NEWTON CHURCH

AREA AND POPULATION OF THE PARISH

Area.An old Survey gives the area as 3,108 acres comprising :

According to a later survey of 1846, under the Act for the Commutation of Tithes in England and Wales, the land of the Parish of Newton-Nottage was cultivated or used as follows :

In 1893, the area of 3,366 acres was recorded, while 3,737 acres is the official estimate of The Urban District Council in 1938.

Under the provisions of the Act for the Inclosure of Land,the award of 1864 disposed of 833 acres 0 rood 39 perches of the Common Land of this Parish. The sale of 192 acres 2 roods 24 perches realized £2,770 to defray expenses incident to the said Enclosure, while 630 acres 0 roods 31 perches were allotted as gifts to the landowners. Also, 3 acres 2 roods 36 perches were entrusted to the care of the Churchwardens and Overseers of the Poor as a place of Recreation and Exercise for the Inhabitants of the Parish. This land is the treasured Green on the West and South sides of the cemetery attached to Newton Church.

Church Lands. In the Rent Roll of the Pembroke Manor for the year 1597-98 when Henry, Earl of Pembroke, was Lord of the Manor, an entry reads :

Newton Noteasche.

Farm of the Chapel 12/- demised to John Stone.

According to the survey of the same "Barbara Lougher, widow, holdeth the third part of the Chappel of Nottage under the Lord of the Manor of Pembroke - - 1/-"

A paragraph in the survey of the Herbert Manor of 1673 reads : "They (the Jury) further say that the third part of that Chappell, now in the hands of Watkin Lougher, Gent, is the Lord of this Manor whereof the same is holden under the rent of one shilling yearly."

The Lord of the Lougher Manor received an annual rent of one shilling for the remaining third. This Chappell was the ancient Celtic or Pre-Norman Church of St David in Nottage. The enclosure on the west side of the road opposite Nottage Court is said to have been part of the old cemetery. Separated from it, by the lane on the south side, is 'Groes' Cottage and Shop, which name seems to suggest that a cross or wayside Shrine occupied the spot in pre-Reformation days. In 1846, Newton Church had 5 acres 14 perches of Glebe land situated to the east of Clevis House, extending southwards as far as the road leading to Newton Burrows. The bungalow known as 'The Hafod' occupies 20 perches of this land leased during the incumbency of the late Rector, William Jones.

A piece of land, 1 acre 3 roods in extent, on Newton Downs, was allotted and awarded to the Parish Church under the 1864 Award, and sold to Mr. Blundell of Nottage Court in 1930. Newton Church and cemetery occupied 3 roods 12 perches in 1864, when a further like amount was awarded from the Common Land. Two Cornishmen, killed at Porthcawl Docks, were the first to be buried in the extension, on the 20th November, 1873. Under the same award of 1864, 2 roods 16 perches were appropriated, from what has become known as Pickets Lease, to be used for building a Chapel of Ease.

This plot is now the railway property in John Street, opposite Victoria Avenue. Under a deed of exchange in 1867, the firm of John Brogden & Sons acquired this land, for which they gave a site In Lias Road of equal area on which the National School as built in 1873. Mr. James Brogden, however, gave to the church a sum of two hundred pounds, this being the actual value of the land the firm received.

Lord Wimborne in 1892 gave land to the extent of 2 roods 27 perches for the site of a church, and of 1 rood 13 perches for a rectory - a total of one acre - in Victoria Avenue. The beautiful All Saints' Church, consecrated in the Spring of 1914, was built almost in the centre of this plot which, it was mistakely assumed, was wholly intended for the church alone. An acre of Rectory Land, to the east of the Newton Glebe, was the gift of Lord Wimborne in 1908. The Rectory and land are now occupied by the St. John's Private School for Boys.

Another interesting property, recorded In 1846 as being held in trust by the Churchwardens and Overseers of the Poor, was a Poor House, occupying four perches in Church Street, to the North of Newton Church, which site is now occupied by 'Rock Cottage' and garden.

Population. The following record of the population of the Parish is interesting.

The Police Census of 1936, taken during the period 12th to 17th of October, gave the population as 8,214, whale that by the Registrar General, taken mid-summer shows a considerable disparity.

[Last Updated : 11 Nov 2002 by Gareth Hicks]