Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for NEWPORT

NEWPORT, a town, a parish, a sub-district, a district, and a division, in Salop. The town stands on the river Strine, the Shrewsbury canal, and the Shropshire Union railway, near Watling-street, and adjacent to the boundary with Staffordshire, 17¾ miles E N E of Shrewsbury; got a charter from Henry I., and various privileges under different kings till Edward VI.; is governed by a high steward, 2 bailiffs, and 25 burgesses; was burnt in 1665; consists chiefly of one wide well-paved street, containing many good shops; gives the title of Viscount to the Earl of Bradford; is a seat of petty sessions and county courts, and a polling-place; publishes a weekly newspaper; and has a head post-office, ‡designated Newport, Salop, a railway station with telegraph, two banking offices, a good inn, a bridge, a town hall, an ancient market-cross, a covered general market and corn exchange, a supply of spring water through pipes, a church, three dissenting chapels, a Roman Catholic chapel, a mechanics institute, a working men's club, three public schools, two suites of alms-houses, a workhouse, and charities £1, 760. The church is partly of the 15th century, with renaissance additions, and with a tower; was repaired in 1838, at a cost of £2,000: belonged to Shrewsbury abbey; and was made collegiate in 1441. The dissenting chapels are Independent, Wesleyan, and Primitive Methodist. The grammar school was founded in 1656, by W. Adams, a native; has four exhibitions at the two universities, and four others at Christchurch college, Oxford; and, together with alms-houses, founded also by W. Adams, has an endowed income of £1, 330. The English school has £45 a year from endowment; and the town alms-houses, founded in 1446 by W. Glover, and rebuilt in 1836, have £70. The workhouse was built in 1855, on land purchased from the Marsh trustees; and, at the census of 1861, had 85 inmates. A market for corn and provisions is held on every Saturday; a market for live stock, on every alternate Tuesday; and fairs, chiefly for live stock, on the first Tuesday of Feb., the Saturday before Palm-Sunday, 28 May, 27 July, 25 Sept., and 10 Dec. Machine-making, agricultural implement-making, and turnery-work are carried on; and considerable trade is done in connexion with neighbouring collieries, iron mines, and limestone quarries. The poet Tom Browne, who died in 1704, was a native. Pop. in 1851, 2, 906; in 1861, 2, 836. Houses, 543. The parish comprises 567 acres. Real property, £8, 869; of which £130 are in gas-works. Pop. in 1851, 2, 906; in 1861, 3,051. Houses, 590. The living is a rectory in the diocese of Lichfield. Value, £300. Patron, the Lord Chancellor.—The sub-district contains also the parishes of Chetwynd, Longford, Edgmond, and Lilleshall, and the chapelry of Woodcote. Acres, 22, 662. Pop., 10, 478. Houses, 2,024. The district comprehends also the sub-district of Gnosall, all electorally in Stafford, and containing the parishes of Gnosall, Forton, Norbury, Adbaston, and High Offley. Acres of the district, 47, 477. Poor-rates in 1863, £6,002. Pop. in 1851, 15, 620; in 1861, 15, 447. Houses, 3,046. Marriages in 1863, 86; births, 526, of which 43 were illegitimate; deaths, 266, of which 84 were at ages under 5 years, and 14 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 933; births, 4, 647; deaths, 3,058. The places of worship, in 1851, were 19 of the Church of England, with 6, 313 sittings; 2 of Independents, with 506 s.; 1 of Baptists, with 204 s.; 2 of Wesleyan Methodists, with 250 s.; 10 of Primitive Methodists, with 868 s.; and 1 of Roman Catholics, with 200 s. The schools were 19 public day-schools, with 1, 403 scholars; 17 private day-schools, with 322 s.; and 20 Sunday schools, with 1, 128 s. The division is part of South Bradford hundred; and contains eight parishes and part of another. Acres, 29, 566. Pop. in 1851, 11, 383. Houses, 2, 189.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, a parish, a sub-district, a district, and a division"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Newport CP/AP       Newport SubD       Newport RegD/PLU       Shropshire AncC
Place: Newport

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