Newtown
county:
coords:
Hampshire
SU4763
otherwise: Novo Burgo de Clere; Novus Burgus, 1218; Nywebur', 1252; nove ville de Sandelford, 1216-1272; Nova Villa, 1284; Neweton, 1316
NEWTOWN
The present name is self explanatory, Middle English 'new town'. It was founded as a commercial venture by the bishop of Winchester in the second decade of the 13th century, on the lands of his Clere manors; perhaps with a view to imitating, or siphoning off some trade from, Newbury in Berkshire, the elements in whose name it originally duplicated. The adjacency of places with similar or homophonous descriptive styles, 'the new borough/fort', would have been a sufficient reason for the establishment of a different name for the later and less successful one when the descriptive styles became true names. But in fact Newtown never really got off the ground as a major borough in the 13th century and it may have been felt that the Middle English element 'burgh' was simply inappropriate for the place. The qualification 'juxta Sandelford' relates to Sandleford, just over the county boundary in Berkshire.
Shown on an old map by Harrison 1788
- settlement, hamlet - Evinger Hundred - Hampshire
Period - 1780s
Shown on an old map by Morden 1695
- settlement, village - Evinger Hundred - Hampshire
Period - 1690s-1720s
Shown on an old map by Norden 1607
- settlement, village - Evinger Hundred - Hamshire
Period - 1590s-1600s
Shown on an old map by Keer 1620
- Southampton
Shown on an old map by Saxton 1575
- settlement, village - Southamtoniae
