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 Pubs, Hotels & Breweries | Public Buildings | Places of Worship Newtown Town Trails - Places of Worship Roger Mortimer was granted the district of Cedewain in 1279 and was given the right to hold a weekly market and an annual fair in the manor. Thus was founded the market town that soon became known as Newtown, as it replaced an earlier market at Dolforwyn, Abermule. However there may have been a settlement here before as a chapel of Llanfair (St. Mary's) is referred to in 1253. By 1291 Llanfaimyng-Nghedewain had been elevated to a rectory independent of the mother-church of Llanllwchaiarn, now a hamlet about one mile downstream from Newtown. Newtown has a variety of places of worship ranging from the medieval St. Mary's to the many Nonconformist churches and chapels of the 19th century which were built around the edges of the medieval core of the town to serve the growing suburbs. This is a guide to them involving a short walk around the town centre. It focuses on the exteriors because few are accessible except by arrangement. The walk begins in Park Street, close to the Tourist Information Centre.
2. English Congregational Church now United Reformed Church opened in 1878. It was built in the Decorated Gothic style with floral glass in the three west windows with gabled porch to right. On the north side is an entrance porch with stair turret. Decorative iron railings along street frontage. At the rear is a schoolroom of 1881.
5. Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church 1875-6. The foundation stone of 'Bethel' was laid by David Davies of Llandinam. The stone front and brick rear are in a Decorated style. There is raked seating inside.
7. The English Calvinistic Methodist (or Presbyterian) Church in the Crescent is another church in Decorated style with a spire to the right of the gable end, opened in 1879 with a membership of 94 people. There is a schoolroom behind. Its first minister was the Rev. Edward Parry who remained pastor until 1919. 8. The Welsh Congregational Church on Milford Road is in an Early English style and was built in 1865 of rendered brick with buttressed corners and with a porch. It was renovated in 1881 when the boundary wall was constructed. 9. All Saints Church was built in 1890 at the expense of Sir Pryce Pryce-Jones as a "chapel-of-ease" for the parish at Llanllwchaiarn. It is an early work by Aston (later Sir Aston) Webb who went on to much greater things, including Admiralty Arch, The Mall, and the East Wing of Buckingham Palace in London. All Saints is of Llanymynech limestone with Grinshill (Shropshire) freestone dressings.  Pubs, Hotels & Breweries | Public Buildings | Places of Worship  |
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1. This second (of four) Wesleyan Methodist churches was built in 1821. The church in red brick with stone dressings is gable-end onto the street, the gable framed by pinnacles. There is coloured glass in a later rose window to the rear. By 1833 it was too small for the congregation and in 1835 the Methodists moved to a new church in Severn Place, which was demolished and replaced by a modern building in 1987. The Park Street chapel was taken over by the Primitive Methodists until the members broke after a rift in 1914.
3. The parish church of St. David's was built 1843-47 to a design by Thomas Penson, County Surveyor, at a cost of £4600. In 1874-75 David Walker of Liverpool carried out renovations including the removal of galleries and the replacement of Penson’s apse with a yellow brick chancel. The church, in all its detail, and the surrounding wall are of buff brick resembling a 13th century abbey. The church consists of nave with clerestory, aisles, chancel porch and tower. The small lancet windows and large Decorated east window light the painted internal stonework. The screen of about 1500 of the Newtown School that originally stood in the now-ruined St. Mary's was moved here in 1856 and part of it now surrounds the Lady Chapel in the north of the nave.
4. Zion Baptist Tabernacle of 1881 was built by George Morgan of Carmarthen costing £8000. The memorial stones were laid on 17th August 1881; the Baptist choir sang, and the Minister Rev J.W. Williams of Derby gave a history of the Baptists in the county and claimed that the church had 364 communicants and 550 scholars and teachers. It is an imposing three storey building with a basement. The classical front in brick and freestone has a shaped gable above a huge Corinthian facade. In front is a portico and pediment. The interior is very lavish with a raked gallery on iron columns and a fine ironwork front. The basement was the schoolroom. It was heated by hot air and lit by gas and was designed to accommodate 1,334 people.
6. St. Mary's was the parish church until it was abandoned due to flooding in the 1840s and replaced by St. David's. The low western tower is possibly 13th century although with later windows. There is a timber bell-stage. The ruinous nave originally had a south aisle. There are two doors through the south wall and a piscina. Inside is a mausoleum for the Price family of Newtown Hall and outside, the grave of Robert Owen (1771-1858) the social reformer who was born in Newtown and died at the Bear Hotel. The monument is by Alfred Toft of 1902 with a portrait of Owen and labourers. It has railings in fine Art Nouveau ironwork.