Newton was a village on the north-east coast of the English county of

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

. The village, which would have been in

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

since 1974, is now lost to

coastal erosion Coastal erosion is the loss or displacement of land, or the long-term removal of sediment and rocks along the coastline due to the action of Wind wave, waves, Ocean current, currents, tides, wind-driven water, waterborne ice, or other impacts ...

History

Newton was located on the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

coast. It was named because, under the Anglo-Saxons, it was a new settlement compared with the neighbouring Corton, Hopton and Gorleston.Clark, p. 11. At the time of 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 1086, Newton had just one household, one freeman and half a plough team. In

Edward I Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots (Latin: Malleus Scotorum), was King of England from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he was Lord of Ireland, and from 125 ...

's 1274

Hundred Rolls {{Short description, 13th-century census of England and Wales The Hundred Rolls are a census of England and parts of what is now Wales taken in the late thirteenth century. Often considered an attempt to produce a second Domesday Book, they are na ...

, Newton was included in the

Lothingland Lothingland is an area in the English counties of Suffolk and Norfolk on the North Sea coast. It is bound by the River Yare and Breydon Water to the north, the River Waveney to the west and Oulton Broad to the south, and includes the parts of Lowe ...

Half Hundred.Clark, p.13. Newton was the same length as Hopton, north to south, but located to its east.Clark, p.12. In the 14th century, the northern entrance to the

River Yare The River Yare is a river in the English county of Norfolk. In its lower reaches it is one of the principal navigable waterways of The Broads and connects with the rest of the network. The river rises south of Dereham to the west to the villag ...

at Yarmouth started to silt up, causing a long sand spit to form; this ran south all the way to Gunton.Clark, p.14. Seven cuts, or gaps, were put through the spit; one of these was put through in 1408 at Newton and was known as the ''Newton Gap''. The lane that connected Hopton with Newton was called ''Newton Gap Road''; this is now called ''Beach Road''. Newton itself seems to have washed away in the 16th century.

The remnant

After most of Newton was lost, the remnant, which was a narrow strip, was attached to Corton in 1515.Monument record COR 073 - Church of St Mary; Newton; The Gate. Formerly recorded as COR Misc
Suffolk Heritage Explorer,

Suffolk County Council Suffolk County Council is the upper-tier Local government in England, local authority for the county of Suffolk, England. It is run by 75 elected county councillors representing 63 divisions. It is a member of the East of England Local Governme ...

. Retrieved 17 January 2020. Other remnants, an area called ''Newton Green'' and stone supported cross known as ''Newton Cross'', were lost to erosion by 1891. RAF Hopton, a

Chain Home Low Chain Home Low (CHL) was the name of a British early warning radar system operated by the RAF during World War II. The name refers to CHL's ability to detect aircraft flying at altitudes below the capabilities of the original Chain Home (CH) r ...

station, was located on that remnant. The remnant was transferred from Corton to Hopton at the time of the county reorganisation in 1974, at which point Hopton was renamed Hopton-on-Sea, as it then gained a coastline.

St Mary's Church

The church at Newton was dedicated to

St Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under various titles such as virgin or queen, many of them mentioned in the Litany of Loreto. ...

. It was mentioned in deeds in the 14th century and last mentioned in 1526.Corton
Parish Histories, Suffolk Heritage Explorer,

. Retrieved 17 January 2021. The building was partly lost to the sea in around 1350; some of the materials being salvaged for a new north aisle at St Margaret's Church, Hopton.Chapman, Christopher (1985) '' 'Bleak and Lonely': Old St Margaret's Church, Hopton-on-Sea, Norfolk'', p.1. Hopton-on-Sea: St Margaret's, Hopton. There are two requests in 16th-century wills to be buried in the churchyard at NewtonClark, p.16. and the ruins of the church are recorded as having still been visible at an area called ''The Gate'' in 1791, finally being lost in the 19th century.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* Clark, Malcolm (2016) "Hopton and Newton 1066 to 1275 and the Demise of Newton", in Barker, Darren, ''Hopton-on-Sea: Exploring the Past'', pp.10–16. Great Yarmouth: Great Yarmouth Preservation Trust. {{authority control Villages in Norfolk Coastal erosion in the United Kingdom Beaches of Norfolk Norfolk History of Suffolk