Possible Saxon town of Newport (EHER 376)

Newport may have possessed a market in Saxon times for in 1411 it was moved to Saffron Walden as part of a treaty between the Empress Matilda and Geoffrey de Mandeville. The town is thought to have recovered its market for it is mentioned as having urban status by the late 13th century.

Original HER entry merged with NRHE data import: The town is probably of Saxon origin. The name Newport means the 'new market' and it already carried that name by the time of the Domesday Survey. It certainly had a market, moved to Saffron Walden in 1141 as part of a treaty between Empress Matilda and Geoffrey de Mandeville. There is thus a case for suggesting that Newport is a Saxon market, perhaps deliberately created. There have been no excavations in the town centre. <1> <2> It has been suggested that Newport may be the site of the burh of 'Wigingamere', built by Edward the Elder and the site of a defeat of the Danes in 917. There is only circumstantial evidence for this. <3> - <5> Newport itself is first mentioned in the Domesday Book <6> In 1086 as having been a royal manor in 1066 with a population of 26 households. The name Newport means 'new town' and more specifically a new town with a market. Newport appears to have also had a church in the late Saxon period, a possibly a mint. It has also been argued that it was the administrative centre of the Hundred. <7> Comparisons can be drawn between Newport and the Saxon towns of Horndon-on-the Hill and Maldon, that were also royal manors, with market, church and mint. The Domesday Book records the presence of a priest, Tascelin, who held land in Birchanger immediately to the north of Newport, and it is presumed that there was a church serving the needs of the inhabitants, probably on the same site as the medieval church. There are seven coins dating to the reign of Edward the Confessor (1042-1066), with the name 'Newport' stamped on them, but it is uncertain whether these come from Newport Pagnell, Bucks or Newport, Essex. <8> However, there is a case for the latter as a possible candidate for a mint site because it was the larger community and a royal site, and the Late Saxon mints of Maldon and Horndon-on-the Hill are also in royal manors. <9> See also: <10>