Newport, Isle of Wight
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Template:GBdot Newport is the county town and nominal capital of the Isle of Wight, an island in the Solent off the south coast of England. It has a population of around 25,000. The town is situated slightly to the north of the centre of the island, at the head of the navigable section of the River Medina, which flows northward to the Solent, and on which the town has a quay.
Although there are traces of Roman settlement in the area, probably known as Medina, there was little later use until after the Norman conquest with the first charter being granted late in the twelfth century. In 1377 an invading French force burnt down much of the town while attempting to take Carisbrooke Castle, then under the command of Sir Hugh Tyrill. A group of French were captured and killed, then buried in a tumulus later nicknamed Noddies Hill, a "noddy" being medieval slang for a body. This was later corrupted to Nodehill, a name confusing to many as the area is flat.
The town was incorporated as a borough in 1608. The town's position as an area of trade accessible to the sea meant it rapidly took over from Carisbrooke as the main central settlement, eventually absorbing the latter as a suburb. The borough ceased to exist in 1974 after the incorporation of the larger Borough of Medina, which was itself superseded in 1995 by a single unitary authority covering the whole of the Isle of Wight.
Once a pocket borough, Newport had two parliamentary seats and between 1807 and 1811 they were held by two future Prime Ministers: Arthur Wellesley, later to become the Duke of Wellington (who also found himself elected to two other seats at the same time), and Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston who would go on to become one of the United Kingdom's most notable Prime Ministers. The failure of Palmerston's late father to convert his Irish title into a United Kingdom peerage made entering the Commons possible for the young politician. The local patron arranging the deal was Sir Leonard Holmes, who made it a condition that they never visited the borough!
The town's suburb of Parkhurst is home to three prisons: the notorious Parkhurst Prison itself, Camp Hill, and Albany. Parkhurst and Albany were once amongst the few top-security prisons in the United Kingdom.
Seaclose Park in Newport, located on the east bank of the River Medina, has since 2002 become the location for the revived Isle of Wight Music Festival, which is held annually.