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Landmarks of a developing age

As the old year passes into history and the new year of 1999 stretches before us, it is customary to reflect on the fortunes that the last 12 months have brought us.

Over the next few weeks Newark library is hosting a display of photographs from the Advertiser Review of 1998 which recall some of the year's news highlights and showcases the work of the paper's staff photographers.

Today, of course, photographs are an essential part of the news-gathering process and it is impossible to imagine newspapers without them.

A hundred and fifty years ago, however, it was quite a different story.

Back in 1848 Newark did not have its own newspaper (the Advertiser did not begin publication until 1854) and photography itself was only in its infancy.

In terms of the town's history, however, 1848 was particularly noteworthy with the appearance of a number of prominent landmarks which remain well known today.

The late 1840s were something of a boom time for Newark with industries such as malting, brewing and iron-founding all expanding and prospering.

The creation of the Trent Navigation in the late 18th Century had contributed greatly to a growth in export trade for the town, but the coming of the railway in 1846 was to do much more.

Railway connection with Nottingham gave access to other important towns on the country's burgeoning rail network, and only months after the line had arrived in Newark the increase in goods traffic travelling to the new Castle Station was becoming a cause for concern.

A bottleneck formed around the bridge over the Trent and in December 1846 - only a matter of months after the railway opened - the Lincolnshire Chronicle called attention to "the disgraceful state of the road across Trent Bridge at Newark...just at present, after frost, it is hardly passable, being almost ankle-deep in mud..."

The bridge had been constructed in 1775 and was wholly incapable of dealing with the increase in traffic although a solution proved to be very near at hand.

The old stone parapet walls (see illustration) which ran along each side of the bridge were pulled down and the road extended to its full width.

Two new walkways - the ones we still use today - were then cantilevered out over the sides of the bridge giving an extra width of about 6ft.

T The work, paid for jointly by the Foston Bridge to Little Drayton Turnpike Trustees (who controlled access over the bridge) and the Midland Railway, was not completed until March, 1849, but the date which is recorded on two large cast-iron plates at the centre of the bridge is that of 1848, picked out in Roman numerals: MDCCCXLVIII.

The same date, also in Roman numerals, may be seen emblazoned upon another great addition which was made to the town 150 years ago - the Corn Exchange on Castlegate (now Caesar's Palace nightclub).

Just as the widening of Trent Bridge was expressive of a general growth of trade in the town, so the Corn Exchange symbolised an expansion in that particular part of the economy.

As the national Enclosure movement neared completion productivity in agriculture was increasing dramatically and the buying and selling of corn became ever more important.

Newark had become something of a centre for the trade in wheat and barley, the latter feeding directly into the prosperous local malting industry.

Before the Corn Exchange was built agricultural traders had conducted their business in the open air on the town hall steps.

As the level of business began to grow, this situation became inappropriate and a group of local businessmen, headed by John Thorpe, owner of a large water-powered flour mill on the Trent (best remembered as Parnham's Mill) got together to form a company to construct a dedicated corn exchange.

The building was designed by the London architect Henry Deusbury with the two statues representing commerce and agriculture (standing on the parapet either side of the clock tower) being executed by the noted sculptor John Bell who is perhaps best known for his Crimea Monument at the junction of Pall Mall and Waterloo Place in London.

A short distance away from the Corn Exchange the success of another local institution was resulting in the erection of a further landmark building in the town in 1848 - the Methodist New Connexion chapel on Barnbygate (now Speed Frame).

Methodism had been introduced to Newark as early as the 1770s and John Wesley himself visited the town to preach on two occasions in 1780 and 1787 - on the latter occasion to open a new chapel on Guildhall Street (now H and S Electrical Services).

In the years following Wesley's death, however, certain sections of the Methodist community came to feel that some of his central teachings were not being strictly adhered to.

A number of breakaway groups emerged, amongst whom the Primitive Methodists and the New Connexionists are probably the best known. Nottingham had been a centre of agitation for the New Connexion Methodists, and in Newark they had opened a chapel on Cartergate as early as 1834.

The congregation quickly increased and the need for a new meeting house soon became apparent. The foundation stone was laid on June 25, 1848 and the completed building opened on October 29.

It was probably no coincidence that the New Connexionists located their chapel almost directly opposite the Wesleyan building (today's Barnbygate Methodist Church) which had been opened just two years earlier.

The New Connexionists remained independent for the best part of 100 years, and it was not until 1932, with the creation of the present Methodist Union, that all the different strands of Methodism were reunited.

(The New Connexion church on Barnbygate closed in 1931). In compiling this article I am indebted to the Rev J. Ingyon for background information on Methodism in Newark.

ABOVE: Newark's Trent Bridge in an 18th Century engraving, which shows the old stone parapet walls that were removed in 1948 when the bridge was widened and walkways added. The walkways are still used today.

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