
Newport is a village and
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
in the
Uttlesford
Uttlesford is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Essex, England. Its council is based in the town of Saffron Walden. The district also includes the town of Great Dunmow and numerous villages, including Stansted Mountfitchet ...
district in
Essex
Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...
, near
Saffron Walden
Saffron Walden is a market town and civil parish in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England, north of Bishop's Stortford, south of Cambridge and north of London. It retains a rural appearance and some buildings of the medieval period. Th ...
. The village has a population of over 2,000, measured at 2,352 at the 2011 census.
Located approximately north of
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, the village is situated amongst the
arable
Arable relates to the growing of crops:
* Arable farming or agronomy, the cultivation of field crops
* Arable land, land upon which crops are cultivated
* Arable crops program, a consolidated support system operated under the EU Common Agricultura ...
fields of northern Essex. With a regular train service to
London Liverpool Street
Liverpool Street station, also known as London Liverpool Street, is a major central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, in the ward of Bishopsgate Without. It is ...
and Cambridge from the
Newport (Essex) railway station, the village is considered to be within
commuting
Commuting is periodically recurring travel between a place of residence and place of work or study, where the traveler, referred to as a commuter, leaves the boundary of their home community. By extension, it can sometimes be any regular o ...
distance of the capital and as such attracts a number of workers from the
City of London
The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...
.
Joyce Frankland Academy, a comprehensive co-educational secondary school, is also located in the village.
Newport is the centre point of the long-distance path known as the
Harcamlow Way, a figure-of-eight walk between
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
and
Harlow
Harlow is a town and local government district located in the west of Essex, England. Founded as a Planned community, new town in 1947, it is situated on the border with Hertfordshire, and occupies a large area of land on the south bank of the ...
. Consequently, it has a large number of walks radiating from its centre; short walks of surrounding interest include those heading towards Saffron Walden, the
English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...
property of
Audley End House
Audley End House is a largely early 17th-century country house outside Saffron Walden, Essex, England. It is a prodigy house, known as one of the finest Jacobean houses in England.
Audley End is now one-third of its original size, but is st ...
, or Prior Hall Barn in
Widdington.
History
A settlement may have existed here under the name ''Wigingamere'' which King
Edward the Elder
Edward the Elder (870s?17 July 924) was King of the Anglo-Saxons from 899 until his death in 924. He was the elder son of Alfred the Great and his wife Ealhswith. When Edward succeeded to the throne, he had to defeat a challenge from his cousi ...
, engaged in the reconquest of the
Danelaw
The Danelaw (, ; ; ) was the part of History of Anglo-Saxon England, England between the late ninth century and the Norman Conquest under Anglo-Saxon rule in which Danes (tribe), Danish laws applied. The Danelaw originated in the conquest and oc ...
, ordered to be refortified in 921 (or possibly 917). However, the author of the paper that associated ''Wigingamere'' with Newport wrote a subsequent paper in which he indicated that this idea was "no longer tenable."
The earliest mention of Newport is in 1086 in the
Domesday Book
Domesday Book ( ; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of William the Conqueror. The manuscript was originally known by ...
, in the
hundred
100 or one hundred (Roman numerals, Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 (number), 99 and preceding 101 (number), 101.
In mathematics
100 is the square of 10 (number), 10 (in scientific notation it is written as 102). The standar ...
of
Uttlesford
Uttlesford is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Essex, England. Its council is based in the town of Saffron Walden. The district also includes the town of Great Dunmow and numerous villages, including Stansted Mountfitchet ...
. The name is thought to be of
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...
origin and is thought to mean new town or market, rather than a modern-day seaport. "Port" was often a name for a market in Saxon times, and Newport did have a flourishing market in this period.
The village prospered until around 1300, after which it declined and its market ceased; it was overtaken in importance by the neighbouring town of Chipping Walden (known today as
Saffron Walden
Saffron Walden is a market town and civil parish in the Uttlesford district of Essex, England, north of Bishop's Stortford, south of Cambridge and north of London. It retains a rural appearance and some buildings of the medieval period. Th ...
). Newport used to contain a very large royal fish pond and hence was known as Newport Pond, but the pond had dried up by the 16th century and that name has fallen into disuse. Its namesake is 25 acre Newport Pond,
[Lake-Link New York: Newport Pond, Essex Co., New York]
Accessed November 2020. located beside Tracy Road (Route 6) west of
Witherbee in Essex County, New York.
Until the 20th century Newport was mostly dependent upon agriculture in addition to local trade of leather, woolcombing and in later years,
malting
Malting is the process of steeping, germinating, and drying grain to convert it into malt. Germination and sprouting involve a number of enzymes to produce the changes from seed to seedling and the malt producer stops this stage of the process w ...
.
There are many attractive old buildings in the village, a characteristic of the area. The church, St Mary the Virgin,
dates from the late 14th century. Perhaps the two most interesting other buildings are The Crown House (mostly late 16th century), and Monks Barn, a
Wealden type house dating from the 15th century.
In 1588 Newport Free Grammar School was founded by Dame Joyce Frankland; although it retained its name it began to take boys of all abilities in 1976, but is now called
Joyce Frankland Academy and is fully comprehensive as well as co-educational. The village also has its own primary school.
In 1660, diarist,
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys ( ; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English writer and Tories (British political party), Tory politician. He served as an official in the Navy Board and Member of Parliament (England), Member of Parliament, but is most r ...
stayed overnight, whilst visiting
Lord Braybrooke
Baron Braybrooke, of Braybrooke in the County of Northampton, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created in 1788 for John Griffin, 4th Baron Howard de Walden, with remainder to his kinsman Richard Neville-Aldworth. Lord Howard ...
at Audley End House.
On the creation of a
turnpike trust
Turnpike trusts were bodies set up by individual Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom, Acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road toll road, tolls for maintaining the principal roads in Kingdom of Great Britain, Britain from the 17th ...
in 1744 the main road was greatly improved. This brought new people and new trade to the village, as did the arrival of the railway in 1845.
The greatest changes have occurred recently. One hundred years ago about 900 people, largely agricultural workers, lived in some 220 dwellings. By 1971 the population had increased somewhat to over 1,200. Since then all the livestock farms have closed, fields, orchards and farm premises in the centre of the village have been built over, and more than 2,200 people now occupy over 900 houses.
Governance
An
electoral ward
A ward is a local authority area, typically used for electoral purposes. In some countries, wards are usually named after neighbourhoods, thoroughfares, parishes, landmarks, geographical features and in some cases historical figures connected t ...
in the same name exists. The population of this ward at the 2011 census was 3,443.
Entertainment
The village has two public houses: the Coach and Horses, a large 17th-century inn situated at the north end of the village, and the White Horse, an equally old but smaller pub in the centre of the village. There is also a social members club, the Newport Club.
Newport is home to a tennis club and youth organisations
and benefits from the Village Hall where activities include a farmers' market, bingo, keep fit, Pilates, the Footlight Theatre Dance School, Newport Amateur Theatrical Society, Newport Art Group, and Saffron Walden Indoor Carpet Bowls Club.
Newport has a village magazine, Newport News, which is published twice a year and hosts a
bonfire night
Bonfire Night is a name given to various yearly events marked by bonfires and fireworks. These include Guy Fawkes Night (5 November) in Great Britain; All Hallows' Eve (31 October); May Eve (30 April); Midsummer Eve/Saint John's Eve (23 Jun ...
firework display on 5 November each year.
Local businesses
Newport is served by a handful of small businesses, such as a small independent petrol station and garage, a chemist, an Indian restaurant, a convenience store and post office. There is also a small garden centre, beauty salon, gentleman's hairdressers and a bakery.
Famous inhabitants
The seventeenth-century writer of books on cookery and household management,
Hannah Woolley
Hannah Woolley, sometimes spelled Wolley (c.1622 – in or after 1675), was an English writer who published early books on household management; she was probably the first person to earn a living doing this.
She variously worked as a servant, ...
, lived here as wife of the school master around 1646.
Chef
Jamie Oliver
Jamie Trevor Oliver Order of the Star of Italy, OSI (born 27 May 1975) is an English celebrity chef, restaurateur and cookbook author. He is known for his casual approach to cuisine, which has led him to front numerous television shows and o ...
went to Newport Free Grammar School and lives in a village nearby. His parents owned a pub called The Cricketers in the nearby village of
Clavering but sold it on retirement in October 2020.
The professional footballer
Matt Holland
Matthew Rhys Holland (born 11 April 1974) is a former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He is a director and club ambassador at Ipswich Town.
Holland began his career at West Ham United, having previously been with Arsenal's ...
attended the same school, as did
Martin Caton MP, and (albeit briefly)
Adam Ant
Stuart Leslie Goddard (born 3 November 1954), known professionally as Adam Ant, is an English singer, musician, and actor. He gained popularity as the lead singer of new wave group Adam and the Ants and later as a solo artist, scoring 10 UK ...
.
"Tex" Banwell, a British soldier who escaped
POW
POW is "prisoner of war", a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict.
POW or pow may also refer to:
Music
* P.O.W (Bullet for My Valentine song), "P.O.W" (Bull ...
camps at least twice, impersonated
Monty
Monty is a masculine given name, often a short form of Montgomery (name), Montgomery, Montague (given name), Montague and other similar names. It is also a surname.
Notable people with the name or nickname include:
Nickname
*Bernard Montgomery ...
, joined the
Dutch resistance
The Dutch resistance () to the History of the Netherlands (1939–1945), German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II can be mainly characterized as non-violent. The primary organizers were the Communist Party of the Netherlands, C ...
and was finally imprisoned in
Auschwitz
Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...
, was born in the town in 1917 and lived here as a toddler.
See also
*
The Hundred Parishes
The Hundred Parishes is a cultural heritage initiative focused on an area in the East of England recognized for its high concentration of cultural and historical significance. Although without formal recognition or status, the concept has the ble ...
*
The Nightingale Baronetcy of Newport Pond
Nurse, B. et alA village in time; the history of Newport, Essex; Newport, Newport News, 1995
References
External links
Victoria County History of Essex: Newport{{authority control
Villages in Essex
Civil parishes in Essex
Uttlesford