Newtown

Newtown (Welsh Drefnewydd, with the same meaning, formerly Llanfair Cedewain), a market town and contributory parliamentary borough of Montgomeryshire, situated on both sides of the Severn, and on the Cambrian railway, 195 m. from London. Pop. of urban district of Newtown and Llanllwchhaiarn (1901) 6500. It is connected with Shrewsbury (Amwythig)  by the Montgomeryshire canal. The old Anglican church, partly Decorated and partly Perpendicular, has been superseded by the modern St Mary's, which contains the font and rood-screen of the old building. In the old churchyard lies Robert Owen, born in 1771 at Newtown, where he died in 1858, known as "the patriarch of reason," author of New Views of Society, &c., and one of the fathers of communism. Newtown, rather than Welshpool, is the chief seat of Welsh flannel manufacture, together with that of tweeds and shawls. It joins with Welshpool, Llanfyllin, Montgomery (Trefaldwyn), Llanidloes and Machynlleth, in returning a member to parliament.