The County Court Office, for the recovery of debts, and in all pleas of personal action where the damage does not exceed £50, is situated in High street. The several parishes and places within the jurisdiction of the court in Shropshire are Adney, Brockton, Caynton, Cherrington, Cheswell, Chetwynd. Chetwynd Aston, Chetwynd End, Church Aston, Donington, Donington Wood, Edgmond, Howle, Lilleshall, Longford, Littlehales, Lynn, Muxton, Newport, Pave Lane, Pickstock, Pilston, Sambrook, Stockton, Tibberton, Vauxhall, Woodcote. The places in Staffordshire are Adbaston, Alston, Apeton, Aqualate, Batchacre, Beffcote, Bishops Offley, Bromstead, Coton, Cowley, Flashbrook, Forton, Gnosall, Great Chatwell, High Offley, Knighton, Knightley, Loynton, Meertown, Moreton, Norbury, Oulton, Outwoods, Plardiwick, Shebdon, Sutton, Tunstall, Weston Jones, Wilbrighton, and Woodseaves. Judge: Uvedale Corbett, Esq., Aston Hall. Clerk: William Liddle, Esq., Newport. High Bailiff: George Hill Townsend, Wolverhampton. Appraiser and Auctioneer: Joseph Doody, High street, Newport. Bailiff: Thomas Roberts, Upper Bar, Newport.
The Newport Union House, situated in Workhouse lane, a plain brick structure, will accommodate about sixty inmates; the aged, infirm, and the older children are sent to the union house of Gnosall, in Staffordshire, which is connected with the Newport union, and this house is for the reception of the able-bodied poor and very young children. The several places comprised in the union in the county are Newport, Chetwynd, Chetwynd Aston, Church Aston, Cherrington, and Edgmond. The townships and places in Staffordshire are Adbaston, Forton, Gnosall, High Offley, Norbury, and Weston Jones. Chairman to the Guardians: John Cotes, Esq. Clerk: Henry Heane, Esq. Chaplain: Rev. William Sandford. Surgeons: Mr. William Lindop, Mr. Godley, and Mr. John Green. Relieving Officer: Mr. Benjamin Rees. Master: Samuel Winnell. Matron: Emma Wellings.
The Market Hall is an ancient structure, standing upon pillars, and situate nearly in the centre of High street. The area between the pillars is appropriated to a corn market; and here the farmers assemble on a market day for the sale of corn and other grain, which is sold by sample. The market is held on Saturday, when the town has a busy and animated appearance. Above the corn market is a spacious room, which is used for magisterial purposes. Here the petty sessions are held every alternate Tuesday, and the official business of the county court is also transacted here. An adjoining room is used as a Sunday school. The Market Hall was chiefly erected at the expense of William Adams, the munificent founder of the Grammar School, who “gave £550 towards building a town house.” Near to the Market Hall is a butter market, a covered area, which is of more modern construction. Under this covering is the market cross, a structure of considerable antiquity, consisting of four steps, and a fluted pillar broken at the top, the whole much dilapidated by time.
Fairs.—The chartered fairs at Newport have merged into the fortnightly cattle market, held every alternate Tuesday, except the fair held on May 28th, which is still continued. These markets are well attended by the farmers in the surrounding district, and considerable quantities of fat and other stock are sold. Whether the growing importance of the Shrewsbury cattle market, which is held on the same day, will not tend to diminish the number of buyers at Newport remains to be seen.
The Gas Works, situate in Marsh lane, were established in 1835 by a company of shareholders with a capital stock of £1,800, since which £400 has been added to the capital. There are two gasometers, each of which will hold about 8,000 cubic feet of gas. A charge of 7s. 6d. per 1000 cubic foot is now made to the consumer. The expense of lighting the streets is paid from the income arising from the town lands, and the cost of pitching the streets is also paid from the same source.
The Lock-up, situate on the Stafford road, has been built within the last few years. It is a small structure with two cells, and residence for the constable.
The Railway Station is situated about half a mile S.E. from the church, within the bounds of the township of Field Aston. There are six trains each way daily; an omnibus meets the different trains, and calls at the principal inns in the town. Newport is distant 17½ miles from Shrewsbury and 11½ miles from Stafford by railway.
Newport sustained great damage by a fire which broke out on the 16th May, 1655; it consumed 162 houses, the loss of which with what they contained was estimated at £30,000. It is stated that a festival was formerly kept on the 30th August, in memory of Mr. Adams, the founder of the Grammar School and almshouses. Tradition says that Charles II., being informed what large sums Mr. Adams had expended in charitable uses, expressed a desire to see him when he was on a visit to the city; and Mr. Adams being introduced to his Majesty, the King asked him whether he had not straitened his fortune by his great benefactions. Mr. Adams replied that he had not, and if his Majesty pleased he would present him with £1,000, provided he would procure an act of parliament to exempt his land from taxes, to which the king consented. How far the above may be true we are unable to affirm; it is certain, however, that the estate at Knighton, with which the Grammar School is endowed, is exempt from parliamentary and parochial taxation.
The Marsh Trust.—By an Act of Parliament passed in the 4th of George III., intituled “An act for dividing and inclosing a waste ground called the Marsh, in the township of Newport, in the county of Salop, and for applying the produce thereof to the several purposes therein mentioned;” after reciting that there was within the said township a common waste ground called the Marsh, containing 117 acres, or thereabouts, wherein each householder in the said town had from time immemorial a right of turning a milch cow, which privilege had proved of very little advantage to the town, but rather an inconvenience, by increasing the poor thereof; and that it was apprehended that the enclosing and improving the said Marsh, and applying the profits thereof from time to time, after making satisfaction to the lords of the manor for their respective rights therein, in paving and keeping in repair the streets of the town of Newport, and in keeping in repair the Market Hall and Cross there; and also in establishing and encouraging some manufacture, and in apprenticing the children of the poor parishioners of Newport, would be of great advantage to the town in general, and might be a means of extending a manufactory throughout the neighbourhood; it was enacted, that certain persons therein named, and their heirs and successors respectively should be trustees, for enclosing, improving, and dividing the said Marsh, and for putting the said act into execution: and it was further enacted, that from and immediately after passing that act, all right of common or pasturage in or upon the said Marsh should cease and be extinguished; and the trustees were authorized to set out to the Earl of Shrewsbury such portion of the Marsh as two indifferent persons should appoint, as a recompense and satisfaction for the said earl’s four beast-gates upon the Marsh: and it was further enacted, that the residue of the said Marsh, after the allotment so made, should be vested in the said trustees and their successors, and be freed from all right, title, and interest whatsoever, of the householders of the township.
A survey being made in pursuance of the directions of the act, the Marsh was found to contain 111a. 3r. 31p., of which four acres being allotted to the Earl of Shrewsbury for beast-gates, there remained 107a. 3r. 31p. to be employed for the beneficial objects of the trust. This remainder, the trustees then proceeded to inclose and subdivide; and as an effective mode of providing for the fencing-in and improvement of the different parcels, they granted leases for 99 years, determinable on three lives, binding the lessees by covenants to plant and set the fences, within a limited time, with good hawthorn sets; to make ditches of certain dimensions; and otherwise to improve and properly manage the respective parcels demised to them. The leases originally granted produced a yearly income of £91. 7s.; but a considerable income may reasonably be looked for on the falling of leases, determinable on three lives, the lands being valued at upwards of £3 per acre, which would produce an annual rental of about £350. The income is subject to a charge for land-tax of £6. 2s.; chief rent, £1; and £5. 5s. to the collector of rents. In the application of their annual rents, the trustees were in the first instance called upon to defray the expenses attending the Act of Parliament and the preliminary arrangements in execution of their trust, which amounted to £663. 0s. 8d. These expenses being discharged, the income was next applied, for several years, to the purpose of repairing the streets and public buildings specified in the act; and having appropriated to those uses, from time to time, the sum of £808. 3s. 5½d., the trustees had in hand, on the balancing of their accounts in April, 1785, the sum of £93. 8s. 7½d. In the year 1787 the benefits of the trust were extended to the establishment of a Sunday school, and in 1790 to that of a stocking manufactory. This undertaking being found not to prosper, was superseded in 1796 by the erection of a wind-mill for grinding corn. This measure appears to have been loudly called for by the inhabitants of Newport, as a means of protecting themselves against what were deemed the extortionate demands of the millers of the neighbourhood. The speculation, however, proved exceedingly ruinous, and was finally abandoned in the year 1801; since which time the rents of the premises have been applied, as before, to the repairs of the streets and public buildings, as far as there has remained a surplus, after keeping down the annual interest of the debts which these abortive schemes have entailed upon the trust. It appears that £460 was expended in the attempt to establish the manufacture of stockings, and the corn-mill cost £2,000. The latter, however, was subsequently sold for £900. Previously to the year 1799 debts had been contracted to carry on these schemes, amounting to £2,300. This sum had been reduced to £1,100, when the Charity Commissioners published their report, which had been secured by mortgage of the Marsh, at five per cent. interest; so that there remained an annual charge of £55 in respect of the debts which remained unpaid. In addition to the debts contracted for the purposes above mentioned, £192. 4s. 3d. was borrowed from the treasurer in 1811, for the benefit of the public repairs, for which it was agreed to allow him five per cent. interest until he should reimburse himself from the rents.