help with homework please,does anyone know why people settled in newbury,berkshire,?

Answer 1

It was settled because it was both on the river Kennet and at the crossroads of major North-South and East-West trade routes.

EDIT

WELL DONE TO THE POSTER ABOVE - FOR TRYING TO PASS OFF A CUT n PASTE FROM WIKIPEDIA AS THEIR OWN WORK

EDIT 2

EVEN WORSE SUZIE - ACTUALLY CLAIMING CUT n PASTE AS YOUR OWN THEORIES

Answer 2

There was a Mesolithic settlement at Newbury. Artifacts were recovered from the Greenham Dairy Farm in 1963, and the Faraday Road site in 2002.[2]Addition material was found in excavations along the route of the Newbury Bypass.[3]
Newbury was founded late in the eleventh century and acquired its name through being new in the sense of post-dating the Domesday Survey.

Doubt has been cast over the existence of 'Newbury Castle', but the town did have Royal connections and was visited a number of times by King John and Henry III while hunting in the area. [4]

Historically, the town's economic foundation was the cloth trade. This is reflected in the person of the 16th century cloth magnate, Jack O'Newbury, and the later tale of the Newbury Coat. The latter was the outcome of a bet as to whether a gentleman's suit could be produced by the end of the day from wool taken from a sheep's back at the beginning.

Newbury was the site of two Civil War battles, the First Battle of Newbury (at Wash Common) in 1643 and the Second Battle of Newbury (at Speen) in 1644. The nearby Donnington Castle was reduced to a ruin in the aftermath of the second battle.

In 1795, local magistrates, meeting at the Pelican Inn in Speenhamland, introduced the Speenhamland System which tied parish welfare payments to the cost of bread.

Answer 3

From what i can work out, Newbury began as a village for a farming community, and went to grow into a city from there, there must have been nobility present at some point due to the gigantic structure called Donnington castle....But for all anybody knows it could have just been a stronghold belonging to the king, of the time, possibly a resting place, for Domenican and/or Fransican monks maybe, A stronghold belonging to the Knights Templar even? Anything is possible......
The early history of Newbury is unclear. There has been a settlement for 1100 years because of its position as a river crossing and a cross roads of north/south and east/west routes.
The name Newbury was first mentioned in 1079 in the "Ecclesiastical History of England and Normandy". It then had the right to hold a fair and a market. After that it was owned by a series of monarchs or their wives.
In the late 15th century cloth manufactured in Newbury was highly regarded on the continent but by the 17th century this trade had virtually ceased. The most famous clothier was John Smallwood or Winchcombe known as "Jack of Newbury". He helped fund the re-building of the Parish Church -- there was an earlier Norman church on the site. He was a friend of Henry VIII and Queen Catherine of Aragon. Thomas Dolman was also a clothier and his monument is Shaw House. The famous Newbury Coat was made in 1811 in a single day as a result of a bet between Sir John Throckmorton and John Coxeter. The feat was repeated at the Newbury Show in 1991.
Newbury was the site of two battles during the English Civil war (1642-46). The first battle was in 1643 when the Earl of Essex was returning to London after relieving the siege of Gloucester and found his way barred by King Charles's army. Essex won after the King's army ran out of gunpowder. The second battle was in 1644 near Donnington Castle. Now a partial ruin, it was besieged for 20 months. It fell to the Parliamentarians but the King's defenders of the castle were allowed to withdraw because they had put up a stout defence.
In the 18th and 19th centuries Newbury was important as a coaching centre being on the Great Bath Road. It developed many inns. There were theatres and horse racing to entertain the travellers.
Newbury is an agricultural area being in the fertile Kennet valley. Barley was grown for malting and this was shipped to London from 1723 using the river Kennet Navigation to Reading. By 1810 the Kennet and Avon Canal had been built between Reading and Bristol mainly for transporting corn. By 1847 the railway had arrived and the canal went into decline. In 1882 there was a branch to Didcot, in 1885 one to Winchester and finally a branch to Lambourn in 1898. By 1970 only the line from London to Penzance survives as road traffic developed.


Jack O'Newbury (died February 1519) was the much-used nickname of John Winchcombe, otherwise John Smallwood, one of the richest and most influential English cloth merchants of the late 15th and early 16th century. As the nickname suggests, he resided in Newbury in Berkshire.

Jack was supposedly born, John Smallwood, at Winchcombe in Gloucestershire, after which he later took his formal surname. He was set to work at the abbey there, but ran away in order to seek his fortune. He became a cloth worker in Newbury where he apparently came to the attention of his master's wife. Upon this clothier's death, he was tricked into marrying the widowed lady and so quickly became the proprietor of one of the largest wool manufacturing establishments in the country. He is said to have set up the first factory in England, sent troops to the battle of Flodden and refused a knighthood from King Henry VIII. His story is told by Thomas Deloney in his Pleasant History of John Winchcombe and less fully in Thomas Fuller's History of the Worthies of England.

Jack was a great patron of Newbury and the side of his house can still be seen off Northbrook Street. Contemporary panelling from this building can be seen in Newbury Museum. He began the rebuilding of St. Nicolas' church in 1500 and was buried there under an extant brass memorial upon his death in February 1519. His vast fortune was inherited by his eldest son, John Winchcombe II.