Newtown, Chester

Newtown is an area of Chester, Cheshire, England.HistoryNewtown is an area of north-east Chester, just outside the city walls and to the east of Chester Cathedral and the Phoenix Tower. The main layout of streets originated in the late 1790s because of the location by the cattle market and along the Shropshire Union Canal.Newtown, together with Boughton and Hoole, provided most of the workers to Chester during the Industrial Revolution of the late 18th century, leading to substantial wealth for the city.Newtown's growth and importance to the Chester economy was driven from about 1793 by its location in the canal network, and from the 1840s by its location in the railway network, close to the two Chester railway stations: Chester General and Chester Northgate. The area supported a thriving community of artisans and working-class families who lived mainly in "two-up-two-down" terraced housing with no bathroom and an outside toilet. The last canal-side flour mill closed in the late 1950s.Because of its location in the canal and railway networks, Newtown in Chester, along with Liverpool and Manchester, became a hub of northern English commerce. The canal was the 'motorway' of its day and narrowboats carried produce and supplies to and from North Wales (coal, slate, gypsum and lead ore). Finished lead (for roofing, water pipes and sewerage), produced in the huge leadworks in Egerton Street Newtown, was exported all over the country. Grain from the Cheshire farmlands was processed in the large mills and granaries on the banks of the canal at Newtown and Boughton; and salt (for preserving food such as fish and meat) came from Northwich.