Newark-on-Trent

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Newark-on-Trent

Newark (also Newark-on-Trent) is a market town in Nottinghamshire (in 1216 it was in Lincolnshire) in the East Midlands area of England, located on the River Trent, the River Devon also runs through the town. Situated at the intersection of the Great North Road and the Fosse Way, Newark originally grew around Newark Castle, now ruined, and a large marketplace, now lined with historic buildings. According to the 2001 census, it had a population of 25,376, but Newark forms a continuous built-up area with the neighbouring parish of Balderton. The combined population of the two places is 35,674.

Newark's position as one of the few bridges on the Trent in the area, its location along the Great North Road (the A1), and later with the advance of rail transport being at the junction between the East Coast Main Line, and the route from Nottingham to Lincoln has informed its growth and development. Originally a centre for the wool and cloth trade it industrialised to some extent during the Victorian era and later, with an iron works, engineering, brewing, and a sugar refinery. It was a major town standing for the Royalist cause during the Civil War, only surrendering finally when Charles I himself ordered it.

History

Pre Norman history

Newark (Newerca, Nouwerk) owed its origin, possibly beginning in Roman times, to its position on the great road called the Fosse Way, in the valley of the Trent. In a document which purports to be a charter of 664 Newark is mentioned as having been granted to the abbey of Peterborough by Wulfhere. A pagan Anglo-Saxon cemetery, used from the early 5th to the early 7th centuries, has been found in Millgate, in Newark, close to both the Fosse Way and the River Trent, in which cremated remains were buried in pottery urns.

In the reign of Edward the Confessor it belonged to Godiva and her husband Leofric, Earl of Mercia, who granted it to the monastery of Stow in 1055, who retained its incomes even after the Norman Conquest as came under the control of the Norman Bishop Remigious. After his death it changed to, and remained in the hands of, the Bishops of Lincoln from 1092 until the reign of Edward VI.

There were burgesses in Newark at the time of the Domesday Survey, and in the reign of Edward III, there is evidence that it had long been a borough by prescription. The Saxons created the Newark wapentake in the east of Nottinghamshire.

Medieval history

The castle was erected by Bishop Alexander of Lincoln in 1123, and the bridge about the same time under charter from Henry I, also St. Leonard's Hospital. He also gained from the king a charter to hold a five-day fair at the castle each year. He gained a charter under Stephen to establish a mint in the town.

The town became a local centre for the wool and cloth trade, certainly by the time of Henry II a major market was established.

King John of England died of dysentery in Newark in 1216. Following his death as Henry II tried to bring order to the country the mercenary Robert de Gaugy refused to yield Newark Castle to the Bishop of Lincoln, its rightful owner, leading to the Dauphin of France laying an eight day siege on behalf of the king, ended by an agreement to pay the mercenary to leave.

Around the time of Edward III's death (1377) records of the poll tax show that at that time the adult (over 14) population of Newark was 1,178, excluding beggars and clergy, making it one of the larger towns in the country at that time.

Church of St Mary Magdalene

The church of St Mary Magdalene, one of the largest parish churches of England, is notable for the tower and the octagonal spire (223 ft. high) by which it is surmounted. The central piers remain from the previous church, dating from the 11th or 12th century. The upper parts of the tower and spire were completed about 1350; the nave dates from between 1384 and 1393, and the chancel from 1489.

The sanctuary is bounded on the south and north by two chantry chapels, the former of which has on one of its panels a remarkable painting from the Dance of Death. There are a few old monuments, and an exceedingly fine brass of the 14th century. There is a hole in the spire which was supposedly made by a cannon ball during the civil war, although there is some doubt locally as to the truth of the story. This hole is visible from some parts of the town centre.

Tudor Era

In 1457 a flood swept away the bridge over the Trent, although there was no legal requirement for anyone to replace it, Bishop of Lincoln John Chaworth financed the building of a new bridge built of oak with stone defensive towers at each end.

Following the break with Rome, the subsequent establishment of the independent Church of England, and the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Henry VIII had the Vicar of Newark, Henry Lytherland executed when he refused to acknowledge the king as head of the church. The dissolution affected Newark's political landscape heavily, and even more radical changes came in 1547 when the Bishop of Lincoln exchanged ownership of the town with the Crown. Newark was incorporated under an alderman and twelve assistants in 1549, and the charter was confirmed and extended by Elizabeth I.

Stuart Era

Charles I, owing to the increasing commercial prosperity of the town, reincorporated it under a mayor and aldermen, and this charter, except for a temporary surrender under James II, has continued the governing charter of the corporation.

The Civil War period

During the English Civil War, Newark was a mainstay of the royalist cause, the King having raised the standard in nearby Nottingham. It was attacked in February 1643 by two troops of horsemen, but beat them back. The town fielded at times as many as 600 soldiers, and raided Nottingham, Grantham, Northampton, Gainsborough, and others with mixed success, but enough to cause it to rise to national notice. At the end of 1644 it was besieged by forces from Nottingham, Lincoln and Derby, the siege was only relieved in March by Prince Rupert of the Rhine.

Parliament commenced a new siege towards the end of January 1645 following more raiding, but this was relieved by Sir Marmaduke Langdale after about a month. Newark cavalry fought with the King's forces which were decisively defeated in the battle of Naseby, near Leicester in June 1645.

The final siege began in November 1645, by which time the town's defences had been greatly strengthened. Two major forts had been constructed just outside the town, one, called the Queen's Sconce, to the south-west and another, the King's Sconce to the north-east, both close to the river, together with defensive walls and water filled ditch totalling two and a quarter miles in length, around the town. In May 1646 the town was ordered to surrender by Charles I, which was still only accepted under protest by the towns garrison. After the surrender most of the defenses were destroyed, including the castle which was left in essentially the state it can be seen today.

Georgian Era

Around 1770 the Great North Road around Newark (now the A1) was raised on a long series of arches to ensure it remained clear of the regular floods it experienced. A special Act of Parliament in 1773 allowed the creation of a Town Hall next to the Market Place. The Duke of Newcastle, now Lord of the Manor and major landowner of the area, built a new brick bridge with stone facing replaced the dilapidated one next the castle in 1775, this is still one of the major thoroughfares in the town today.

Victorian Era

The Victorian era saw a lot of new buildings and industry, such as Independent Chapel (1822), Holy Trinity (1836-7), Christ Church (1837), Castle Station (1846), Wesleyan Chapel (1846), Corn Exchange (1848), Methodist New Connexion Chapel (1848), W.N. Nicholson Trent Ironworks (1840s), Northgate Station (1851), North End Wesleyan Chapel (1868), St. Leonard's Anglican Church (1873), Baptist Chapel (1876), Primitive Methodist Chapel (1878), Hospital (1881), Ossington Coffee Palace (1882), Gilstrap Free Library (1883), Market Hall (1884), Unitarian Chapel (1884), Fire station (1889), Waterworks (1898), School of Science and Art (1900). Most of these buildings can still be seen today.

These changes and the other industrial expansion that went with them saw the population of the town grow from under 7,000 in 1800 to over 15,000 by the end of the century.

Recent history

The clothing, bearings, pumps, agricultural machinery, and sugar refining were the main industries in Newark in the last 100 years or so. There have been many factory closures, especially in the last 50 years, as with much of Britain's manufacturing industry. The current population is around 25,000 and the largest single employer is a bearings factory (part of the NSK group) with around 800 employees. With its pleasant environment, including the surrounding villages, and its good transport links it is becoming a popular commuter town for the expanding city of Nottingham (only 20 minutes away) and even increasingly for London (1 hour and 20 minutes by rail).

Political history

Newark returned two representatives to the Unreformed House of Commons from 1673. It was the last borough to be created before the Reform Act. W.E. Gladstone, later Prime Minister, was MP for Newark in 1832, and re-elected in 1835, 1837 and 1841 (twice), but possibly due to his support of the repeal of the Corn Laws and other issues he stood elsewhere after that time.

Recently Newark elections have been central to two interesting legal cases. In 1945, a challenge to Harold Laski, the Chairman of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party, led Laski to sue the Daily Express when it reported him as saying that Labour might take power through violence if defeated at the polls. Laski vehemently denied saying this but lost the libel action.

In the 1997 general election, Newark returned Fiona Jones of the Labour Party. The defeated Liberal Democrat candidate questioned her election expenses and the police investigated and eventually prosecuted. Jones and her election agent Des Whicher were convicted of submitting a fraudulent declaration of expenses, but the conviction was overturned on appeal. Had the conviction stood, Jones would have been disqualified from Parliament.

Newark's current MP is Patrick Mercer, Conservative.