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Newport, Shropshire

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 and some 12 miles (19 km) west of Stafford sitting on the Shropshire/Staffordshire border. 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 and a 2008 estimate puts it between 12,444.^[1] and 15,632 ^[2]. with another 5,000 in the outlying villages and farming districts.

Newport is a Britain in Bloom finalist and a silver guilt awardie and the first town in the country to win six gold awards in a row for the Heart of England region.^[3].

The town is currently setting about getting both Transition Towns and Fairtrade Town statuses ^[4]

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, But there was two settlements here before the Norman times, the first called Eastun has been identified as Church Aston and the second Plesc lies around towards south of the town, In 963AD Plesc was described as having a High street, a stone quarry and a religious community, The name Plesc means fortified place or one with palicade, denoting it was of some importance.

Newport was omitted from the Domesday Book, but this is not an uncommom thing, because other towns omitted include London, Tamworth, Oswestry and Ludlow, all boroughs since Saxon times

The Normans planned the new town around the older one 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 traditional 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 between the older settlements of Edgmond and Plesc. 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 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 lies in the Welsh Marches and near to Aqualate Mere, which is east of the town and is the largest natural lake in the English Midlands ^[5] 1.5 km long and 5 km wide, this is sited in the grounds of the deer park which houses Aqualate Hall, this is 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.

To the east of the town is the River Mease which flows near to the town, just over the border in Staffordshire.

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.

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.

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, with the centre of the high-street being the Puleston Cross.

Burgage plots ran 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 was developed into a B&M Bargains ^[6] and a Jaspers bakers store opend in an empty stotre near by.

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 Council and Telford and Wrekin councils agree terms 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.

Other areas

The oldest man-made landmark in the town in the Puleston Cross which is a butter cross positioned near to the Church of St Nicholas's. this is an early 14th century cross denoting a market place and named after Sir John Puleston who lost his life during the reign of King Edward 1st in campaign against Wales.

Towards the top end of the town is the Combat stress center, 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.

The town sits near the Aqualate Mere, which is the largest natural lake in the English Midlands.

An early etching of Adams' Grammar School

St. Nicholas church & Newport war memorial

Aqualate lodge to Aqualate Hall

Newport Junior school Built 1898

Religious sites

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 1,000 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 one of the most desierable towns in the country,^[6]

Newport is the main hub for the farming community along the Shropshire/Staffordshire border and as a mini business center, with the head offices of Smith Bellerby limited, The Hartington Group, Sambrook Research International, ReadWell Press, Classic furniture, Edgmond Foods, and the The Football Association, Medical and Exercise Science Department, based at Lilleshall Hall on the outskirts of the town.

Newport is third best place in the county for house sales, after Much Wenlock and the new housing estate at Lawley in Telford.^[7]

A large section of Newport's economy is based around education, with a private prep school, two public schools and a large comprehensive drawing students from all over the county and a university on the edge of the town along with a regional food academy.

Retail plays a major part of the economy of the town, with the majority of shops being located in and around the High street, with larger out of town stores located on the Audley Avenue and Springfield trading estates in to the south of the town and to the east of the town the Mere park complex with the Edinburgh Woollen Mill and Maidenhead Aquatics being the newest stores to come to the town.

Events and venues

Ozzys Wine bar in St Marys Street was formerly owned by rock star Ozzy Osbourne

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

On the Mere park area of the town, an Beefeater (restaurant) is set to be built

The Royal Victoria Hotel - a historical building dating back to 1830, first opened by the Princess Victoria and now operating as a hotel, bar and restaurant, now running rock and indie nights.

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 showed 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 10 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 publications

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,


Front of Adams' Grammar School

Newport Junior school

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,

Harper Adams University College is located on the outskirts of town.

Keele University are investing in a new medical building attached to an existing doctor's surgery in the town for student doctors to learn in the public.

The closest collages for the town are Telford College of Arts and Technology & Stafford College with Buses running from the town to both collages and to Stafford, Wolverhampton and Keele Universities due to the proximity of the town to all three.

On the outskirts of the town is Edgmond Hall, Run by Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council for outdoor activities.

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 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


Newport Canal.

Before the road network the canal was the main link into the town but is currwntly not connected to the National network, but there are current plans to restore it 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.

The town sits 8.8 miles (14.2 km) from the M54 and 11.1 miles (17.9 km) from the M6 Motorways.

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.

In 2009 a Park and ride was introduced between the High Street and Mere Park centre. It is hoped that this will bring customers to each of the shopping areas and it is stated that if the town gets a new train station, the park and ride would run to the station too^[9].

Rail

The railway which once layon the Stafford to Shrewsbury Line, but due to cuts Newport (Salop) railway station, was closed in September 1964 and has now been dismantled, but the line has been restored to Donnington, so 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 and with the Telford International Freight Park in Donnington, Telford needing better connections to the east coast and Scotland, this would mean a line going past the town and on towards Gnosall and Stafford, so the inclusion of a train station is feasible.

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 and clubs

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.

Arts

Michael J. Bassett – film Director and scriptwriterd

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– ) BBC Radio 1 DJ

Sport

Adam Proudlock - Former 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

Dave Gittus M.B.E. World - Trail Orienteering Champion 2006

Military

Admiral John Benbow - (1653?–1702)

Colonel Benbow, who was shot in 1651 by the Roundheads, outside Shrewsbury Castle.

Peter Dawbarn, - Was Shropshire’s last surviving Battle of Britain pilot

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 - (born 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 - winner of Big Brother 2000

Boughey Baronets

Robert Coats - designed the QE2

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 councils borough towns incentive, 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 Focus DIY with a lorry park and one at 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.

In the spring of 2010 the first stage of the towns £1.5m regerneration begins with the redevelopment of Victoria Park to the rear of The Royal Victoria Hotel, this will cost between £250,000 and £300,000. the park will have new seating, a new play area for along the canal front and a new carpark closer to the town center with plans to build a museum/information center on the old car park.^[10]

The next stage of the regeneration is hoped to start in the summer of 2010 and will be mainly focused on the High street area of the town and Central square.^[11]

On Stafford street next to the car park, some derelict building are set to be demolished to make way for a care home, which will make the entrance to the high-street area more inviting and on the entrance to the town by mere park a care village it being built on empty fields that lead onto Stafford street, across from the purposed Premier Inn and on the mere park site planning for a Beefeater (restaurant) and other craft shops and retail outlets, has been approved.

On derelict land on the outskirts of Newport, there are plans to build an Aldi supermarket.^[12]

Surrounding villages and hamlets

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.