Newtown Town Hall

Newtown Town Hall, originally built around 1699 and later altered in the late 18th century, is now owned by the National Trust. The building features three sides made of red brick and one side of yellow brick, topped with a hipped tiled roof. The south front includes stone end quoins, two round-headed windows with intersecting glazing bars, and late 18th-century wooden porticos supported by four Tuscan columns, along with a dentil frieze. The entrance has a six-panelled door, with the top four panels fielded and the bottom two flush. The east front lacks windows but has a projecting brick chimneystack. The west front, constructed in English bond, showcases four tall round-headed windows with stone architraves, keystones, impost blocks, and intersecting glazing. The basement features four original wooden casements with leaded lights on pintle hinges. The north front is made of yellow mathematical tiles in Flemish bond and includes an early 18th-century stone doorcase with a moulded cornice, a six-panelled door, and a flight of stone steps with an iron handrail. The basement has a late 17th-century chamfered stone doorcase with wooden six-panelled doors. Inside, the Council Chamber or Court Room is adorned with early 18th-century panelling and two panelled doors with deep fielded panels, along with an iron firegrate. The Mayor's Parlour and Robing Room are located to the south, and an early 19th-century cast iron spiral staircase leads to the basement. Historically, the site was home to a town named Francheville in the Middle Ages, which received a Charter of Incorporation from Aymer de Valance, Bishop of Winchester, between 1250 and 1262, later confirmed by Edward II, Edward IV, and Elizabeth I. The town was destroyed by the French in 1377, and the new settlement that emerged was renamed Newtown. Queen Elizabeth granted it the right to send two Members of Parliament. By the 18th century, it had diminished to a village and became one of the "rotten boroughs" disenfranchised by the Reform Act of 1832. Notable representatives included John Churchill, later Duke of Marlborough, in 1678 and George Canning in 1796. The former borough is now a very small hamlet.