shropshire.
Newport in the Welsh Marches and near to Aqualate Mere, which is the largest natural lake in the English Midlands, 1.5km long and 5km wide. The deer park contained within the grounds of Aqualate Hall are used by the Newport Show. Newport is sited on a sandstone ridge. The area around it at the end of the last Ice Age was part of Lake Lapworth. This was formed from melting glaciers and covered a vast area of North Shropshire. Early man fished here and two log boats were uncovered a mile from Newport. One has been preserved and is now at Harper Adams University College at Edgmond.
The burgesses must have received certain privileges from Henry I, since Henry II in an undated charter granted them all the liberties, rights and customs which they had in the time of Henry I. This probably included a gild [??] merchant which is mentioned in the Quo Warranto Rolls as one of the privileges claimed by the burgesses. Confirmation charters were granted by Edward I in 1287 and Edward II in 1311, while the town was incorporated in 1551 by Edward VI, whose charter was confirmed by James I in 1604. The governing body consisted of a Lord High Steward, deputy steward, two water-bailiffs and 28 burgesses, but the corporation was abolished by the Municipal Corporation Act of 1883, and a Local Board was formed, which, under the Local Government Act, gave place in 1894 to an urban district council.
Like many rural market towns, Newport was influenced by industry; it served the needs of the mining area to the east of Shropshire and was also affected by mass produced industrial goods that replaced traditional crafts.
By the 19th century Newport was surrounded by large estates that came right to the back door of the town, determining size and development. The vivary and open fields at Norbroom had gone making the town dependent on its rural hinterland. The few fields that remained were for hay or cattle, forming a small green belt, these estates exerted a powerful influenced on the town and its obvious in its defenses shown and respect paid to these landed families until at least the First World War.
Beginning in the south west of the town was the largest estate the Lilleshall estate of the Duke of Sutherland. this dates from the dissolution of the monasteries, the lands of Lilleshall Abbey being purchased in 1539 by James Leveson of Wolverhampton.
The next estate is that of in the South east is Woodcote Hall a smaller one belonging to the Cotes family. Template:Newport, Salop Area On the West between Lilleshall and the town is was the Longford Estate of the Tolbots, Earl of Shrewsbury, sold in 1789 to Ralph Leeke of Wellington who had made his fortune in the East India Company.
North of the town is the Chetwynd Park estate of the Pigotts Bought in 1803 by Thomas Borrow of north Derbyshire who changed his name to Boughey
The Aqualate Estate to the East in lies mostly in Staffordshire
The town came close to being destroyed for a second time when on Christmas Eve 1944 one of Hitler's V-2 bombs narrowly missed the town with the bomb landing in a nearby field. even so nearby buildings suffered extensive damage, This Bomb is now on display at RAF Cosford Royal Air Force Museum.
Facilities and places of interest
The High Street
The main street in Newport follows the Norman design. This resulted in the distinctive long wide High Street, split into three parts, upper bar, lower bar and St Marys street. Burgage plots running along either side and the church rising up in the middle, with the High Street with St Marys Street splitting off and re-joining the high street around the island the St Nicolas church, Newport and Butter cross, which is an ancient market cross.
After the fire of Newport in 1666 the old Norman buildings were replaced with grand Georgian architecture hiding the work yards behind; the shops are still there but the work yards have now been developed into housing or the Boughy gardens tennis courts, next to theliterary institute. Despite being close to larger retail centres such as Telford, Shrewsbury and Stafford, Newport has retained a large number of shops that line the High Street, Stafford Street and St Marys Street, with St Marys Street keeping its charm by still using Cobblestones and the majority of shops being small boutiques. St Marys is also the site of various markets and fairs such as the Olde Time Market, with over 50 stalls, and various farmers markets; these tie in with Newport's indoor market. The town also has well known companies such as Subway, Somerfield, Greggs, Coral, Focus Do It All two Euronics centres and Mackays, Seconds Ahead, Bet365, Barclays, Lloyds TSB, HSBC, Boots, Halifax (United Kingdom bank), National Westminster Bank. There is also a Waitrose superstore on the edge of the town centre. The towns Woolworths store is now being developed into a B&M Bargains [1]store and the former Three chefs is becoming a Jaspers bakers store
On the Newport by-pass near to the Aqualate Mere the A518 road an out-of-town shopping centre has grown up around the Mere Park Garden centre. The building work is still being extended and hotels and small shops being built; this ties in with the various other industrial estates that lie around the Newport by-pass and Springfield estate, this would also be the site of the new train station if Stafford (borough) council say yes to connecting train service between the Telford, Newport and Stafford and the where the park and ride service is set to go from in a triangle of the three main shopping centers of the town. Mere park, Audley avenue business park and the High street and the Combat stress center in the town built in 1908 as the infirmary for the Newport Workhouse, it was subsequently developed as accommodation for elderly ladies until its closure in 1995. The home was purchased in 1996 and totally refurbished to provide 31 bedrooms, two of which can provide carer facilities. Set in three acres on the edge of Newport, it has easy access to all local facilities.
Landmarks
The town sits near the Aqualate Mere,which is the largest natural lake in the English Midlands.
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An early etching of Adams' Grammar School
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St. Nicholas church & Newport war memorial
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Aqualate lodge to Aqualate Hall -
Newport Junior school Built 1898
Churches & Religious sites
Newport lies in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Shrewsbury and the Diocese of Lichfield and as a Norman planned new town, religion played a strong part in the design of the town, with the center of the town being dominated by the church of St Nicholas Church, originally built in the reign of Henry I and restored in 1886 and 1890
- Lilleshall Abbey ruins are to be found four miles from the town center. They include a Norman west door and part of the front, considerable remains of the church besides, and traces of domestic buildings. The abbey was founded in 1145, under charter from King Stephen, by Richard de Baumes or Belmeis, dean of St Alkmund, Shrewsbury, for Augustinian canons, who were brought from Dorchester Abbey, Oxfordshire.
- Independent Chapel, Beaumaris Lane, Newport, Built 1803 on the sight of a church dating from 1765, converted into cottages in 1832.
- Newport Independent (Congregational) Chapel, Wellington Road, Built 1831, Now called the Trinity Church
- Newport Primitive Methodist Chapel, Stafford Road, built 1830, demolished 1877.
- Newport Primitive Methodist Chapel, Wellington Road, built 1877, closed 1920.
- Newport Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Upper Bar, Built 1829, converted into shops in 1876.
- Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Avenue Road, Newport, Built 1876, closed in 2001 and has since become a house.
- Newport Baptist church, Water Lane, built in the 1960s.
- Ss Peter & Paul Catholic church, Newport Salters Lane, Built 1857
- Newport General Cemetery was opened for burials on 2 March 1859 with its first interment taking place on 5 March 1859 when it is noted that some 1000 people witnessed the burial. The Cemetery contains a chapel built at the same time and is bounded at the public road side by fine wrought iron railings and gates, The cemetery was originally laid out with four oval lawns around a cross-shaped set of roads with the Chapel centrally placed.
Economy
As the second town of Telford and Wrekin, Newport serves as a main economic part of the Borough, Telford and Wrekin council plan to make Newport into on of the most desierable towns in the country, Newport is the main hub for the farming comunity along the Shropshire/Staffordshire border and as a mini buisness center, with the head offices of Smith Bellerby limited, The Hartington Group, Sambrook Research International, ReadWell Press, Classic furniture and the The Football Association, Medical and Exercise Science Department, based at Lilleshall Hall on the outskirts of the town File:Newport salop market hall.jpg
Newport is third best place in the county for house sales, after Much Wenlock and the new housing estate at Lawley in Telford [2]
Culture
Events and Venues
Newport has a wide range of different activities throughout the year and is fast becoming a Cultural center in the area, due to the large amount of venues and areas that can support activities, this is also helped by the beauty of the town and surrounding Shropshire country side. The most used Venues in the town are scattered mainly along the High street, starting in the lower bar by the Shrewsbury Canal is the Newport Cosy Hall which is used for the *Newport music festival along with Royal Victoria Hotel in St Mary's street which was named after Princess Victoria in 1832 after she stayed at the hotel.
The Newport Guildhall is a medieval timber-framed building that is the home to Newport town council and is used for official purposes as well as smaller events. Newport Market Hall built in 1860 and is considered one of the towns grandest buildings and is the location of the towns dance hall, though not used in recent times.
Royal Naval Club is the venue that hosts live music from local and national bands. There is also a wide range of small pubs and wine bars spread up and down the main High Street of Newport, the most popular with locals being The Barley Mow, The Railway Tavern and The Pheasant, while Ozzys Wine Bar and Adams House are popular amongst the sizeable student population. Also in the town centre, there is the nightclub, Central Square, which was formerly called "Main Street".
- Ozzys Wine bar in St Marys Street was formerly owned by rock star Ozzy Osbourne
Template:Public Houses in Newport, Shropshire
There are currently plans for two new bars in the town, one will be a wine bar and the other a sports themed bar and a third cafe/bar is waiting for planning permission.
Town events
The town hosts many events throughout the year, but six main events bring people to Newport, which are Newport Show is hosted yearly in Chetwynd Park and is situated in the showground between Edgmond and Newport.Newport show has become one of the main shows in the count and West Midlands region due to its position near the town and size of the show ground, which also hosts Shropshire Game Fair and British Falconry and raptor fair.
In the centre of town itself the main events are the Newport carnival, which has been staged in Newport for over 150 years and the Newport old time market which happen yearly usually on either side of Newport show in July, towards the end of the summer the newest event is the Newport Music festival which is hosted by various venues in the town.
By far the biggest event in the town is the biennial Newport Nocturne Bike Race, which brings the biggest crowds to Newport and is well covered by national press and media outlets
Restaurants and cafes
Newport has a wide range of restaurants, mostly on the High Street and branch streets. These range from small family run cafes to large international companies.
- Wycherleys Fine Foods – a Delicatessen and Coffee House situated in a grade 2 listed building dating back to the 1790s,
a member of HEFF (Heart of England Fine Foods) they support the development of local farms and food producers and currently have over 24 local suppliers and producers.
- Smallwood Lodge- A half timbered chocolate box building where Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's second wife once stayed
- The town has two cheeses named after it: Newport and Newport 1665, both are made in the town along with Marches Blue and Wrekin white
Media
The Newport Advertiser, Newport's weekly newspaper, has been around since 1854. It is located on St Mary's Street, and has a small team of journalists and advertising reps and has about 5,800 readers in the town alone. The town is also within the circulation area of the Shropshire Star and The Shropshire Magazine. All these publications are titles of Shropshire Newspapers Ltd.
Nova News, first published in 1994, is a free bimonthly magazine distributed in and around the Newport area.
In the media
Christmas Guisers' Play from Newport, Shropshire [1883] is about the town
Newport was the first town in Shropshire to be on Dickinson's Real Deal
A television documentary called "The Spy who stole my Life" was shows the town as the backdrop of the Robert Hendy-Freegard story, who conned students from the town was shown by Channel Five on September 7, 2005. In Australia, this was called The spy who conned me,
The Army Cadet Force has a detachment, which represented the town and United kingdom at a ceremony where they paraded under the Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium in 2006.
Charles Dickens stayed in Newport and modelled Miss Havisham in Great Expectations (1861) on Elizabeth Parker, a recluse from the town.
At Harper Adams University College just outside Newport in Edgmond, on the 10th January 1982 the English lowest temperature weather record was broken (and is kept to this day): -26.1°C.
The town has a local Ghost called Madam Pigott which is well reported in local and national Ghost madia
Education
Newport is considered by many to have one of the best educational systems in Shropshire, due to the full range of educational establishments from Primary to University and has two leading selective schools,
The two selective schools in the town were both in the top 70 selective schools in the country and the top two schools in the county and for a town with a population under 15,000, Newport Girls High School was 37th and Adams' Grammar School was 63rd,
Transport
The town has been a well used crossing point even before the creation of the settlement and sits on the historical crossing point the Via Devana.
The town became prominent at a coaching town on the route between London, North Wales and Ireland as well the historic junction on the road from London to Chester and the East Midlands, this meant that the town grew around the different roads that cross the town, with the Church of St Nicolas and Central square nightclub forming a large fork in the the center of the town, with the high street running one side and St Mary's street running along the other, coming together in front of the nightclub at the junction to A518 which runs between the town on an east-west route from Stafford to Telford and coming together By the Shrewsbury & Newport Canals Trust on the A519 road also runs through the town, between Shrewsbury and Eccleshall
The canal is out of use but is currently being restored to a fully working canal by the Shrewsbury & Newport Canals Trust. linking to the canal network at Norbury Junction just passed the A41 which borders the town on a north-south by-pass which opened in early 1985, to ease the congestion that plagued the High street.
Buses
The town is served by buses to and from Stafford, Telford. Shrewsbury, Wolverhampton and Stoke-on-Trent as well as a circular line that links the outlaying villages and the shopping areas.
The are currently plans to set up a park and ride system linking the three shopping areas of the town and the car parks of the town, this is to try and keep all areas well supplied with customers
Rail
The railway which once ran from Wellington to Stafford, through Newport, has now been dismantled, but has been restored to Donnington; it is hoped the next phase would be to reconnect the town to the railway network, this has been given a boost by the town council currently being in talks with Stafford borough council to see about the link to stafford, The line is in the top 36 'Lines that should reopen' listing published by the Campaign for Better Transport.
Walking
Newport is on National Route 55 and Regional Route 75 of the Sustrans National Cycle Network.
The town sits on the Way for the Millennium walk way which is 65 km (40 mi) long
Sport & Clubs
Newport Nocturne- Britain's only floodlit Cycle race and is one of the things that brings the crowds to Newport every two years
Newport is home to a large extent of different sports clubs, playing at all different levels of professionalism and covering all different sports. football for newport was mainly a pub team game until the town re-gained a team after a twenty year gap, when Tibbertons team folded and they moved to Newport for more finical stability and increased spectatorship forming Newport County Borough football club, playing in the Shropshire County Premier Football League
One of the main sports in the county is Crown green bowling and the team has one of the most successful teams in the area and most supported Newport crown green Bowls club play in the premier division of Shropshire after promotion from the mid Shropshire division one as well as many other division and leagues
Newport (Salop) Rugby Union Football Club is the highest ranked rugby club in Shropshire and the main club in the town
File:Audley villa.JPG
Newport Cricket Club play in the Birmingham and District Premier League division 3.
The Other teams Newport are as follows:
- Athletics;Newport Running Club, Newport Gymnastic Club and Newport Athletics club
- Ball games; Aqualate Golf Club, Boughey Gardens Tennis Club, Forton Cricket Club, Newport Badminton Club, Newport & District Netball Club
- Archery; Audco Archers, Grand National Archery Society
- Water sports; Newport & District Synchronised Swimming Club, Newport Water Polo Club. Newport Swimming club, Serck Audco Angling Club
- Motor sports; Newport motocross team
- Other teams; Newport Chess Club
- Newport Comedy, Music, Movies, Politics, Walking & Writers!
Lilleshall Sports Centre
Lilleshall Hall - formerly the country retreat and hunting lodge for the Duke of Sutherland, Lilleshall Hall, 2 miles from the centre of Newport, is now home to the Lilleshall National Sports Centre.
Notable residents
Arts
- Michael J. Bassett - Film Director and scriptwriter
- John Meeson Parsons - (1798–1870) Art collector
- Francis Neilson - (1867-1961) writer
- Matthew Smith – 17th-century spy, intriguer and writer
- Richard Barnfield-(1574- 1620) poet
- Ewen Henderson- (1934- 2000) ceramic artist
- James Hain Friswell- (1825-1878) essayist and novelist
- Samuel Johnson -(1709-1784) Author.
- Simon Bates- (1947- ) Radio one DJ
Sport
- Adam Proudlock - Wolverhampton Wanderers FC player.
- Paul Bracewell- Former England international footballer
- Ben Jones - medallist in the Olympics for horseriding.
- Simon Holt - cyclist
- Ryan Palmer - chess champion
- Tom Pym chess champion
Military
- Admiral John Benbow - (1653?-1702)
- Colonel Benbow, who was shot in 1651 by the roundheads, outside Shrewsbury Castle.
Other
- Thomas Louis Green - {1799-1893} Priest and controversialist.
- Thomas Brown (1663 - 1704), the irreverent satirist
- Thomas Rose (died 1837), notable thief
- Robert Hendy-Freegard - (1971-) British barman, car salesman, conman and impostor who masqueraded as an MI5 agent
- Michael Jack - Chairman of the Hartington Group, which has its headquarters in the town.
- William Adams- 17th Century London Haberdasher
- Craig Phillips - Big brother winner.
- Boughey Baronets
Science and mathematics
- Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge (1851-1940) – invented the electrical spark ignition for the internal combustion engine and was the first principal of Birmingham University.
- James Edward Quibell - (1867-1935) British Egyptologist
- Percy John Heawood - (1861-1955) Notable Mathematician
Politics
- Peter Bottomley - Conservative Member of Parliament for Worthing West.
- John Benbow, clerk of the Crown whose right to use a coat of arms was confirmed in 1622.
- Robert Puleston - supporter of Owain Glyndŵr, at the time of his rebellion against King Henry IV
- William Kenyon-Slaney- sportsman, soldier and politician.
Future plans
Over the last few years, very little in the way of redevelopment has happened in the town, with attention going to towns including Wellington and Oakengates. But due to Telford and Wrekin council getting a large grant of the government the town is set to receive a major investment over the next few years, Including a major redevelopment of the canal and surrounding area is planned for the lower bar of the High Street area, with planned housing, bars and restaurants set to line the canal. New sporting facilities, like climbing walls in the Springfields area of the town and a new multi-million pound sports centre are also being built. There are also plans to build two new hotels in the town, both on the by-pass, which will be on opposite sides of the town, near to a local DIY shop Focus DIY with a lorry park and tourist information centre and near the Meer Park garden centre respectively.
The High Street and St Mary's Street area is also seeing new stores coming into the town to fill empty lots and some of the older ones being developed.
Surrounding villages and hamlets
The town is surrounded by many different small villages, ranging from the larger settlements of Edgmond and Lilleshall to smaller hamlets all of which are joined to the town or separated only by a small distance; most of these settlements are seen as parts of the town's catchment zone and as Newport is on the Shropshire/ Staffordshire border many lie in Staffordshire but their postal address is still Newport, these are as follows:
- Church Aston
- Chetwynd
- Longford
- Edgmond
- Moreton, Staffordshire
- Meretown
- Adeney
- Stockton, Shropshire
- Pave lane
- Bromstead Heath (Staffordshire)
- Great Chatwell (Staffordshire)
- Forton, (Staffordshire)
- Coley (Staffordshire)
- Outwoods (Staffordshire)
- Wilbrighton.
Closest cities, towns and villages
Places adjacent to Newport, Shropshire | ||||||||||||||||
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External links
- Articles needing cleanup from January 2009
- Cleanup tagged articles without a reason field from January 2009
- Wikipedia pages needing cleanup from January 2009
- Towns in Shropshire
- Telford and Wrekin
- Market towns in England
- Visitor attractions in Shropshire
- University towns
- Newport, Shropshire
- Geography of Newport, Shropshire
- Settlements established in the 12th century
- People from Newport, Shropshire
- Buildings in Newport, Shropshire