The low lying flats between Yarmouth and Cowes are interspersed with various creeks or waterways, the chief of which is known as Newton river. It is evident that the sea in past historic days has been and even still is somewhat freakish, now filling up one channel and deepening another. In early days this deep creek formed excellent harbour accommodation for trading vessels, and a considerable community grew up around it who were largely engaged in the salt industry. In the reign of Henry III Aymer de Valence, bishop-elect of Winchester, granted Francheville, or Freetown, as the port was then called, a charter of incorporation, which was confirmed and strengthened by various sovereigns. In 1309, Edward II granted to his son the Earl of Chester, then lord of the Island, a market to be held here every Wednesday, and an annual fair for three days at the feast of St Mary Magdalene. The inhabitants, on their part, were bound to give aid to the king’s ships in providing men and provision when they came to this harbour, which was held to be capable of sheltering fifty ships close to the town.
Francheville was destroyed by the French in 1377 at the time of their successful raid on Yarmouth. After a long period of desolation it rose again from its ruins and then became known as Newtown. In Elizabeth’s reign a new charter gave Newtown the right of returning two burgesses to Parliament, a right which it retained until the Reform Act of 1832. So recently as the latter part of the 18th century, according to Worsley’s History of the Island, this haven afforded the best security for shipping of any port round its coast, and at high water was still able to receive vessels of 500 tons burden. It is now but a small village; the Georgian town hall, used as a school after the disenfranchisement of the borough, is now in private hands.
Newtown was in the parish of Calbourne, and its spiritual necessities were supplied by a chapel, served by a priest appointed by the rector. Arising out of a dispute as to tithes in the year 1548, the Bishop of Winchester stated in his award that the rector of Calbourne had hitherto only paid 20's a year towards the support of a priest at Newtown, but that henceforth, with the favourable aid of the inhabitants of the chapelry, he was at his own costs “to maintain a priest uprising and downlying, to reside in the house adjoining the churchyard at Newton.” In consideration of this the mayor and burgesses covenanted to quit their claim to Longbridge Croft, otherwise called Magdalene’s Croft, and to suffer the parson of Calbourne and his successors to occupy the same.
From pictures of the ruined chapel before its renewal, it may be gathered that it had features of the 13th century, and was probably built or rebuilt when Aymer de Valence gave Francheville a charter. The building was but an ivy-clad ruin by the end of the 13th century; but was rebuilt, through the generosity of Canon Woodhouse of Winchester, when Newtown, with the addition of part of Shalfleet, was formed into a parish.
The new church was dedicated to the Holy Ghost, and I am assured that this was the dedication of the old chapel. Mr Stone, in his work, Architectural Antiquities of the Isle of Wight. Pub. 1891., has corrected the dedication to St Mary Magdalene. In this case, however, he makes a mistake, for his one argument in its favour is the season of the old fair. But chartered fairs were almost invariably of later date than the churches or chapels of the place to which they were granted, and I do not know of one single English instance wherein a fair was granted on the patronal or dedication festival. Contrariwise such a conjunction was for obvious reasons studiously avoided. The name “Magdalene’s Croft” simply refers to the place where the fair granted by Edward II was held.
Transcribed from “County Churches by J Charles Cox, LL.D., F.S.A. Pub. 1911.
