How to Get There:

For a scalable map of Newport and the surrounding area, click here. Once you get to Newport, St Nicholas Church is here and Cosy Hall is here.

Background:

The Saxons settled on the sandstone ridge of Edgmond. Below them an area of swampy woodland stretched away eastward. When the Normans arrived they called this part of the manor the Bois Marish, later corrupted to Beaumaris. As the country developed and the road linking London to Chester became ever more important, they developed a New Burga in the Bois Marish, where the London-Chester road crossed the one connecting Stafford and Shrewsbury. In the reign of Henry I the town of Newport acquired its charter and was no longer part of Edgmond manor, though it didn't become a separate parish till much later.

Newport continued to grow and thrive as a market town and became the administrative centre for the area. William Adams went away to London to make his fortune as a haberdasher, then came home and founded a Grammar School. A canal was designed by Thomas Telford to link the Birmingham/Liverpool system with the industrial area around Ironbridge and Coalbrookdale. The railway arrived.

And then, as has happened to so many small country towns, the modern world began to by-pass Newport and it changed, little by little, into a dormitory for its larger neighbours, a 'nice place to live'. It remains an excellent centre for exploring this region of the Shropshire-Staffordshire borders.

Suggestions of Places to Visit

Historical sites:

• Roman Vindolanda (Wroxeter) - English Heritage (ruins and museum)
• Haughmond Abbey, between Newport and Shrewsbury - English Heritage
• Shrewsbury - Castle, Abbey, several museums
• Stafford - Castle, the ancient High House
• Boscobel House & Whiteladies Priory (Charles II connections) - English Heritage
• Attingham Park (deerpark & grounds only in Nov) - National Trust

N.B. All the English Heritage sites are open at weekends through the winter.

A walk on the wild side:

• Newport canal and Norbroom Marsh
• Loynton Moss Reserve, 3 miles N of Newport
• Doxey Marshes Reserve*, Stafford
• Venus Pool Reserve*, nr Shrewsbury
• Middle Pool and Priorslee Flash*, Telford

*All good for wintering wildfowl, etc.

The industrial connection:

• Ironbridge &Coalbrookdale (a complex of sites and museums)
• The Potteries (factory tours/shops, eg Wedgwood and Royal Doulton)
• RAF Cosford - The National Air Force Museum (planes and much more)