View source for Newent

{{Infobox town
|name=Newent
|county=Gloucestershire
|picture=OMH-Newent.jpg
|picture caption=The Old Market Hall, Newent
|os grid ref=SO7225
|latitude=51.9302
|longitude=-2.4048
|post town=Newent
|postcode=GL18
|dialling code=01531
|population=5,073
|LG district=Forest of Dean
|constituency=Forest of Dean
}}
'''Newent''' is a small market town of [[Gloucestershire]], found about 8 miles north west of [[Gloucester]], on the northern edge of the [[Forest of Dean]]. The town has 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 village here since at least Roman times though the town first appears in the written record in the [[Domesday Book]].  The town was once called "Noent".

==Parish church==
Newent's parish church is St Mary's, which dates from the 13th century.  Nevertheless, the site has been used since Anglo-Saxon days. St Mary's Church has stained glass windows from the famous company of Clayton and Bell.

==Sights about the town==
Newent is home to the Devonia, a large house dating back to the Georgian period.

Newent also contains the largest cul-de-sac in Europe, Foley Road.<ref>http://www.royalforestofdean.info/leadon-vale/newent.shtml</ref>

Near Newent is the National Birds of Prey Centre, found just east of the neighbouring village of [[Cliffords Mesne]], a vineyard The Three Choirs), and is at the centre of the Golden Triangle, so called because of the preponderance of daffodils in the surrounding area.

==Onions==
The town holds an onion fayre each September, at which there are competitions for growing onions and for eating onions. 

==History==
Educational commissioners during the reign of King Edward VI (1547–53) noted the lack of educational opportunities in Newent. Gloucestershire commissioners reported that Newent was a market town with over 500 inhabitants but "all the youth of a great distance therehence rudely brought up and in no manner of knowledge and learning, where were a place meet to ... erect a school for the better and more godly bringing up of the same youth".<ref>Joan Simon, ''Education and Society in Tudor England'', Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967, p.229.</ref>

Newent now does have schools.

==Sports and recreation==
*Cricket: [http://newent.play-cricket.com/home/home.asp Newent Cricket Club]
*Football: [http://www.newenttownafc.co.uk/ Newent Town AFC]
*Rugby: [http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/newentrfc/ Newent RFC]

==Outside links==
*[http://www.fweb.org.uk/dean/towns/newent.htm Newent local information]
*[http://www.cybrax.co.uk/pages/template1/Onions/onion_fayre1.asp  Newent Onion Fayre photos & video]
*[http://www.forest-online.co.uk/newent.html Forest Online — Newent Homepage]
*[http://www.newent.gloucs.sch.uk Newent Community School Homepage]
*[http://www.newenttownafc.co.uk Newent Town AFC Football Team pages]
*{{Geograph|3687099}}
*[http://www.newentonionfayre.org Official Newent Onion Fayre Site]

==References==
{{reflist}}