Newent
| Newent | |
|---|---|
 The Market House, Newent |
|
 Newent
|
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| Newent shown within Gloucestershire | |
| Population | 5,207 |
| OS grid reference | SO7225 |
| Civil parish |
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| District | |
| Shire county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | NEWENT |
| Postcode district | GL18 |
| Dialling code | 01531 |
| Police | Gloucestershire |
| Fire | Gloucestershire |
| Ambulance | South Western |
| EU Parliament | South West England |
| UK Parliament | |
Newent (originally called "Noent") is a small market town and civil parish about 8 miles (13 km) north west of Gloucester, on the northern edge of the Forest of Dean, and lying within the Forest of Dean Local Authority District in Gloucestershire. Its population at the 2001 census was 5,073, increasing to 5,207 at the 2011 census. The town includes a half-timbered market house, other houses of historical nature, and the site of the former small Victorian museum, the Shambles, containing a replica of a 19th-century street has been transformed and now real local traders occupy the once replica shops. There has been a settlement here since at least Roman times and the town first appeared in the Domesday Book.
Newent's church, St Mary's, dates from the 13th century but the site has been used since the Anglo-Saxon period. St Mary's Church has stained glass windows from the famous company of Clayton and Bell.
Newent is home to the Devonia, a large house dating back to the Georgian period.
Newent was served by the Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal, which opened between Gloucester and Ledbury in 1798. The canal closed on 30 June 1881 and the section between Ledbury and Gloucester converted into a railway line. This line, which was a branch of the Great Western Railway, opened on 27 July 1885. The original course of the canal between Dymock and Newent was by-passed as it was decided not to take the line through the 2,192 yard Oxenhall Tunnel. Newent had a station on this line. The line closed in 1959, but the canal (including the tunnel), is now being restored. Today the nearest station is Ledbury on the Cotswold Line.
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Wikipedia