Newport was located in the
historic kingdom of
Mercia, near where
Wreocensæte was once situated. Humans inhabited the surrounding area long before the creation of the town. Once established, Newport became a
market town in the centre of the
rural farming area between
Stafford and
Shrewsbury.
Saxon period In
Saxon times, there were two settlements in the area. The first,
Eastun, has been identified as
Church Aston, and the second was
Plaesc which is now Newport. In AD 963, Plaesc was described as having a High Street, a stone quarry, and a religious community. The name Plaesc means a shallow pool. Few signs of the Saxon settlement exist today, apart from the High Street, the Quarry, which could be either the Quarry on Stafford Road, or the Hole Meadow on Wellington Road. This has not been definitely confirmed.
Norman to Tudor period At the time of the
Norman Conquest, the land where Newport sits formed part of the manor of
Edgmond, which
William I gave as a gift along with the county of
Shropshire to
Roger, Earl of Shrewsbury.
Henry I founded the borough, first called Newborough, after the manor came into his hands from
Robert de Belesme. Newport was omitted from the
Domesday Book of 1086, but this is not uncommon. Other towns omitted include London,
Tamworth 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 are typical of
Norman architecture and planning, though today only
Newport Guildhall and Smallwood Lodge are clear signs of Tudor buildings, due to the 1665 fire which destroyed most of the High Street. 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, leading to the first market charter which was granted by Henry I. The town is mentioned once by
John Leland in a list of
castles, though now no visible remains of the castle exist; however, the most probable location for it would have been the traditional site of a manor house at Upper Bar, where there is a fragment of a square, broad moat, or on the higher ground along the Forton road, where the Castle House school stands. As regards the moat, nearly square, forming by measurement an area of 60 square yards, two sides have been filled with rubbish. Nothing is known about the occupants of the moated site. It could have pre-dated the town or, perhaps more likely, could have been the manor house of the Audleys, who were granted the manor in 1227. By 1421, the manor house was in ruins. One of the main reasons for Newport's early wealth was the surrounding fisheries and the chief service 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; Henry's son James granted in the middle of the 13th century that the burgesses need not take the fish anywhere except within the county of Shropshire. The burgesses received certain privileges from Henry I;
Henry II, in an undated charter, granted them all the liberties, rights and customs that they had enjoyed in the time of Henry I, including a
guild 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 Corporations Act 1883, and a
local board was formed, which, under the
Local Government Act 1894, gave place to an
urban district council.
Stuart to Regency period In 1665, many buildings were damaged in the Great Fire of Newport, which started in the home of a local blacksmith and destroyed the homes of 162 families (without causing deaths) to the then-value of £30,000 (£5.6M in 2025) and only a few of the
medieval structures remain. However, there remain many fine
Regency and
Georgian frontages built on the site of the former Norman plots. This allowed the main streets of Newport to be wider This bomb is now on display at
Royal Air Force Museum Cosford. At
Harper Adams University College just outside Newport in
Edgmond, on 11 January 1982 the English lowest temperature weather record was broken (and is kept to this day): .
Modern-day Newport Newport is now predominantly a
commuter town, with people travelling to Telford, Shrewsbury, Stafford, Wolverhampton and beyond for employment. Previously, very little
redevelopment happened in Newport from the 1960s—attention going instead to nearby towns including
Wellington and
Oakengates, which make up the
new town of Telford—until the
Telford and Wrekin Council borough towns incentive was brought about in 2007. The town received major investments over the following years, including a major redevelopment of the canal and surrounding area, the lower bar of the High Street area, planned housing, bars and restaurants set to line the
canal. New sporting facilities, including a
climbing wall in the Springfield area of the town, were provided. In the spring of 2010, the first stage of the town's £1.5million regeneration began, with the £250,000 and £300,000 redevelopment of Victoria Park behind the now-defunct
The Royal Victoria Hotel. The next stage of the regeneration, which was mainly focused on the
High Street area of the town and Central square, involved re-surfacing the High-Street pavements and changing the design of the High Street around the
Puleston Cross, removing the cobblestones and replacing them with paving and the traced outline of the ancient market hall. In July 2011, Telford and Wrekin Council unveiled plans for green land off the
A518 bypass. The proposals included hundreds of new homes, a new supermarket, a business park and improvements to Burton Borough School. House prices in the town are the highest in the TF postcode area (including the towns of Telford and
Market Drayton) and among the highest in the county. The town is currently attempting to acquire
Transition Towns and
Fairtrade Town statuses. ==Facilities and places of interest==