Newport is a borough corporate, market-town and parish, in the Newport division of the hundred of Bradford South; 139 miles N.W. by W. from London, and 19 E.N.E. from Shrewsbury; situated near the line of the Roman Watling street, at the north-eastern border of the county, on a branch of the Liverpool and Birmingham Junction Canal. The Shropshire Union Railway passes through the upper end of the town, from Stafford to Shrewsbury; it is a branch held on lease by the London and North Western, and was opened for traffic in June, 1849. The town, which is seated in a delightful part of the country, sustained, in the year 1665, damage by fire to the amount of upwards of £30,000.—a very large sum at that period. Its appearance now is respectable, having many handsome dwellings, two proprietary banking establishments, a bank for savings, a spacious market-hall, and good inns; the principal is the ‘Royal Victoria Hotel’ (and posting house), in Saint Mary street, which as a commercial and family house can be classed amongst the first in Shropshire. The ‘Raven and Bell’ in the High street, is also a most respectable inn, affording excellent accommodation. The principal manufactories are one belonging to William Scott Underhill, agricultural implement manufacturer, in Saint Mary street, and another of the same to Jones & Aston, of Salters lane; there is also an extensive iron and brass foundry, and two manufactories for bend ware, and various turnery, hair sieves, &c. of the most approved description. A newspaper is published weekly, by H. P. & C. Sylvester, entitled ‘the Newport and North Shropshire Advertiser,’ and enjoys a large circulation.
The liberties and privileges of the town commenced by grants, as early as Henry I, and they have been confirmed by succeeding monarchs. The corporation comprises a high steward, deputy steward, two bailiffs and about twenty-five burgesses, who are entitled to certain property within the parish, the rents arising from which, are chiefly applied to defray the expense of keeping in repair a water-course and pipes, by which, from a spring about a mile distance, the inhabitants are supplied with water—this is conveyed into five large cisterns, placed in different parts of the town, four of which were erected and beautified under the direction of the corporation, at a considerable expense, and are rendered an ornament, as well as a convenience to the inhabitants. There is also derived from a large tract of land, a fund which is applied, amongst other purposes, to the repairs of the streets, lighting the town, and apprenticing poor children. His Grace the Duke of Sutherland is lord of the manor, and holds courts leet annually. Petty sessions, for the Newport division of the hundred, are held here by the magistrates, and the County Court, under the new acts, sits one a month in the town hall, for the recovery of debts to any amount not exceeding £50.
The parish Church of Saint Nicholas, formerly belonged to the abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, in Shrewsbury, and was alienated by permission of Henry VI, to Thomas Draper and his heirs, by whom it was made collegiate for a warden and four lay chaplains. The church is principally in the ancient style of English architecture with a square tower, and was repaired and beautified in 1827, at a cost exceeding £3,000, and again in 1835; the living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Crown; the present incumbent is the Rev. William Sandford, A.M. There are places of worship for Independents, Roman Catholics, and Methodists—both Primitive and Wesleyan. The school here was founded, and amply endowed, in 1656, by William Adams, Esq. a native of Newport, who assigned certain lands for the support of a master and an usher, for the endowment of four exhibitions at any of the colleges in Oxford or Cambridge, for the erection and support of four almshouses for that number of that number of poor persons, for annually apprenticing three poor children, and for other purposes. This school also enjoys the benefit of four other exhibitions, founded by Mr. Careswell. The land belonging to this charity yields an annual income of nearly £1,000. There are the town’s almshouses for four poor females, founded and erected in 1446, by William Glover, of this town; a national school, originating from a free grammar school of very ancient foundation, and several other charities and funds vested in trustees. Newport under the new Poor Law, is the centre of an Union, comprising sixteen parishes; and a new and commodious workhouse has been erected. The town is indebted to the same gentleman who so munificently endowed the free school, for its market hall. The country around here is very fertile, the prospects beautiful, and enriched by many seats of note; and among other subjects worthy of observation in the neighbourhood, are the ruins of Saint John’s abbey at Lilleshall, about three miles hence. The market is held on Saturday; cattle and sheep fairs (or markets), every alternate Tuesday, and annual fairs on the first Tuesday after Candlemas, the Saturday before Palm-Sunday, May 28th, July 27th, Sept. 25th, and December 10th, principally for live stock. The parish contained, by the returns rendered in 1841, 2,497 inhabitants, and by those in 1851, 2,906.
POST OFFICE, High street, Maria J. Stillitoe, Post Mistress.—Letters from London, and all parts arrive at ten minutes before three in the morning, and three in the afternoon, and from Shrewsbury and Wellington at eleven in the morning, and twenty minutes before eleven at night, and are despatched to London, and all parts at ten in the morning, and twenty-five minutes past ten at night, and to Shrewsbury, and Wellington, at two in the afternoon, and half-past one in the morning.
A Mail Cart is despatched to Market Drayton, at three in the morning, and to Bridgnorth, and Shiffnal, at four in the morning.
NOBILITY, GENTRY AND CLERGY.
Adams Joseph Harrison, Esq. High st
Baddeley the Misses —, Chetwynd Aston
Barber Mrs. Sarah, High st, Wellington rd
Bill Mrs. —, Chetwynd Aston