NEWPORT - ENGLAND |
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Newport is a market town in the Wrekin parliamentary division of Shropshire, England, 145 miles N.W. from London on the Stafford-Shrewsbury joint line of the disused London & North-Western and Great Western Railway railways, and on the Shrewsbury Canal..
The church of St Nicholas is Early English and Perpendicular. There is an ancient market cross, greatly decayed, called the "Buttercross". Newport possesses a literary institute, and a free grammar school (Adams' Grammar School) founded in 1656. Four miles S. are the beautiful ruins of Lilleshall abbey, including a fine 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. |
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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 is supposed to have founded the borough, at
first called New Borough, after the manor had come into his hands through
the forfeiture of Robert de Belesme.
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 king's 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.
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 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.
The town now lies in the borough and unitary authority of Telford and Wrekin.
The A41 runs by the town on a new by-pass and the A518 runs through the town
(the Stafford-Telford route).
See Edward Jones, Historical Records of Newport, co. Salop; Shropshire
Archaeol. and Natural History Society, vols. viii. and ix. (1885-1886);
Victoria County History, Shropshire. |
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