The Market Town of Newport, Shropshire ...

was planned as a 'new town' ... 

in the 12th century and granted its borough charter by Henry I.

The location of this new town was once surrounded by pools and meres and at times would have been under water, much of which was drained by Thomas Telford and formed the canal's wharf basin, now the town car park For more information click HERE

Taking a break from the renovation of Tea on the Cobbles on January 1st, I went on walk-about ...

The 12th century church of 
St Nicholas ...










which may have been so named and dedicated because of the fish connection of those meres since St Nicholas is the patron saint of fishermen.






The church stands between the High Street and the cobbled St Mary's Lane.  Parts of the building date back to the 14th Century ...

In the latter half of the 18th Century, there was extensive rebuilding of the church including the beautiful stained glass windows by Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris.

Back out on Newport's High Street ...

Georgian houses on the unusually wide main street.  The building on the left is Beaumaris House built in 1724 and is Grade II listed, as are many of the buildings in this historic town.

There are a number of these intriguing gated driveways in Newport, the one on the right it opposite Tea on the Cobbles and would at one time been part of a rope making facility when the 'walk' would have been as long as the rope being made.

I've mentioned that Newport's High Street is unusually wide ... this is because on the 19th of May in 1665 there was the Great Fire of Newport (a year before the great fire of London) when 156 houses were destroyed.  Charles II wrote to his subjects asking for help for the town and although it's not actually known if the appeal was successful, the town was rebuilt with an exceptionally wide High Street so that if another fire should occur, the flames would not catch onto the buildings on the other side of the road.  To read an actual account of the fire click HERE

During the great fire just a few buildings were unscathed, one of which is the Guildhall ...

Read more about this lovely old building here where you can view a video of the upper part of the original hall, now the council chamber.

The archway in the High Street  is incongruous ... the blue plaque below explains the facade ... 

Oops!

After a lovely wander through the town and walk along the canal, I return to Tea on the Cobbles ...

at number 3 St Mary Street

also a lovely 18th century building  Grade II listed.